How to format your references using the The Lancet citation style

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

Lammert E. Developmental biology. Brain Wnts for blood vessels. Science 2008; 322: 1195–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

Bayer R, Colgrove J. Public health vs. civil liberties. Science 2002; 297: 1811.

A journal article with 3 authors

Reber M, Burrola P, Lemke G. A relative signalling model for the formation of a topographic neural map. Nature 2004; 431: 847–53.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Rubin C, Turner AS, Bain S, Mallinckrodt C, McLeod K. Anabolism. Low mechanical signals strengthen long bones. Nature 2001; 412: 603–4.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cauvin C, Escobar F, Serradj A. Cartography and the Impact of the Quantitative Revolution. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010.

An edited book

Gudehus T. Comprehensive Logistics. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

Bueno O. Structural Empiricism, Again. In: Bokulich A, Bokulich P, eds. Scientific Structuralism. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2011: 81–103.

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 Lancet.

Blog post

Evans K. Amazing High-Speed Camera Footage Captures Lightning Strike At 7,000 FPS. IFLScience. 2016; published online May 25. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/amazing-high-speed-camera-footage-captures-lightning-strike-7000-fps/ (accessed Oct 30, 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. Social Security Administration Field Offices: Reduced Workforce Faces Challenges as Baby Boomers Retire. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Frisbee KL. The impact of mobile health (mhealth) technology on family caregiver’s burden levels and an assessment of variations in mhealth tool use. 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

Eligon J. In the Hands of a Pro. New York Times. 2017; : D1.

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	The Lancet
Abbreviation	Lancet
ISSN (print)	0099-5355
ISSN (online)	1474-547X
Scope	General Medicine