How to format your references using the Academic Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Academic Medicine. 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	Download the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Fidock DA. Microbiology. Eliminating malaria. Science. 2013;340(6140):1531-1533.

A journal article with 2 authors

Patel AG, Kaufmann SH. Cancer. Targeting bacteria to improve cancer therapy. Science. 2010;330(6005):766-767.

A journal article with 3 authors

Shih WM, Quispe JD, Joyce GF. A 1.7-kilobase single-stranded DNA that folds into a nanoscale octahedron. Nature. 2004;427(6975):618-621.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Peers G, Truong TB, Ostendorf E, et al. An ancient light-harvesting protein is critical for the regulation of algal photosynthesis. Nature. 2009;462(7272):518-521.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Bender HF. Das Gefahrstoffbuch. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2002.

An edited book

Mozayani A, Noziglia C, eds. The Forensic Laboratory Handbook: Procedures and Practice. Humana Press; 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

Türler A, Gregorich KE. Experimental Techniques. In: Schädel M, Shaughnessy D, eds. The Chemistry of Superheavy Elements. Springer; 2014:261-308.

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 Academic Medicine.

Blog post

O`Callaghan J. This Boy Was Arrested For Bringing A Clock To Class - And Now He’s Been Invited To The White House. IFLScience. September 17, 2015. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/scientists-rally-behind-teen-arrested-bomb-clock/

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. Surface Transportation: Efforts to Address Highway Congestion through Real-Time Traffic Information Systems Are Expanding but Face Implementation Challenges. U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Casem J. Moku Ka Pawa: Drawn to the Light. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2009.

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

Rothenberg B. Returning to Form, Nadal and Dimitrov End Grand Slam Droughts. New York Times. January 25, 2017:B8.

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	Academic Medicine
Abbreviation	Acad. Med.
ISSN (print)	1040-2446
ISSN (online)	1938-808X
Scope	General Medicine Education