How to format your references using the Physics in Medicine and Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Physics in Medicine and Biology. 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

Zaanen J 2014 High-temperature superconductivity: electron mirages in an iron salt Nature 515 205–6

A journal article with 2 authors

Belloc E and Méndez R 2008 A deadenylation negative feedback mechanism governs meiotic metaphase arrest Nature 452 1017–21

A journal article with 3 authors

Joo W, Hippenmeyer S and Luo L 2014 Neurodevelopment. Dendrite morphogenesis depends on relative levels of NT-3/TrkC signaling Science 346 626–9

A journal article with 99 or more authors

Guitton A, Joulain A, Thilly L and Tromas C 2014 Evidence of dislocation cross-slip in MAX phase deformed at high temperature Sci. Rep. 4 6358

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Weber P and Simon C 2016 Benefits of Bayesian Network Models (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)

An edited book

Gavrilova M L 2008 Generalized Voronoi Diagram: A Geometry-Based Approach to Computational Intelligence vol 158 (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer)

A chapter in an edited book

Ferrario B 2013 Uniqueness and Absolute Continuity for Semilinear SPDE’s Seminar on Stochastic Analysis, Random Fields and Applications VII: Centro Stefano Franscini, Ascona, May 2011 ed R C Dalang, M Dozzi and F Russo (Basel: Springer) pp 85–94

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 Physics in Medicine and Biology.

Blog post

Luntz S 2017 Australopithecus Fossil Shows Some Spine And Reveals How Ours Evolved IFLScience Online: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/australopithecus-fossil-shows-some-spine-and-reveals-how-ours-evolved/

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 1981 Local Coordination Prevents Duplication of Services at Federally Sponsored Indian Education Projects (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office)

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Joseph W R 2002 Physical Characterization of Vernix Caseosa: Implications for Biological Function Doctoral dissertation (Cincinnati, OH: University of Cincinnati)

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

Rothenberg B 2017 A Rested Williams Shakes Off the Rust New York Times B11

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Zaanen 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Zaanen 2014, Belloc and Méndez 2008).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Belloc and Méndez 2008)
Three or more authors: (Guitton et al 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	Physics in Medicine and Biology
Abbreviation	Phys. Med. Biol.
ISSN (print)	0031-9155
ISSN (online)	1361-6560
Scope	Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging Radiological and Ultrasound Technology

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