How to format your references using the Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Medicine. 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	Download the output style file
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

Austin J. Science careers. Getting on the grid: bringing remote, intermittent energy sources into line. Science. 2007 Feb 9;315(5813):870.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lister AM, Sher AV. Evolution and dispersal of mammoths across the Northern Hemisphere. Science. 2015 Nov 13;350(6262):805–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

Davis SJ, Caldeira K, Matthews HD. Future CO2 emissions and climate change from existing energy infrastructure. Science. 2010 Sep 10;329(5997):1330–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Gänsicke BT, Koester D, Girven J, Marsh TR, Steeghs D. Two white dwarfs with oxygen-rich atmospheres. Science. 2010 Jan 8;327(5962):188–90.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Andresen R, Oades LG, Caputi P. Psychological Recovery. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2011.

An edited book

Rosenberg E, DeLong EF, Lory S, Stackebrandt E, Thompson F, editors. The Prokaryotes: Gammaproteobacteria. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2014. XXIII, 768 p. 108 illus., 36 illus. in color. eReference.

A chapter in an edited book

Carey FA, Sundberg RJ. Polar Addition and Elimination Reactions. In: Sundberg RJ, editor. Advanced Organic Chemistry: Part A: Structure and Mechanisms. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2007. p. 473–577. (Advanced Organic Chemistry).

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 Medicine.

Blog post

Andrew E. Hitchhiking Robot Is Decapitated And Left In A Ditch After Just Two Weeks [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/hitchhiking-robot-manages-two-weeks-us-being-destroyed/

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. NASA’s Resource Data Base and Techniques for Supporting, Planning, and Controlling Programs Need Improvement. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1977 May. Report No.: PSAD-77-78.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Lu WY. The performance practice of Buddhist baiqi in contemporary Taiwan [Doctoral dissertation]. [College Park, MD]: University of Maryland, College Park; 2012.

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

Paulson M. ‘A Doll’s House, Part 2’ Is Closing on Broadway. New York Times. 2017 Sep 6;C3.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	Medicine
Abbreviation	Medicine (Abingdon)
ISSN (print)	1357-3039
Scope	General Medicine