Citation Guide: ICMJE - Introduction

There are several ways to list references and citations in medical literature, but this guide is intended to provide a standardized format based on International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)'s recommendations. This guide is based on the book Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers; links to specific chapters and examples are at the bottom of each page.

• List references at the end of sentences or phrases inside parentheses. Example (1, 4-6).
• List author names with the author’s last name followed by initials (maximum of 2 initials) and separate author names from each other by a comma and a space. Example: Fanning D, Bickett SN.
• List all authors regardless of number.
• Retain the spelling, abbreviations, and style for numbers used in the original article title, book title, parts of book, or other material.
• For journal article titles and chapter titles in books, capitalize only the first letter of the first word in a title and subtitle.
• For journal titles and book titles, capitalize all main words.
• Journal titles are abbreviated, but books are not.
• Reference the most specific part when possible, such as the monograph within the online database.
• Use English names for months and abbreviate them using the first three letters, such as Jan.