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

Strasser BJ. Genetics. GenBank--Natural history in the 21st Century? Science 2008;322:537–8.

A journal article with 2 authors

Etienne RS, Rosindell J. Comment on ‘Global correlations in tropical tree species richness and abundance reject neutrality’. Science 2012;336:1639; author reply 1639.

A journal article with 3 authors

Mayadas AF, Bourne J, Bacsich P. Online education today. Science 2009;323:85–9.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Dekel A, Birnboim Y, Engel G, et al. Cold streams in early massive hot haloes as the main mode of galaxy formation. Nature 2009;457:451–4.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Troffaes MCM, Cooman G de. Lower Previsions: Troffaes/Lower Previsions. Chichester, UK: : John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 2014.

An edited book

Pepin B, Roesken-Winter B, editors. From beliefs to dynamic affect systems in mathematics education: Exploring a mosaic of relationships and interactions. Cham: : Springer International Publishing 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

Fobis-Loisy I, Ivanov R, Gaude T. The S-LOCUS CYSTEINE-RICH PROTEIN (SCR): A Small Peptide with A High Impact on the Evolution of Flowering Plants. In: Irving HR, Gehring C, eds. Plant Signaling Peptides. Berlin, Heidelberg: : Springer 2012. 77–92.

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

Hale T. A Lake In Australia Has Turned A Fetching Shade Of Hot Pink. IFLScience. 2017.https://www.iflscience.com/environment/a-lake-in-australia-has-turned-a-fetching-shade-of-hot-pink/ (accessed 30 Oct 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. Controls Are Needed Over Indian Self-Determination Contracts, Grants, and Training and Technical Assistance Activities To Insure Required Services Are Provided to Indians. Washington, DC: : U.S. Government Printing Office 1978.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Bustos I. Backpacking Through My Suburban Barrio: Eco-Latina Diaries. 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

Kelly C. New Design and Décor In Greenburgh Stacks. New York Times. 2008;:WE6.

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

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