Cover Page of
The Mayfield Handbook of Technical & Scientific Writing
Table of ContentsWriting TimelineIndexHelpCredits

Section 10.7.4.5

Journal Articles

The CBE format for journals has three elements: (1) author; (2) title; and (3) journal information, consisting of the journal title and the year and month of publication, ending with a semicolon; the volume number (or issue number in parentheses), a colon, followed by the inclusive page numbers. Journal titles longer than one word are abbreviated according to the standard form used in most biological and medical journals: articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are dropped unless they are part of a name or a scientific or technical term; at least the last two letters of all remaining words are dropped (for example "Microbiology" is abbreviated "Microbiol" and "Journal" is abbreviated "J"). The first letter of each word in a journal title is capitalized.

Article in a Journal Paginated by Annual Volume

The month and issue numbers are omitted for journals that are paginated by volume.


1.  Nelson KA, Miller RJD, Lutz DR, Fayer MD.

    Optical generation of tunable ultrasonic

    waves. J Appl Phys 1982;53:1144-9.


Article in a Journal Paginated by Issue


1.  Allemang J. Social studies in gibberish.

    Quart Rev Doublespk 1993;20(1):9-10.


Article in a Popular Monthly or Bimonthly Periodical

Use the month and year of publication instead of the volume number.


1.  Fallows J. Networking technology. Atlan

    Month 1994 Jul:34-6.


Article in a Daily, Weekly, or Biweekly Magazine or Newspaper

Include the year, month, and day.


1.  Metcalfe B. The numbers show how slowly the

    Internet runs today. Infoworld 1996 Sep

    30:34.


Paper Published in Conference Proceedings

Treat a presentation in conference proceedings like an article in an edited book.


1.  Paez-Borrallo JM, Perez-Alavarez IA, Bello

    SZ. Adaptive filtering in data

    communications with self improved error

    reference. IEEE International Conference

    on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing;

    1994 Apr 7-9; Adelaide; Australia.

    Adelaide: IEEE; 1994: p 65-8.


Unpublished Dissertation

An unpublished dissertation has five elements: (1) author; (2) title, followed by dissertation (or MSci thesis, etc.) in brackets; (3) publication information; consisting of the location of the institution granting the degree (with the state abbreviation or country name in parentheses), a colon, a space, the name of the institution, and the year of the degree; (4) total number of pages; and (5) availability information.


1.  Glazer FG. Hierarchical motion detection

    [dissertation]. Amherst (MA): University

    of Massachusetts; 1987. 113 p. Available

    from: University Microfilms, Ann Arbor,

    MI; AAD87-41.


Reference Link Text
## CBE: Journal Articles ##
Reference Link Text

[ Home | Table of Contents | Writing Timeline | Index | Help | Credits]