How to format your references using the Medical Sciences citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Medical Sciences. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

Chien, K.R. Regenerative Biology: Heartbroken Embryos Heal. Nature 2013, 498, 439–440.

A journal article with 2 authors

Moore, G.; Wilson, E.O. Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. Integrating Science and Conservation. Nature 2000, 405, 254.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bix, M.; Kim, S.; Rao, A. Immunology. Opposites Attract in Differentiating T Cells. Science 2005, 308, 1563–1565.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Kanold, P.O.; Kara, P.; Reid, R.C.; Shatz, C.J. Role of Subplate Neurons in Functional Maturation of Visual Cortical Columns. Science 2003, 301, 521–525.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

Center for Chemical Process Safety Layer of Protection Analysis; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2010; ISBN 9780470935590.

An edited book

Radiotherapy for Hodgkin Lymphoma; Specht, L., Yahalom, J., Eds.; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2011; ISBN 9783540784555.

A chapter in an edited book

Osakada, F.; Takahashi, M. Stem Cells in the Developing and Adult Nervous System. In Regenerative Medicine - from Protocol to Patient: 1. Biology of Tissue Regeneration; Steinhoff, G., Ed.; Springer International Publishing: Cham, 2016; pp. 123–149 ISBN 9783319275819.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for Medical Sciences.

Blog post

Davis, J. Global Carbon Emissions Plateau For The Third Year In A Row Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/global-carbon-emissions-plateau-for-the-third-year-in-a-row/ (accessed on 30 October 2018).

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

Government Accountability Office Information Technology: Architecture Needed to Guide Modernization of DOD’s Financial Operations; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2001;

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

Lee, S. Control-Display Alignment Modulates Dimensional Salience. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach: Long Beach, CA, 2013.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

Kovaleski, S.F.; Moynihan, C. Well Before Scandals, Cosby’s Wife Faulted Media Treatment of Blacks. New York Times 2015, C1.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [1].
This sentence cites two references [1,2].
This sentence cites four references [1–4].

About the journal

Full journal title	Medical Sciences
Abbreviation	Med. Sci. (Basel)
ISSN (online)	2076-3271
Scope