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. Brodholt JP. Pressure-induced changes in the compression mechanism of aluminous perovskite in the Earth’s mantle. Nature. 2000;407:620–2.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Kamena F, Spang A. Tip20p prohibits back-fusion of COPII vesicles with the endoplasmic reticulum. Science. 2004;304:286–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Niemeier M, Crawford JD, Tweed DB. Optimal transsaccadic integration explains distorted spatial perception. Nature. 2003;422:76–80.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Yang T, Zhao YL, Tong Y, Jiao ZB, Wei J, Cai JX, et al. Multicomponent intermetallic nanoparticles and superb mechanical behaviors of complex alloys. Science. 2018;362:933–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Ponniah P. Data Warehousing Fundamentals for it Professionals. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.

An edited book

1. Pekař M. The Thermodynamics of Linear Fluids and Fluid Mixtures. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Kumar S, Barai SV. Fracture Properties of Concrete Based on the K R Curve Associated with Cohesive Stress Distribution. In: Barai SV, editor. Concrete Fracture Models and Applications. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011. p. 193–234.

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. Fang J. The California Two-Spot Is The First Octopus To Have Its Genome Sequenced. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/california-two-spot-first-octopus-have-its-genome-sequenced/. 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. Education and Employment Issue Area: Active Assignments. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1996.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Nunn TN. A Puer–Senex Archetypal Model of the Therapeutic Relationship. Doctoral dissertation. Pacifica Graduate Institute; 2014.

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. Billard M. A Clog for All Seasons. New York Times. 2010;:E6.

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