How to format your references using the BMC Bioinformatics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Bioinformatics. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Download the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

1. Reichhardt T. NSF urged to take multidisciplinary tack on environment. Nature. 2003;421:102.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Clementz MT, Sewall JO. Latitudinal gradients in greenhouse seawater δ(18) O: evidence from Eocene sirenian tooth enamel. Science. 2011;332:455–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Chandra FA, Buzi G, Doyle JC. Glycolytic oscillations and limits on robust efficiency. Science. 2011;333:187–92.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Huseynova S, Panakhova N, Orujova P, Hasanov S, Guliyev M, Orujov A. Elevated levels of serum sICAM-1 in asphyxiated low birth weight newborns. Sci Rep. 2014;4:6850.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

1. Volpe MA. Rethinking Christian Identity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2013.

An edited book

1. Bart H. A State Space Approach to Canonical Factorization with Applications. Basel: Birkhäuser; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Vulpetti G, Johnson L, Matloff GL. The Solar Sail Option: From the Oceans to Space. In: Johnson L, Matloff GL, editors. Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel. New York, NY: Springer; 2015. p. 45–58.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for BMC Bioinformatics.

Blog post

1. Hale T. 100,000 Flying Foxes Are Causing Chaos In A Small Australian Town. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/100000-flying-foxes-are-causing-chaos-small-australian-town/. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

1. Government Accountability Office. Information Technology Management: Census Bureau Has Implemented Many Key Practices, but Additional Actions Are Needed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2005.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

1. Amanoua KP. Langue et identité dans les milieux populaires québécois et antillais. Doctoral dissertation. University of Louisiana; 2014.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

1. Kovaleski SF, Moynihan C. Well Before Scandals, Cosby’s Wife Faulted Media Treatment of Blacks. New York Times. 2015;:C1.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [1].
This sentence cites two references [1, 2].
This sentence cites four references [1–4].

About the journal

Full journal title	BMC Bioinformatics
Abbreviation	BMC Bioinformatics
ISSN (online)	1471-2105
Scope	Biochemistry Molecular Biology Structural Biology Computer Science Applications Applied Mathematics

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