A small group of editors of general medical journals met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the National Library of Medicine, were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which has produced multiple editions of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.
Number references and list them in the same order they were first mentioned in the text.
Names: Use initials (without periods or spaces) for first and middle names.
Titles: For articles, chapters and books, capitalize only the first word, proper nouns, and abbreviations that are ordinarily capitalized. For publication names, capitalize the first letter of all significant words. Journal titles may be abbreviated according to Index Medicus.
Dates: Use the order year, month day. Shorten the month to the standard 3-letter abbreviation without a period.
When citing EBSCOhost, EBSCO is always uppercase; host is always lowercase italics.
Pattern:
FirstAuthorLastName, FirstAuthorFirstName, and SecondAuthorFirstName SecondAuthorLastName. "Title of the Article." Title of the Journal VolumeNumber, no. IssueNumber (PublicationYear): StartPage-EndPage. Database Name, EBSCOhost (accessed Month Day, Year).
Example:
Crainer, Stuart, and Des Dearlove. "Windfall economics." Business Strategy Review 14, no. 4 (2003): 68-72. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 5, 2005).
Pattern:
FirstAuthorLastName, FirstAuthorFirstName, and SecondAuthorFirstName SecondAuthorLastName. "Title of the Article." Magazine Title, FullPublicationDate, StartPage-EndPage. Database Name, EBSCOhost (accessed Month Day, Year).
Example:
Grossman, Lev. "The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth." Time, October 3, 2005, 98-98. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 5, 2005).
Pattern:
FirstAuthorLastName, FirstAuthorFirstName, and SecondAuthorFirstName SecondAuthorLastName. "Title of the Article." Title of the Newspaper, FullPublicationDate, Edition. Database Name, EBSCOhost (accessed Month Day, Year).
Example:
Kolata, Gina. "Experts Unlock Clues To Spread Of 1918 Flu Virus." New York Times, October 6, 2005, late edition. Academic Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 5, 2005).
Pattern:
FirstAuthorLastName, FirstAuthorFirstName, and SecondAuthorFirstName SecondAuthorLastName. "Title of the Chapter." In Book Title, StartPage-EndPage. PublishersLocation: PublisherName, PublicationYear. Database Name, EBSCOhost (accessed Month Day, Year).
You can get the publisher's name and location from the Publication Details page, found by clicking the Source field in the citation.
Example:
Freedman, Maurice J. "Libraries in Today's World." In World Almanac & Book of Facts, 16-17. New York: World Almanac Education Group Inc., 2004. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 5, 2005).
These are only basic examples of the ICMJE style. More detailed information is available through http://www.icmje.org/. In addition, a variety of third-party style guides and web sites can provide further assistance.