How to format your references using the BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 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. McCarty JG. Durable catalysts for cleaner air. Nature. 2000;403:35–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Hansson GK, Björkholm M. Medicine. Tackling two diseases with HDL. Science. 2010;328:1641–2.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Lee J, Gross SP, Lee J. Improved network community structure improves function prediction. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2197.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Haag-Liautard C, Dorris M, Maside X, Macaskill S, Halligan DL, Houle D, et al. Direct estimation of per nucleotide and genomic deleterious mutation rates in Drosophila. Nature. 2007;445:82–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Ribéreau-Gayon P, Dubourdieu D, Donèche B, Lonvaud A. Handbook of Enology. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

1. Proper HA, Aveiro D, Gaaloul K, editors. Advances in Enterprise Engineering VII: Third Enterprise Engineering Working Conference, EEWC 2013, Luxembourg, May 13-14, 2013. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Casares ER, Sobarzo H. Externalities, Optimal Subsidy and Growth. In: Pinto AA, Accinelli Gamba E, Yannacopoulos AN, Hervés-Beloso C, editors. Trends in Mathematical Economics: Dialogues Between Southern Europe and Latin America. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 53–71.

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 Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Scientists Hope To Bring Giant Galapagos Tortoise Back From Extinction. IFLScience. 2017. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/scientists-hope-to-bring-giant-galapagos-tortoise-back-from-extinction/. 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. European Transportation. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1993.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Anemaet WK. The effects of non -surgical interventions on osteoarthritis-like changes in the mouse knee. Doctoral dissertation. University of South Florida; 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. Goldstein M, Protess B. Outline Fails to Mention Loophole for the Very Rich. New York Times. 2017;:A19.

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 Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Abbreviation	BMC Complement. Altern. Med.
ISSN (online)	1472-6882
Scope	General Medicine Complementary and alternative medicine