NLM Format
NLM style is primarily a citation/reference system. It provides detailed models for journals, books, reports, conference material, online sources, and other publication types. It should not be presented as a universal manuscript-layout template for every biomedical journal.
NLM citation format is documented in the National Library of Medicine’s “Citing Medicine, 2nd edition.” Use the source-type chapter that matches what you are citing and build the reference from the required bibliographic elements in the prescribed order.
Key details
Important caveats
Journal Boundary
If you are preparing a submission, also check the target journal’s instructions; a journal can use NLM-like references while imposing separate manuscript requirements.
Further guidance
Element Order
Follow the relevant Citing Medicine chapter for author/editor names, title, publication data, edition, pagination, dates, and electronic-location elements.
Source Type
Identify the publication type first—journal article, book, report, conference item, online document, and so on—because NLM models differ by source type.
Worked Example
For a journal article, start with the journal-article chapter in Citing Medicine rather than copying a book citation pattern and changing only the title.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Citing Medicine, 2nd edition (opens in a new tab)National Library of Medicine / NCBI Bookshelf · Identifies Citing Medicine as the NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers and defines its purpose as formatting bibliographic citations and reference lists.
- Citing Published Print Documents (opens in a new tab)National Library of Medicine / NCBI Bookshelf · Provides source-type chapters for NLM reference formatting and supports a citation-system guide bounded to Citing Medicine rather than a generic manuscript-layout promise.