How to format your references using the BMC Cell Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Cell 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. Jensen GJ. Cell biology. Protein filaments caught in the act. Science. 2009;323:472–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Heldwein EE, Brennan RG. Crystal structure of the transcription activator BmrR bound to DNA and a drug. Nature. 2001;409:378–82.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Good SP, Noone D, Bowen G. WATER RESOURCES. Hydrologic connectivity constrains partitioning of global terrestrial water fluxes. Science. 2015;349:175–7.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Mukhopadhyay S, Kim B-S, Chipman PR, Rossmann MG, Kuhn RJ. Structure of West Nile virus. Science. 2003;302:248.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Maudlin T. Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell; 2011.

An edited book

1. Gordon AD, editor. Programming Languages and Systems: 19th European Symposium on Programming, ESOP 2010, Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2010, Paphos, Cyprus, March 20-28, 2010. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Burns SN. Gene Expression, Epigenetic Regulation, and Cancer. In: Mishra MK, Bishnupuri KS, editors. Epigenetic Advancements in Cancer. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 79–96.

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 Cell Biology.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. India’s Rocket Mission Cheaper Than The Movie Gravity. IFLScience. 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/indias-rocket-mission-cheaper-movie-gravity/. 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. Intercity Passenger Rail: Amtrak’s Financial Viability Continues to Be Threatened. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Zhao J. Contextual Differential Item Functioning: Examining the Validity of Teaching Self-Efficacy Instruments Using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling. Doctoral dissertation. Ohio State University; 2012.

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. Tierney J. Easy Ways to Mend Your Marriage. New York Times. 2017;:D4.

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 Cell Biology
Abbreviation	BMC Cell Biol.
ISSN (online)	1471-2121
Scope	Cell Biology