How to format your references using the Methods of Information in Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Methods of Information in 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	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

Harra LK. Astronomy. Looking closer at the Sun. Science 2014;346(6207):305–306

A journal article with 2 authors

Moreira D, López-García P. Comment on “The 1.2-megabase genome sequence of Mimivirus.” Science 2005;308(5725):1114; author reply 1114

A journal article with 3 authors

Giles S, Friedman M, Brazeau MD. Osteichthyan-like cranial conditions in an Early Devonian stem gnathostome. Nature 2015;520(7545):82–85

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Lelieveld J, Bourtsoukidis E, Brühl C, et al. The South Asian monsoon-pollution pump and purifier. Science 2018;361(6399):270–273

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Akcoglu MA, Bartha PFA, Ha DM. Analysis in Vector Spaces. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2009

An edited book

Perlovsky L. Emotional Cognitive Neural Algorithms with Engineering Applications: Dynamic Logic: FromVague to Crisp. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011

A chapter in an edited book

Yano T. Principle of Insertion and Characteristics. In: Sugano K, Yamamoto H, Kita H, eds. Double-Balloon Endoscopy: Theory and Practice. Tokyo: Springer Japan; 2006:19–22

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 Methods of Information in Medicine.

Blog post

Andrew E. Motion Dazzle: Spotting The Patterns That Help Animals Outsmart Predators On The Run. IFLScience 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/motion-dazzle-spotting-patterns-help-animals-outsmart-predators-run/. Accessed October 30, 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. Consolidation of Computer-Output-Microfilm Facilities in Hawaii. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; November 4, 1976. LCD-76-129

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Sutton SR. Freshman transition programs: Effect on ninth grade student preparedness [Doctoral dissertation]. St. Charles, MO: Lindenwood University; 2009

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

Barnard A. Wary of Russian Guarantees, Residents Are Staying Put in Aleppo. New York Times 2016;A10

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	Methods of Information in Medicine
Abbreviation	Methods Inf. Med.
ISSN (print)	0026-1270
Scope	Health Informatics Advanced and Specialised Nursing Health Information Management