General Guidelines for writing references.
- Authors should focus on recent papers and papers older than five years should not be included except for an overriding purpose.
- Primary literature references, and any patents or websites, should be numerically listed in the reference section in the order that they occur in the text (including any references that only appear in figures/tables/boxes) using the Vancouver reference style (see reference manager or Endnote styles).
- References should be denoted numerically and in sequence in the text, using superscript. Authors should, where possible, provide DOIs for the articles they cite. The easiest way to find an article’s DOI is to cut-&-paste references into CrossRef’s simple text query: http://www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery/
- Authors can cite journal articles that have been submitted and accepted for publication but are yet to be published. These should form part of the main reference section and should be numbered accordingly.
- Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be credited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source and should not be cited or included in the reference list.
- Authors should avoid citing a personal communication, unless it provides essential information not available from a public source. In this case, include the nature and source of the cited information, using a term or terms to indicate clearly that no corresponding citation is in the reference list. Place the source information in parentheses (the name of the person and date of communication).
- The same format should be followed for documents available to scholars in an archive or a depository.
- Authors can cite papers and poster sessions presented at meetings, including items that were presented but never published and items for which any subsequent publication is unknown. If subsequent publication is known, they should cite the published form rather than the meeting paper or poster session.
Example of how references should be written:
Petrie KJ, Mueller JT, Schirmbeck F, Donkin L, Broadbent E, Ellis CJ et al. Effect of providing information about normal test results on patients’ reassurance: randomised controlled trial. British Medical Journal [Online] 2007;334(7589): 352-354. Available from: doi: 10.1136/bmj.39093.464190.55 [Accessed 26th August 2011].