How to format your references using the QJM: An International Journal of Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for QJM: An International Journal of 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

Triendl R. Japan’s cloning ban will allow stem cell experiments. Nature. 2000 Mar 23;404(6776):321.

A journal article with 2 authors

MacMillan T, Benton TG. Agriculture: Engage farmers in research. Nature. 2014 May 1;509(7498):25–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

Skipper M, Weiss U, Gray N. Plasticity. Nature. 2010 Jun 10;465(7299):703.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Kaya S, Schlesinger D, Yamamoto S, Newberg JT, Bluhm H, Ogasawara H, et al. Highly compressed two-dimensional form of water at ambient conditions. Sci Rep. 2013 Jan 15;3:1074.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Alexandridis AK, Zapranis AD. Wavelet Neural Networks. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2014.

An edited book

Ashkenazi J, Eremin MV, Cohn JL, Eremin I, Manske D, Pavuna D, et al., editors. New Challenges in Superconductivity: Experimental Advances and Emerging Theories: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on New Challenges in Superconductivity: Experimental Advances and Emerging Theories Miami, Florida, U.S.A. 11–14 January 2004. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2005. XVIII, 266 p. (NATO Science Series, Series II: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry; vol. 183).

A chapter in an edited book

Satoh M, Chan JYF, Ceribelli A, del-Mercado MV, Chan EKL. Autoantibodies to Argonaute 2 (Su Antigen). In: Chan EKL, Fritzler MJ, editors. Ten Years of Progress in GW/P Body Research. New York, NY: Springer; 2013. p. 45–59. (Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology).

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 QJM: An International Journal of Medicine.

Blog post

Carpineti A. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. New Paper Explains How The “Impossible’ EM Drive Might Work. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/new-paper-explains-how-the-impossible-em-drive-might-work/

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. Financial Literacy and Education Commission: Further Progress Needed to Ensure an Effective National Strategy. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2006 Dec. Report No.: GAO-07-100.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Morales GA. Effects of communication and control latency on air traffic controller acceptance of unmanned aircraft operations [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2015.

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

Poniewozik J. Rap Lyrics Lost in Translation. New York Times. 2017 Jun 26;C6.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	QJM: An International Journal of Medicine
Abbreviation	QJM
ISSN (print)	1460-2393
ISSN (online)	1460-2725
Scope	General Medicine