How to format your references using the Postgraduate Medical Journal citation style

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

Schmerr N. The Gutenberg discontinuity: melt at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. Science. 2012;335:1480–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

Anderson D, Brenner S. Obituary: Seymour Benzer (1921-2007). Nature. 2008;451:139.

A journal article with 3 authors

Park CY, Shcheglovitov A, Dolmetsch R. The CRAC channel activator STIM1 binds and inhibits L-type voltage-gated calcium channels. Science. 2010;330:101–5.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Enard W, Przeworski M, Fisher SE, et al. Molecular evolution of FOXP2, a gene involved in speech and language. Nature. 2002;418:869–72.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Jacquenet C, Bourdon G, Boucadair M. Service Automation and Dynamic Provisioning Techniques in IP/MPLS Environments. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 2008.

An edited book

Marcaide J-M, Weiler KW, editors. Cosmic Explosions: On the 10th Anniversary of SN1993J (IAU Colloquium 192). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

Greene RE, Kim K-T, Krantz SG. Lie Groups Realized as Automorphism Groups. In: Kim K-T, Krantz SG, eds. The Geometry of Complex Domains. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser 2011:135–59.

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 Postgraduate Medical Journal.

Blog post

Andrew E. Infections Of The Mind: Why Anti-Vaxxers Just ‘Know’ They’re Right. IFLScience. 2015. (accessed 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. Women in STEM Research: Federal Agencies Differ in the Data They Collect on Grant Applicants. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 2015.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Viruet HB. Effect of Forklift Operation on Lower Back Pain: An Evidence-Based Approach. 2006.

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

Hyduk J. A Year That Can Never Be Taken From Cleveland. New York Times. 2017;SP4.

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	Postgraduate Medical Journal
Abbreviation	Postgrad. Med. J.
ISSN (print)	0032-5473
ISSN (online)	1469-0756
Scope	General Medicine