How to format your references using the Health Services Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Health Services Research (HSR). 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

Knapp S. What’s in a name? Nature. 2000;408(6808):33.

A journal article with 2 authors

Chemla YR, Ha T. Biophysics. Ultraslow relaxation of confined DNA. Science. 2014;345(6195):380-381.

A journal article with 3 authors

Sainsbury S, Niesser J, Cramer P. Structure and function of the initially transcribing RNA polymerase II-TFIIB complex. Nature. 2013;493(7432):437-440.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Beaumont HJE, Gallie J, Kost C, Ferguson GC, Rainey PB. Experimental evolution of bet hedging. Nature. 2009;462(7269):90-93.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Zink M. Scalable Video on Demand. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,.; 2005.

An edited book

Rostami A. Terahertz Technology: Fundamentals and Applications. Vol 77. (Rasooli H, Baghban H, eds.). Springer; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Li W, Zu Y, Jia Y. Sub-channel and Power Allocation for Multiuser OFDM Systems with Proportional Rate Constraints Based on Genetic Algorithms. In: Su J, Zhao B, Sun Z, Wang X, Wang F, Xu K, eds. Frontiers in Internet Technologies: Second CCF Internet Conference of China, ICoC 2013, Zhangjiajie, China, July 10, 2013, Revised Selected Papers. Communications in Computer and Information Science. Springer; 2013:31-39.

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 Health Services Research.

Blog post

Fang J. Zombifying Fungus Recognizes the Brain of its Favorite Host. IFLScience. August 26, 2014. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/zombifying-fungus-recognizes-brain-its-favorite-host/

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. Request for Assistance on Allegations From K. R. Higgins Concerning Planning Research Corporation’s Contract at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1977.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Dutta A. Systems Optimization for Mobility Management. Doctoral dissertation. Columbia University; 2010.

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

(nyt) SK. World Briefing | Europe: Russia: Kremlin’s Man Wins Post Near Chechnya. New York Times. May 1, 2002:A15.

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	Health Services Research
Abbreviation	Health Serv. Res.
ISSN (print)	0017-9124
ISSN (online)	1475-6773
Scope	Health Policy