Check the abbreviation against the journal record in a metadata registry and against your target journal's abbreviation rules, then correct only the entries that use that journal. The rest of the bibliography stays untouched.
- Identify the journal behind the abbreviation. Open the affected reference and note the full journal title and, if present, the DOI. A DOI lookup through the Crossref REST API returns the metadata deposited for that DOI, which lets you confirm the journal record the entry points to.
- Compare against the registry record. Match the abbreviation to the journal title shown in the registry record for that DOI. If the abbreviation does not correspond to that journal, the entry is the one to fix; if it does, move to the style check.
- Apply one style authority. Follow the abbreviation rules in the style guide your target journal requires. Citing Medicine provides structured rules and examples for citing journal articles and other publication types, and ICMJE advises authors to follow journal reference style. Record which authority you applied so the same rule governs every entry.
- Correct only the affected entries. Change the abbreviation in the entries that cite that journal, and leave entries for other journals as they are. This keeps the edit scoped to the problem you found.
- Verify against the original source. ICMJE advises authors to verify references against original sources, so confirm the corrected entry against the article itself before finalizing.
What to record: keep a short note listing the journal, the abbreviation you used, the registry record you compared it with, and the style authority you applied. That note answers a copyeditor's query without reopening the full bibliography.
When the check is inconclusive: if the registry record and the style guide do not settle the abbreviation, treat the entry as unresolved and confirm the journal title from the article or the publisher's page before editing. Do not change other entries on the assumption that the same error repeats.