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Reference List General Rules

Rule Example

Use a "References" list for all sources cited in the body of your document.

References should appear in numerical order, not alphabetical order.

  

Use a "Bibliography" to list all sources that were used to generate ideas or inform the content of your document but were not directly cited. You may include suggested readings in the Bibliography.

Your document can have both a "References" list and a "Bibliography."

  

References should follow the specific formatting described for each source type.

 An article differs from a website.

Spacing between numbers and punctuation in the formatting is intentional.

 No space between the colon and the DOI of an article, see Journal Articles & Preprints.
Author/editor: Last name + First name initial + Middle name initial (if available). Armand Peter Smith = Smith AP
Multiple authors: The names of all authors and editors should be given unless there are more than 6 (i.e., 7 or more), in which case the names of the first 3 authors are used, followed by “et al”). Smith TP, Brown A, McLane E, et al. Essentials of Healthcare. 4th ed. Publishing Co.; 2022.
Titles: Follow examples when using upper- and lowercase initials and italics. Do not use quotation marks for any titles (i.e., "Title").  
Subtitles: Use the colon (i.e., : ) to separate the title from the subtitle. Rural Healthcare: A Definitive Guide
Dates: Spell out the full month name. June, not Jun or 06
Publication location: required for certain resources, see examples for each resource.  
Proper nouns: Always capitalize the first initial of country/city, person, clinical tool, organization, and/or association names.  
Repeated references: if you reference the same source more than once in your document, do not list it more than once in your reference list. Re-use the original citation number.  

Do not hyperlink the DOI of sources.

Do hyperlink URLs of sources, but do not include a period after the web address.

  

Example references list:

References

  1. Chernoff R. The aging gut. In: Chernoff R, ed. Geriatric Nutrition: The Health Professional’s Handbook. 3rd ed. Jones and Bartlett Learning;  2006:235-276.
  2. Cook AM, Peppard A, Magnuson B. Nutrition considerations in traumatic brain injury. Nutr Clin Pract. 2008;23(6):608-620. doi:10.1177/0884533608326060 
  3. Ohbe H, Jo T, Matsui H, Fushimi K, Yasunaga H. Early enteral nutrition in patients with severe traumatic brain injury: a propensity score-matched analysis using a nationwide inpatient database in Japan. Am J Clin Nutr. 2020;111(2):378-384. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqz290 
  4. Chapple LAS, Deane AM, Heyland DK, et al. Energy and protein deficits throughout hospitalization in patients admitted with a traumatic brain injury. Clin Nutr. 2016;35(6):1315-1322. doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2016.02.009 
  5. Carney N, Totten AM, O'Reilly C, et al. Guidelines for the Management of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. 4th ed. Brain Trauma Foundation; 2016. Accessed June 17, 2020.