College Home

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 1989
Iverson, Cheryl, Chair. American Medical Association manual of style. 8th ed. Baltimore : Williams & Wilkins; 1989. 377p.

University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries online examples:
http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/styleguides/ama.html

APA Format (primarily for social science research)

REF BF76.7 .P96 2001
Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed. Washington (DC): American Psychological Association; 2001. 439 p.

Leslie University Ludcke Library online introduction:
http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/citation/apa.html

APA information on electronic formats citation:
http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

CSE Citation Style Guide (formerly CBE Style and Format)

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

ICMJE / Vancouver Format (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)

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]. 2006 Feb [cited 2006 June 26]. Available from: http://www.icmje.org/index.html

Citation Examples
 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 16 May [cited 2006 June 26] Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

 Library, University of Melbourne. Citation Examples [homepage on the internet]. 2005 Jan 10 [cited 2006 26 June]. Available from: http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cite/van/citex.html

NLM Format (National Library of Medicine)

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

The New England College of Optometry library online examples:
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. 252p.

Instruction to Authors in the Health Sciences (Raymon H. Mulford Library, University of Toledo):
http://mulford.meduohio.edu/instr/