How to format your references using the International Journal of Nursing Sciences citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for International Journal of Nursing Sciences. 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

[1]

Fung I. CLIMATE CHANGE: Variable Carbon Sinks. Science 2000;290:1313.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Chen M, Yan X. Comment on “Grain boundary-mediated plasticity in nanocrystalline nickel.” Science 2005;308:356; author reply 356.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Wang Z, Szolnoki A, Perc M. Optimal interdependence between networks for the evolution of cooperation. Sci Rep 2013;3:2470.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Pan Y, Birdsey RA, Fang J, Houghton R, Kauppi PE, Kurz WA, et al. A large and persistent carbon sink in the world’s forests. Science 2011;333:988–93.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Taber DF. Organic Synthesis: State of the 2005-2007. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2008.

An edited book

[1]

Kassab GS, Sacks MS, editors. Structure-Based Mechanics of Tissues and Organs. 1st ed. 2016. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Datta PK, Biswas S. Combination Resonance Characteristics of a Composite Plate Having Damage Subjected to in-Plane Pulsating Load. In: Náprstek J, Horáček J, Okrouhlík M, Marvalová B, Verhulst F, Sawicki JT, editors. Vibration Problems ICOVP 2011: The 10th International Conference on Vibration Problems, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2011, p. 45–50.

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 International Journal of Nursing Sciences.

Blog post

[1]

Andrew E. Ants Form Daisy-Chain To Haul Away Millipede. IFLScience 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/novel-ant-cooperative-transport-behaviour-observed-first-time/ (accessed October 30, 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

[1]

Government Accountability Office. Department of Education: Status of Actions to Improve the Management of Student Financial Aid. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1996.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Knehans A. As you like it: The road to design. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach, 2013.

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

[1]

Vecsey G. A Hockey Luminary Glowed With Modesty. New York Times 2016:D1.

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	International Journal of Nursing Sciences
Abbreviation	Int. J. Nurs. Sci.
ISSN (print)	2352-0132
Scope	General Nursing