How to format your references using the Postgraduate Medicine citation style

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

Ladegaard Skov A. Materials science: Like cartilage, but simpler. Nature. 2015;517(7532):25-26.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kessler A, Baldwin IT. Defensive function of herbivore-induced plant volatile emissions in nature. Science. 2001;291(5511):2141-2144.

A journal article with 3 authors

Ho VM, Lee JA, Martin KC. The cell biology of synaptic plasticity. Science. 2011;334(6056):623-628.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Higashida C, Miyoshi T, Fujita A, et al. Actin polymerization-driven molecular movement of mDia1 in living cells. Science. 2004;303(5666):2007-2010.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Mihajlovic-Madzarevic V. Clinical Trials Audit Preparation. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.

An edited book

Consoli FL, Parra JRP, Zucchi RA, eds. Egg Parasitoids in Agroecosystems with Emphasis on Trichogramma. Vol 9. Springer Netherlands; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

Tal MC, Iwasaki A. Autophagy and Innate Recognition Systems. In: Levine B, Yoshimori T, Deretic V, eds. Autophagy in Infection and Immunity. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology. Springer; 2009:107-121.

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 Medicine.

Blog post

Hamilton K. Ancient DNA In Lake Mud Sheds Light On The Mystery Of How Humans First Reached America. IFLScience. Published August 11, 2016. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/ancient-dna-in-lake-mud-sheds-light-on-the-mystery-of-how-humans-first-reached-america/

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. Comments on Department of Education Use of Subsequent-Year Appropriations. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1990.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Tapal SS. Is the Fourth Generation of Six Sigma an Effective Professional Development Model in K-12 Education? Doctoral dissertation. University of Phoenix; 2012.

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

Mele C, Shpigel B. Former Jets Is Fatally Shot. New York Times. December 2, 2016:B11.

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	Postgraduate Medicine
Abbreviation	Postgrad. Med.
ISSN (print)	0032-5481
ISSN (online)	1941-9260
Scope	General Medicine