• References should be numbered consecutively, in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. The numbering should match the bibliography. 

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• Use official journal title abbreviations (not the full title). These are available by consulting the PubMed (www.pubmed.gov) citation or the journal database in PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals ).   

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• Journal abbreviations should be in Italics. 

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• Authors’ names should be written as last name followed by two initials (i.e. Smith DL). If an author's name has a suffix, such as Jr, then that is inserted at the end (e.g., Smith AB Jr). 

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• All authors should be listed when there are three or fewer.  When there are four or more authors, list the first three and then at et al. 

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• Pages should be numbered as follows: 624-9, not 624-629 or 624-29. If an Internet article does not have page numbers, put the actual number of pages in square brackets, followed by p. (e.g., [20 p.]). If the article is in unpaginated format (e.g., html, xml), precede the number with the word about (e.g., [about 10 screens] or [about 15 p.]) 

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• Certain governmental/organizational guidelines and sources may provide a suggested reference citation for you to use right on the publication (ex: “Please cite as follows...”)  

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• Each journal may differ slightly in format.  See author instructions for specific journals if publishing your work. For example, NEJM lists up to six authors and uses et al. when there are > six authors. 

  • Reference Template: Authors. Title. Abbreviated Journal title. Year of article publication; volume number (issue number): page numbers. 

    • Example citation: Cannon CP, Blazing MA, Giugliano RP, et al. Ezetimibe added to statin therapy after acute coronary syndromes. N Engl J Med. 2015; 372 (25): 2387 – 97. 

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