How to format your references using the BMC Biophysics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Biophysics. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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. Zwerger W. Physics. Itinerant ferromagnetism with ultracold atoms. Science. 2009;325:1507–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Cuervo R, Chimal-Monroy J. Chemical activation of RARβ induces post-embryonically bilateral limb duplication during Xenopus limb regeneration. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1886.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Martinez-Mateo J, Elkouss D, Martin V. Key reconciliation for high performance quantum key distribution. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1576.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Choi G, Kwon O-J, Oh Y, Yun C-O, Choy J-H. Inorganic nanovehicle targets tumor in an orthotopic breast cancer model. Sci Rep. 2014;4:4430.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Barnes T. Constantine. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2013.

An edited book

1. Sterri AB, editor. Global Citizen – Challenges and Responsibility in an Interconnected World. Rotterdam: SensePublishers; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Ballester F. Air Pollution and Health: In: Nicolopoulou-Stamati P, Hens L, Howard CV, editors. Environmental Health Impacts of Transport and Mobility. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2005. p. 53–77.

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 Biophysics.

Blog post

1. Hamilton K. Why Scientists’ Failure To Understand GM Opposition Is Stifling Debate And Halting Progress. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/why-scientists-failure-to-understand-gm-opposition-is-stifling-debate-and-halting-progress/. 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. United States Merchant Marine Academy: Internal Control Weaknesses Resulted in Improper Sources and Uses of Funds; Some Corrective Actions Are Under Way. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Goldner VR. Arizona nurses’ attitudes toward legislated minimum staffing ratios: Impact on the workplace. Doctoral dissertation. University of Phoenix; 2010.

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. Barnes B, Abrams R. Beleaguered Weinstein Company Will Not Get a Planned Cash Infusion. New York Times. 2017;:B2.

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 Biophysics
Abbreviation	BMC Biophys.
ISSN (online)	2046-1682
Scope	Biophysics