How to format your references using the Value in Health citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Value in Health. 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.
Crame JA. Evolution. Time’s stamp on modern biogeography. Science. 2009;323(5915):720-721.
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Knaden M, Hansson BS. Neuroscience. Specialized but flexible. Science. 2013;339(6116):151-152.
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Siu ZB, Jalil MBA, Tan SG. Topological state transport in topological insulators under the influence of hexagonal warping and exchange coupling to in-plane magnetizations. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5062.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1.
Chang LJ, Lees MR, Balakrishnan G, Kao YJ, Hillier AD. Low-temperature muon spin rotation studies of the monopole charges and currents in Y doped Ho2Ti2O7. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1881.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Trout J, Rivkin S. Differentiate or Die. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2008.
An edited book
1.
Baba A, Howard KWF, Gunduz O, eds. Groundwater and Ecosystems. Springer Netherlands; 2006.
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Tirado MC, Meerman J. Climate Change and Food and Nutrition Security. In: Thompson B, Cohen MJ, eds. The Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition. Springer Netherlands; 2012:43-60.

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 Value in Health.

Blog post
1.
Luntz S. Bizarre Bulge Spotted On Ganymede. 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. Telecommunications: FTS 2000 Cost Comparison. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1996.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1.
Bennett RJ. Exploring the Effects of Parasocial Connection on Relaxation Exercise Persistence in Women. Doctoral dissertation. Capella University; 2016.

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.
Wagner J. After Battle of Strategy, Two Managers Are Satisfied With Their Moves. New York Times. October 17, 2016:D2.

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 titleValue in Health
AbbreviationValue Health
ISSN (print)1098-3015
ScopeHealth Policy
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Other styles