References

References are essential to the pursuit of the high academic standards we are aiming for at Radiopaedia.org. 

Reference ideals

• each article should have at least 3-4 references
• all reference material should be cited in the reference section
• references should be sought in the following order of preference:
  1. online journals with complete text available without subscription (e.g. Radiology and RadioGraphics)
  2. online journals with complete text available but requiring subscription
  3. textbooks
• websites are generally discouraged: content is often not verified (Wikipedia), may change dynamically (eMedicine) and links may become stale

Citation

When citing the reference from the text:

• use a superscript reference ¹
• add a space between the text and the reference 
• if it is at the end of a sentence, it should be before the full-stop (period), which itself should not be superscripted ¹.
• if it precedes a list, it should be before the colon ¹:
• if there are multiple references, they should be separated by a comma, but without a space ^1,2.
• if there are more than 2 consecutive reference numbers use the first and last numbers connected by a dash ^1-3
• if a combination of multiple references with some, but not all, numbers consecutive ^1,2,4-6

Format

Ferguson EC, Krishnamurthy R, Oldham SA. Classic imaging signs of congenital cardiovascular abnormalities. Radiographics. 27 (5): 1323-34. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1148/rg.275065148">doi:10.1148/rg.275065148</a> - <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17848694">Pubmed citation</a><div class="ref_v2"></div>

Formatting help

The best way to simply do this is by using our automatic citation generator or www.citeitright.co.uk.

Simply plug in the URL of the article or PDF, the pubmed ID or ISBN into the reference box and click "Format citation".

It will work in the vast majority of cases and we are constantly working to make the system better, so as we find references that fail, we try to fix them.