How to format your references using the West Virginia Medical Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for West Virginia Medical Journal. 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

Kielpinski D. Quantum physics: Quantum sound waves stick together. Nature. 2015 Nov 5;527(7576):45–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

Fu H, Cohen RE. Polarization rotation mechanism for ultrahigh electromechanical response in single-crystal piezoelectrics. Nature. 2000 Jan 20;403(6767):281–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

Gélinas Y, Baldock JA, Hedges JI. Organic carbon composition of marine sediments: effect of oxygen exposure on oil generation potential. Science. 2001 Oct 5;294(5540):145–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Mahara Y, Ohta T, Ogawa H, Kumata A. Atmospheric direct uptake and long-term fate of radiocesium in trees after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Sci Rep. 2014 Nov 20;4:7121.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Chin DA. Water-Quality Engineering in Natural Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2006.

An edited book

O’Toole J. Drama and Curriculum: A Giant at the Door. Stinson M, Moore T, editors. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2009. XVI, 222 p. (Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education; vol. 6).

A chapter in an edited book

Brust D, Hamann A, Osiewacz HD. Apoptosis in Fungal Development and Ageing. In: Anke T, Weber D, editors. Physiology and Genetics: Selected Basic and Applied Aspects. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009. p. 63–78.

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 West Virginia Medical Journal.

Blog post

Andrew E. For Ocean Animals, ‘Death By Plastic’ Could Be Occurring More Frequently. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2013.

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. Year 2000 Computing Challenge: Important Progress Made, Yet Much Work Remains to Ensure Delivery of Critical Services. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1999 Aug. Report No.: T-AIMD-99-266.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Boysen J. The ESCRT machinery, required for endosomal trafficking, is a pH-signaling platform [Doctoral dissertation]. [New York, NY]: Columbia University; 2008.

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

St. John Kelly E. PLAYING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. New York Times. 1994 Aug 14;139.

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	West Virginia Medical Journal
Abbreviation	W. V. Med. J.
ISSN (print)	0043-3284
Scope	General Medicine