How to format your references using the National Medical Journal of China citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for National Medical Journal of China. 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

Jones DT. Structural biology. Learning to speak the language of proteins. Science. 2003 Nov 21;302(5649):1347–8.

A journal article with 2 authors

Robert F, Chaussidon M. A palaeotemperature curve for the Precambrian oceans based on silicon isotopes in cherts. Nature. 2006 Oct 26;443(7114):969–72.

A journal article with 3 authors

Martin WF, Sousa FL, Lane N. Evolution. Energy at life’s origin. Science. 2014 Jun 6;344(6188):1092–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Ford MG, Pearse BM, Higgins MK, Vallis Y, Owen DJ, Gibson A, et al. Simultaneous binding of PtdIns(4,5)P2 and clathrin by AP180 in the nucleation of clathrin lattices on membranes. Science. 2001 Feb 9;291(5506):1051–5.

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. Guidelines for Safe and Reliable Instrumented Protective Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2007.

An edited book

Bauer GF. Bridging Occupational, Organizational and Public Health: A Transdisciplinary Approach. Hämmig O, editor. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2014. VIII, 249 p. 25 illus., 4 illus. in color.

A chapter in an edited book

Kehl S. Morphology, Anatomy, and Physiological Aspects of Dytiscids. In: Yee DA, editor. Ecology, Systematics, and the Natural History of Predaceous Diving Beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2014. p. 173–98.

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 National Medical Journal of China.

Blog post

Andrews R. Submerged Greek “Lost City” Was Actually Sculpted By Microbial Life [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2011 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/submerged-greek-lost-city-sculpted-microbial-life/

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. Higher Education: Information Sharing Could Help Institutions Identify and Address Challenges Some Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Students Face. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2007 Jul. Report No.: GAO-07-925.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Beard AR. Absence Causation in Mechanistic Explanation [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2017.

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

Shear MD. Trump Halted Chemical Attack, Officials Say. New York Times. 2017 Jun 29;A11.

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	National Medical Journal of China
ISSN (print)	0376-2491
Scope

Research and Writing Guides