Writing for the subject

Introductions to writing for Medicine

Various guides to writing for Medicine and to scientific writing in general are available at classmark AA6c in the Medical Library.

Citing references in your work

There is no single way of writing references, however you should cite references in a consistent style.  Biomedical journals mostly use either the Harvard or Vancouver formats for citing references.

The Vancouver Group - now known as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors - first published its Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals in 1979. The current version of Uniform requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals is available online. For samples of reference citation formats, consult the National Library of Medicine.

There are many guides to the Harvard style of referencing available on the web, for example at Nottingham Trent University or University of Sussex.

Other useful resources include:

• Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors and Publishers. 2nd ed. - an eBook published by the National Library of Medicine.
• The website for the book Online: a reference guide to using Internet sources covers citing online sources and compares the MLA, APA, Chicago and CBE guidelines.
• Instructions to authors in the health sciences, from the Ramon H. Mulford Library, gives instructions to authors for a large number of biomedical journals. These usually include citation formats.
• Neville, C. (2007) The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Shelved in the Medical Library at AA6c NEV.
• Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2006) Cite them right: the essential guide to referencing and plagiarism. Newcastle upon Tyne: Pear Tree Books. Shelved in the Medical Library at AA6c PEA.

The Journal title abbreviations in Medicine page gives advice on how you can ascertain journal title abbreviations to be used in your reference list.

The Library's Plagiarism: information and advice for students page offers guidance on plagiarism and includes these sections:

• Other abbreviations used in references including ibid, op. cit. and et al.
• Citing references correctly - answers the question 'Why must I cite references in my work?'
• What style should I cite references in? - there is no single style
• Online guides to how to cite literature references
• Printed guides to how to cite literature references
• Software packages and websites for managing sets of references