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

Alonzo SH. Evolution. An unexpected cost of sex. Science. 2015 Feb 27;347(6225):948–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

Vigevani L, Valcárcel J. Molecular biology. A splicing magic bullet. Science. 2014 Aug 8;345(6197):624–5.

A journal article with 3 authors

Taylor JP, Hardy J, Fischbeck KH. Toxic proteins in neurodegenerative disease. Science. 2002 Jun 14;296(5575):1991–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Pannetier M, Fermon C, Le Goff G, Simola J, Kerr E. Femtotesla magnetic field measurement with magnetoresistive sensors. Science. 2004 Jun 11;304(5677):1648–50.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Shreves R. Joomla!® Bible. Indianapolis, IN, USA: Wiley Publishing, Inc.; 2009.

An edited book

Tran HT. Intraplate Magmatism and Metallogeny of North Vietnam. Polyakov GV, Tran AT, Borisenko AS, Izokh AE, Balykin PA, Ngo PT, et al., editors. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. XII, 372 p. 169 illus. in color. (Modern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences; vol. 11).

A chapter in an edited book

Pongracz M, Spéder Z. Attitudes Towards Forms of Partnership. In: Höhn C, Avramov D, Kotowska IE, editors. People, Population Change and Policies: Lessons from the Population Policy Acceptance Study Vol 1: Family Change. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2008. p. 93–112. (European Studies of Population).

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. Mental Illness Associated With Shorter Lifespan More Than Heavy Smoking. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014.

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. Navigation Systems. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1977 Oct. Report No.: 094674.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Prima MB. Waiting for Lefty: Adversity and the American Dream [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2012.

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

Hodgman J. Bonus Advice From Judge John Hodgman. New York Times. 2017 Feb 3;MM18.

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