Bibliographic Citation Formats and Style Guides

When preparing research reports and articles for publication, many style guides may be applied. Best practice is to consult the publisher or professor you intend to work with for their formatting preferences.

In the absence of a specified format, it's best to select one style and apply it consistently throughout your paper. The library has put together a page of sample citations based on the National Library of Medicine recommended formats for bibliographic citation.

The library also has a variety of style manuals that describe not only the format for bibliographic citations but also prescribe the format of the content within the paper such as the style of quotations, ellipses, abbreviations, mathematical expressions,  etc. These are listed below:

Style Guides

AMA Format (primarily for clinical research)

REF R119 .AM3 2007

Iverson, Cheryl, Chair. AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors. 10th ed. Baltimore, Md: Williams & Wilkins; 2007.

APA Format (primarily for social science research)

REF BF76.7 .P96 2001

American Psychological Association. (2001)  Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5^th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Electronic Resources (Excluding CSE and ICMJE, the following links listed here are in AMA format)

AMA Link:

University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries Online Examples:
Available at:  http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/styleguides/ama.html

APA Links:

Lesley University Ludcke Library (2005) APA citation format
Available at: http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/citation/apa.html

APA Style.org (2007) Electronic references. APA style guide to electronic resources. Available at: http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

CSE Citation Style Guide (formerly CBE Style and Format)
Format Requirements
Ohio State University Libraries online guide (based on Scientific style and format: the CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers. 7th ed.; 2006): Available from: http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/sites/guides/csegd.php

ICMJE / Vancouver Format Link
Format Requirements:
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication [homepage on the internet]. 2008 Oct [cited 2009 Jan 26]. Available from: http://www.icmje.org/index.html
 

*Various Citation Examples Available on the Web:

U.S. National Library of Medicine International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals -- Sample References [homepage on the internet]. 2006 Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Library, University of Melbourne. Citation Examples [homepage on the internet]. 2005 Available from: http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cite/van/index.html

Patrias, Karen. Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers 2nd ed. Wendling, Daniel L., technical editor. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US);[cited 2007 Oct 11]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine

Library, The New England College of Optometry.  Online examples; 2009.
Available from: http://www.neco.edu/library/nlmformat.aspx

General Information
REF R119 .H97 1990
Huth, Edward J. How to Write and Publish Papers in the Medical Sciences. 2nd ed. Baltimore : Williams & Wilkins; 1990.

Raymon H. Mulford Library, University of Toledo. Instruction to authors in the health Sciences; Available from: http://mulford.meduohio.edu/instr/

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*In AMA

FYI:

AMA book titles should be all capitalized. For journal articles and chapters, only the first word is capitalized.

See this link (Long Island univ.) for further clarification: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citama.htm