Influenza: The elusive plague—Part 2 (Guest editorial)

This issue concludes our series on influenza. The final two articles in the series emphasize the importance of immunization in preventing infection, the complications of infection, and the risk of transmitting infection to others. In particular, this issue focuses on health-care workers and children at high risk of experiencing complications from influenza. Immunization uptake by these two groups has historically been very low, despite overwhelming evidence of its benefits. Through these articles, we hope to improve awareness and encourage greater participation in the BC influenza immunization program overall.

I would like to once more express my appreciation to all the authors who have kindly dedicated their time and expertise to this series. 

—Danuta Skowronski, MD, FRCPC, physician epidemiologist, BC Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver

Danuta M. Skowronski, MD, FRCPC. Influenza: The elusive plague—Part 2 (Guest editorial). BCMJ, Vol. 42, No. 2, March, 2000, Page(s) 88 - Editorials.



Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

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