The British Medical Journal or BMJ became an e-first journal in 2008. Since then, article references may not have a page number which would refer back easily to the print.
The DOI – digital object identifier – is easily available from the BMJ article page, and should be included for articles from 2008. DOIs can also be included for articles before 2008 if so wished, and this does have the advantage of making references look consistent whether from before or after that date. It is not wrong to include electronic details in a journal article reference even if not technically required.
Example One
Electronic Journal with publication date details from BMJ
Iedema R, Allen S, Britton K, Piper D, Baker A, Grbich C, et al. Patients' and family members' views on how clinicians enact and how they should enact incident disclosure: the "100 patient stories" qualitative study. BMJ [internet]. 2011 [cited 2015 Nov 23]; 2011;343:d4423 (Published 25 July 2011). Available from doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d4423.
Author(s)
Title of article
Title of journal (capitalise all initial letters)
[internet]
Year of publication
[cited year month day];
Vol and issue no. with number for BMJ article preceded by lower case letter (eg c, d) as shown in above reference d4423
(Published day month year) – e-publication date from BMJ article itself.
Available from: Digital Object Identifier (doi)
Example Two
Referencing as a standard electronic Journal
Iedema R, Allen S, Britton K, Piper D, Baker A, Grbich C, et al. Patients' and family members' views on how clinicians enact and how they should enact incident disclosure: the "100 patient stories" qualitative study. BMJ [internet]. 2011 [cited 2015 Nov 23]; 2011;343:d4423. Available from doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d4423.
Author(s)
Title of article
Title of journal (capitalise all initial letters)
[internet]
Year of publication
[cited year month day];
Vol and issue no. with number for BMJ article preceded by lower case letter (eg c, d) as shown in above reference d4423
Available from: Digital Object Identifier (doi)