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. Mocumbi P. Plague of my people. Nature. 2004;430:925.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Horner-Devine MC, Martiny AC. Biogeochemistry. News about nitrogen. Science. 2008;320:757–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Durham WM, Kessler JO, Stocker R. Disruption of vertical motility by shear triggers formation of thin phytoplankton layers. Science. 2009;323:1067–70.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Mayer L, Kazantzidis S, Madau P, Colpi M, Quinn T, Wadsley J. Rapid formation of supermassive black hole binaries in galaxy mergers with gas. Science. 2007;316:1874–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Heads G. Living Mindfully. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2017.

An edited book

1. Matias Á, Nijkamp P, Sarmento M, editors. Quantitative Methods in Tourism Economics. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag HD; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Salluh JIF, Bozza FA, Japiassu AM, Soares M. PIRO-Based Approach for Sepsis in Immunocompromised Patients: What’s Different? In: Rello J, Lipman J, Lisboa T, editors. Sepsis Management: PIRO and MODS. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2012. p. 41–58.

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 Biology.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Science Is Best When The Data Is An Open Book. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/science-best-when-data-open-book/. 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. Patent Policy: Department of Commerce Involvement in Department of Energy Activities. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1986.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Wyers ML. An Investigation of Teacher Understanding and Perceptions of the Effectiveness of the Use of Learning Targets in the Classroom. Doctoral dissertation. Lindenwood University; 2015.

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. SOPHIA CHANG (NYT); Compiled by John Sullivan. Metro Briefing | New York: Oceanside: Infant’s Body Found In Laundry. New York Times. 2006;:B4.

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