How to format your references using the Evidence-Based Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Evidence-Based 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	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

Greenfield PM. Technology and informal education: what is taught, what is learned. Science. 2009;323:69–71.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lerman J, Palsson BO. Microbiology. Topping off a multiscale balancing act. Science. 2010;330:1058–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

Enquist BJ, Haskell JP, Tiffney BH. General patterns of taxonomic and biomass partitioning in extant and fossil plant communities. Nature. 2002;419:610–3.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Koehl A, Hu H, Maeda S, et al. Structure of the µ-opioid receptor-Gi protein complex. Nature. 2018;558:547–52.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Morris AE, Geiger G, Fine HA. Handbook on Material and Energy Balance Calculations in Material Processing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011.

An edited book

France RB, Kuester JM, Bordbar B, et al., editors. Modelling Foundations and Applications: 7th European Conference, ECMFA 2011, Birmingham, UK, June 6 - 9, 2011 Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Bagarello F. Physical Applications of Algebras of Unbounded Operators. In: Ali ST, Sinha KB, eds. Contributions in Mathematical Physics: A Tribute to Gerard G. Emch. Gurgaon: Hindustan Book Agency 2007:93–121.

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 Evidence-Based Medicine.

Blog post

Davis J. Here’s How The White House Would Deal With A Huge Solar Storm That Could Send Us Back To The Dark Age. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/space/white-house-releases-strategic-plan-prepare-major-solar-storms/ (accessed 30 October 2018)

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. Review of the Emergency School Assistance Program Community Grants Awarded to the Nashville Urban League by the Office of Education, HEW. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1972.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Saldivar N. Understanding the impact of AB-12 on the child welfare workforce. 2014.

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

Kelly RW. Quotation of the Day. New York Times. 2009;A2.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

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	Evidence-Based Medicine
Abbreviation	Evid. Based. Med.
ISSN (print)	1356-5524
ISSN (online)	1473-6810
Scope	General Medicine