How to format your references using the The Journal for Nurse Practitioners citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The Journal for Nurse Practitioners. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
1.
Phillips R. In retrospect: The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Nature. 2013;504(7478):30-31.
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Hawkins PT, Stephens LR. PI3Kgamma is a key regulator of inflammatory responses and cardiovascular homeostasis. Science. 2007;318(5847):64-66.
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Ferain I, Colinge CA, Colinge JP. Multigate transistors as the future of classical metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors. Nature. 2011;479(7373):310-316.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1.
Yang Y, Sun C, Ren Y, Hao S, Jiang D. New route toward building active ruthenium nanoparticles on ordered mesoporous carbons with extremely high stability. Sci Rep. 2014;4:4540.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Smirnov BM. Cluster Processes in Gases and Plasmas. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2010.
An edited book
1.
Lasek W. Interleukin 12: Antitumor Activity and Immunotherapeutic Potential in Oncology. (Zagozdzon R, ed.). Springer International Publishing; 2016.
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Ordóñez A. A New Set of Questions: ICT4D Research and Policy. In: Chib A, May J, Barrantes R, eds. Impact of Information Society Research in the Global South. Springer; 2015:63-82.

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 The Journal for Nurse Practitioners.

Blog post
1.
Luntz S. Artificial Lung Grown In Laboratory. IFLScience.

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
1.
Government Accountability Office. Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Continued Coordination, Operational Data, and Performance Standards Needed to Guide Research and Development. U.S. Government Printing Office; 2013.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1.
Rich JB. Guinevere Takes Her Seat at the Round Table—or Does She? Moving a Primary Western Myth Forward. Doctoral dissertation. Pacifica Graduate Institute; 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
1.
Kelly K. THE WAY WE LIVE: 11-23-08: Becoming Screen Literate. New York Times. November 23, 2008:MM48.

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 titleThe Journal for Nurse Practitioners
AbbreviationJ. Nurse Pract.
ISSN (print)1555-4155
ScopeFundamentals and skills
LPN and LVN

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