How to format your references using the BMC Dermatology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Dermatology. 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. Rangel TF. Ecology. Amazonian extinction debts. Science. 2012;337:162–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Steig EJ, Wolfe AP. Atmospheric science. Sprucing up Greenland. Science. 2008;320:1595–6.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Walden H, Podgorski MS, Schulman BA. Insights into the ubiquitin transfer cascade from the structure of the activating enzyme for NEDD8. Nature. 2003;422:330–4.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Xu J, Peng C, Sankaran VG, Shao Z, Esrick EB, Chong BG, et al. Correction of sickle cell disease in adult mice by interference with fetal hemoglobin silencing. Science. 2011;334:993–6.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Corten R. Computational Approaches to Studying the Co-evolution of Networks and Behavior in Social Dilemmas. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

1. Vymazal J, editor. The Role of Natural and Constructed Wetlands in Nutrient Cycling and Retention on the Landscape. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Gonzalez-Alberquilla R, Strauss K, Ceze L, Piñuel L. Accelerating Data Race Detection with Minimal Hardware Support. In: Jeannot E, Namyst R, Roman J, editors. Euro-Par 2011 Parallel Processing: 17th International Conference, Euro-Par 2011, Bordeaux, France, August 29 - September 2, 2011, Proceedings, Part I. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011. p. 27–38.

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 Dermatology.

Blog post

1. Davis J. Endangered Frog May Be Developing Resistance To Deadly Fungus. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/endangered-frog-may-be-developing-resistance-to-deadly-fungus/. 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. Pipeline Safety: Management of the Office of Pipeline Safety’s Enforcement Program Needs Further Strengthening. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2004.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Staal J. The Relationships Among Sleep Quality, Frailty, and Falls in Older Adults Residing in the Community. Doctoral dissertation. Florida Atlantic University; 2017.

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. Smith B. Why BuzzFeed Published the Dossier. New York Times. 2017;:A23.

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 Dermatology
Abbreviation	BMC Dermatol.
ISSN (online)	1471-5945
Scope	Dermatology