How to format your references using the Canadian Family Physician citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Canadian Family Physician. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Git A. Research tools: A recipe for disaster. Nature. 2012 Apr 25;484(7395):439–40.

A journal article with 2 authors

Hla T, Im DS. Cell biology. The ABCs of lipophile transport. Science. 2009 Feb 13;323(5916):883–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

Vais H, Foskett JK, Mak DOD. InsP3R channel gating altered by clustering? Nature. 2011 Oct 12;478(7368):E1-2; discussion E2-3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Ji X, Zhu Y, Chen M, Su L, Chen A, Gui X, et al. The modulation of grain boundary barrier in ZnMgO/ZnO heterostructure by surface polar liquid. Sci Rep. 2014 Feb 25;4:4185.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Belfiore LA. Physical Properties of Macromolecules. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.

An edited book

Hossain J, Mahmud A, editors. Renewable Energy Integration: Challenges and Solutions. Singapore: Springer; 2014. X, 447 p. 264 illus., 126 illus. in color. (Green Energy and Technology).

A chapter in an edited book

Bolotin-Fukuhara M. Genomics and Biodiversity in Yeasts. In: Péter G, Rosa C, editors. Biodiversity and Ecophysiology of Yeasts. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006. p. 45–66. (The Yeast Handbook).

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 Canadian Family Physician.

Blog post

Andrew E. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. DARPA Wants to Genetically Engineer Organisms to Terraform Mars. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/darpa-wants-terraform-mars/

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. TQM Implementation at NASA. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1993 Apr. Report No.: GGD-93-28R.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Watterson T. Changes in Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Social Support for Middle School Students Using the AFIT App as a Supplement to Instruction in a Physical Education Class [Doctoral dissertation]. [Tampa, FL]: University of South Florida; 2012.

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

Chira S. Ugly Campaign Descended Into a Battle of Two Caricatures. New York Times. 2016 Nov 9;P8.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	Canadian Family Physician
ISSN (print)	0008-350X
ISSN (online)	1715-5258
Scope