How to format your references using the BMC Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Biology. 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. Wilson RK. Retrospective. Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012). Science. 2012;337:661.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Chen G, Yanofsky C. Tandem transcription and translation regulatory sensing of uncharged tryptophan tRNA. Science. 2003;301:211–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Nielsen H, Westhof E, Johansen S. An mRNA is capped by a 2’, 5’ lariat catalyzed by a group I-like ribozyme. Science. 2005;309:1584–7.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Galy V, Olivo-Marin JC, Scherthan H, Doye V, Rascalou N, Nehrbass U. Nuclear pore complexes in the organization of silent telomeric chromatin. Nature. 2000;403:108–12.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Khouw MC, Guthner MW. The Options Edge + Free Trial. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2016.

An edited book

1. Blum AF. Fire Hazard Assessment of Lithium Ion Battery Energy Storage Systems. New York, NY: Springer; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Metzeler K. Diagnostic criteria, classification, and prognosis of acute leukemias. In: Hiddemann W, editor. Handbook of Acute Leukemia. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 25–39.

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 Biology.

Blog post

1. Taub B. Medical And Recreational Marijuana Approved In Several US States. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/medical-and-recreational-marijuana-approved-in-several-us-states/. 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. Telecommunications: Agencies Are Generally Following Sound Transition Planning Practices, and GSA Is Taking Action to Resolve Challenges. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2008.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Mosher L. The relationship between Christian literature and executive leader performance. Doctoral dissertation. University of Phoenix; 2008.

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. Johnson G. Seeking Stars, Finding Creationism. New York Times. 2014;:D3.

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 Biology
Abbreviation	BMC Biol.
ISSN (online)	1741-7007
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Plant Science General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology Biotechnology Cell Biology Developmental Biology Physiology Structural Biology