Citation Guide

Introduction to NLM Style

Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers was developed by the National Library of Medicine and is used in biomedical fields including exercise science, physiology, and kinesiology. It is the official publication style of PubMed and MEDLINE, the free databases maintained by the National Institutes of Health, as well as Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (MSSE), the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

NLM Style offers three different systems for citing sources in-text; MSSE uses the Citation-Sequence system, in which citations are numbered according to the order in which they appear in the text. The reference list is organized by the order in which sources are cited, rather than alphabetically, and the sources are numbered as they are in the text.

NLM Quick Links

• Use 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins.
• Assign in-text reference citations sequential numbers, which should appear baseline in parentheses, not superscript [e.g., (14,15), not ^14,15].
• Your works cited page should be titled "REFERENCES," centered and in bold.
• Number and organize your reference list by the order in which citations appear, not alphabetically.
• Your reference list should be single-spaced, with a space between each source.
• Authors' names should be formatted as Surname Initial(s). Do not use more than 2 initials and do not separate them with spaces or periods.
• If there are 7 or fewer authors, list all authors in the order they appear. If there are more than 7 authors, list only the first 3 and use "et al."
• Journal abbreviations should follow the abbreviations of Index Medicus published by the Library of Congress. Further information on shortened journal titles can be found in Citing Medicine.

In-text citations should appear as parenthetical numbers in the body of your paper. Your reference list will include corresponding numbers. The sample paragraph below is from William Paterson University's MSSE Citation Guide.

Traumatic life events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are endemic among American civilians (1). There is a paucity of research on trauma-related disorders in athletes (2). In November 2018 in Lausanne, Switzerland, experts reviewed the scientific literature addressing mental health symptoms and disorders in elite athletes (3).

The citation examples below, taken from MSSE Information for Authors, demonstrate how to format citations for different kinds of sources.

Journal Article:

Blair SN, Ellsworth NM, Haskell WL, Stern MP, Farguhar JW, Wood PD. Comparison of nutrient intake in middle-aged men and women runners and controls. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1981;13(5):310–5.

E-Journal Article:

Vickers AJ. Time course of muscle soreness following different types of exercise. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders [Internet]. 2001 [cited 2001 May 31];2(5). Available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2474/2/5. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-2-5.

Book:

Cohen J. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. 2nd ed. Hillsdale (NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1988. 567 p.

Paffenbarger RS, Hyde RT, Wing AL. Physical activity and physical fitness as determinants of health and longevity. In: Bouchard C, Shephard RJ, Stephens T, Sutton JR, McPherson BD, editors. Exercise, Fitness, and Health. Champaign: Human Kinetics; 1990. p. 33–48.

Conference Proceedings:

Matthie JR, Withers PO, Van Loan MD, Mayclin PL. Development of a commercial complex bio-impedance spectroscopic (CBIS) system for determining intracellular water (ICW) and extracellular water (ECW) volumes. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Electrical Bio-impedance; 1992 Jul 28-31: Kuopio (Finland). University of Kuopio; 1992. p. 203–5.

Doctoral Dissertation:

Crandall C. Alterations in human baroreceptor reflex regulation of blood pressure following 15 days of simulated microgravity exposure [dissertation]. Fort Worth (TX): University of North Texas; 1993. 100 p.

Government Report:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Bone Health and Osteoporosis: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General; 2004. 436 p. Available from: U.S. GPO, Washington.

Website home page:

American Heart Association Web site [Internet]. Dallas (TX): American Heart Association; [cited 2006 Jan 1]. Available from: http://www.americanheart.org.

Abstract:

(An abstract can be cited when it is the only source of information.) Kelley KM, Hamann JJ, Aschenbach WG, Gladden LB. Canine gastrocnemius muscle in situ: O2max [abstract]. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1996;28(5):S62.

Letter to the Editor:

Stöhr EJ, Balmain BN. Regarding high-intensity interval training and left ventricular mechanics [letter]. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019;51(11):2423.

Non-Refereed Journal/Magazine:

Funnell MP, Mears SA, James LJ. Dehydration and endurance performance: why hasn’t research in this area dried up? The Sport and Exercise Scientist. 2018 Autumn;57:10-11.

Lisanti J. The fittest 50. Sports Illustrated. 2019 Jan 14;130(1):52-55.

Prereview/Preprint:

Pethick J, Casselton C, Winter SL, Burnley M. Ischaemic pre-conditioning attenuates fatigue-induced loss of knee extensor torque complexity during submaximal intermittent isometric contractions [Internet]. SportRxiv; 2019. Available from: osf.io/preprints/sportrxiv/mcpjz.