General Rules
- Journal titles are abbreviated.
- No formatting styles are applied to the citations. No italic, bold, underline, etc.
- The version used is the version cited, i.e. do not cite the print version if you have used the online version.
The rules for formatting references to journal articles permit greater abbreviation compared to books.
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Journal references omit information on place of publication and publisher, whereas book references carry these details.
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The words "volume" and "number" (or their abbreviations) are usually omitted when citing journal articles, but are included when citing books.
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Journal titles are abbreviated; book titles are not.
- The journal name abbreviation should be the one used at the time of publication. For example, the British Medical Journal officially changed title to BMJ in 1988. Cite articles from 1987 and earlier as Br Med J, not BMJ.
- Journal references omit information on place of publication and publisher, whereas book references carry these details.
- The words "volume" and "number" (or their abbreviations) are usually omitted when citing journal articles, but are included when citing books.
National Library of Medicine citation and publishing guidelines
Citing Medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers available online from the National Library of Medicine.
