Journal articles
Note: Different units at Deakin use different referencing styles. Check your unit assessment information to find which style you are required to use.
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Last updated: 1 July 2024
Overview
Authors
- For one to six authors, list all authors.
- If there are more than six authors, list the first six authors followed by "et al."
- Authors' family names are followed by their two-letter initials with no space or full stops between initials, e.g. Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL.
- Commas are used to separate each author's name. Note that 'and' is not used to separate the last two names.
Titles
- Titles of journal articles should use minimal capitalisation, that is, only the first word is capitalised except for words that would normally be capitalised such as proper nouns, acronyms and initialisms.
- Journal titles are usually abbreviated unless they consist of a single word or are very short. There are conventions on how specific titles are abbreviated. See links below for more information.
Citing medicine: Appendix A: abbreviations for commonly used English words in journal titles
Journal title abbreviations (Caltech Library)
CAS Source Index (CASSI) search tool
Other publication details
- Months are abbreviated to the first three letters.
- There are no spaces between the date, volume, issue and page numbers. The date is followed by a semicolon, the volume number, the issue number in brackets, a colon and the page range.
- When providing the page range, do not repeat unnecessary numbers unless followed by a letter, e.g. 284-7 not 284-287, but 331A-333A is correct.
- For online articles provide URL and DOI, if available. Do not add a full stop after a URL or DOI.
If a database's unique identifier is provided, it can be added at the end of the reference list entry.
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid organ transplantation in HIV infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7. PubMed PMID: 12140307.
Article
Provide all relevant elements according to the format you have read, e.g. online, print, via a database.
Author Initials, Author Initials. Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal. year month day;volume(issue):page range.
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7.
- Provide the DOI where available.
- If the article has been accessed online but no DOI is available, provide the date cited and the URL.
- A database identifier such as a PubMed identifier may be provided instead of a DOI or URL.
Author Initials. Title of article. Title of Journal. year;volume(issue):page range. DOI
Abel SL, Whitehead LC, Tipene-Leach DC, Coppell KJ. Proximal and distal influences on dietary change among a diverse group with prediabetes participating in a pragmatic, primary care nurse-led intervention: a qualitative study. Public health nutrition. 2021;24(18):6015-6026. doi:10.1017/S1368980021001968
Author Initials. Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal [internet]. year month [cited year month day];volume(issue):page range. Available from: URL
Bertino E, Milani S, Fabris C, De Curtis M. Neonatal anthropometric charts: what they are, what they are not. Arch Dis Child (Fetal Neonatal Ed) [internet]. 2007 Jan [cited 2007 Jan 9];92(1):F7-10. Available from: http://fn.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/92/1/F7
Author Initials. Title of article. Abbreviated title of journal. year month day;volume(issue):page range. PubMed identifier
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid organ transplantation in HIV infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7. PubMed PMID: 12140307.
Forthcoming
"Forthcoming" journal articles refer to articles that have been accepted for publication but are not yet published.
- Include the date, volume and issue number of journal, if known.
- Include that the article is "forthcoming" and in which year.
Ilja Boor PK, Groot KD, Mejaski-Bosnjak V, Brenner C, van der Knaap MS, Scheper GC, et al. Megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts: an update and extended mutation analysis of MLC1. Hum Mutat. Forthcoming 2006.