To cite an article, follow this basic pattern:
Author AA. Title of article. Title of Journal [abbreviated].
Year of article; volume(issue);page numbers.
For example:
Holve S. An observational study of the association of
fluoride varnish applied during well child visits
and the prevention of early childhood caries in
American Indian children. Matern Child Health J.
2008;12:s64-s67.
[Note: in this example, "American Indian" gets capitalized because the phrase is capitalized ordinarily. "s64-s67" means that this article appeared in a journal supplement.]
An article with several authors:
Zagarins SE, Ronnenberg AG, Gehlbach SH, Lin R,
Bertone-Johnson ER. Are existing measures of
overall diet quality associated with peak bone mass
in young premenopausal women? J Hum Nutr Diet.
2012;25;172-179.
For an article with more than six authors, list the first three authors and end that part of the citation with "et al":
Musa CV, Mancini A, Alfieri A, et al. Four novel UCP3 gene
variants associated with childhood obesity: Effect
on fatty acid oxidation and on prevention of
triglyceride storage. Int J Obes (Lond). 2012;36;
207-217.
[Note how in this example, the first word of the subtitle ("Effect") gets capitalized.]
If your source doesn't provide an abbreviated title for the journal, look the journal up in NLM Catalog to find out how it should be abbreviated.
For an article in a freely available online journal:
Petersen JW, Nazir TF, Lee L, Garvan CS, Karimi A.
Speckle tracking echocardiography-determined
measures of global and regional left ventricular
function correlate with functional capacity in patients
with and without preserved ejection fraction.
Cardiovasc Ultrasound [serial online]. June 14,
2013;doc 1. Available at http://www.
cardiovascularultrasound.
com/content/11/1/20. Accessed June 27, 2013.
["doc 1" stands for "document 1" - we're using that because this journal doesn't have regular page numbers.]
For book chapters, you can follow a pattern similar to citing journal articles:
Author AA. Title of chapter. In: [Author BB, eds.] Book Title.
2nd ed. Place of publication: Publisher; Year:pages.
Pastel RH, Ritchie EC. Mitigation of psychological effects
of weapons of mass destruction. In: Ritchie EL,
Watson PJ, Friedman MJ, eds. Interventions
Following Mass Violence and Disasters:
Strategies for Mental Health Practice. New York,
NY: Guilford Press; 2006:300-318.