How to format your references using the Student BMJ citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Student BMJ. 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

Bender E. Big data in biomedicine. Nature 2015;527:S1.

A journal article with 2 authors

Brossard D, Scheufele DA. Social science. Science, new media, and the public. Science 2013;339:40–1.

A journal article with 3 authors

Finnegan NJ, Schumer R, Finnegan S. A signature of transience in bedrock river incision rates over timescales of 10(4)-10(7) years. Nature 2014;505:391–4.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Parikshak NN, Swarup V, Belgard TG, et al. Author Correction: Genome-wide changes in lncRNA, splicing, and regional gene expression patterns in autism. Nature 2018;560:E30.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Ghaye T. Building the Reflective Healthcare Organisation. Oxford, UK: : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008.

An edited book

Carretta P. NMR-MRI, μSR and Mössbauer Spectroscopies in Molecular Magnets. Milano: : Springer 2007.

A chapter in an edited book

Kana‘iaupuni SM, Else I. Ola Ka Inoa (The Name Lives). In: Martini MI, ed. Learning in Cultural Context: Family, Peers, and School. Boston, MA: : Springer US 2005. 109–31.

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 Student BMJ.

Blog post

Carpineti A. Galaxy Collisions Might Be Shrouding Black Holes In Dust. IFLScience. 2017.

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. NASA’s Space Vision: Business Case for Prometheus 1 Needed to Ensure Requirements Match Available Resources. Washington, DC: : U.S. Government Printing Office 2005.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Romanek JL. The relative influence of sensation seeking and normal narcissism on academic cheating in emerging adults. 2009.

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

Kanter J. Europe Moves to Collect Taxes From Tech Giants. New York Times. 2017;:B1.

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	Student BMJ
ISSN (print)	0966-6494
Scope

Research and Writing Guides