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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Developmental 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. Seliktar D. Designing cell-compatible hydrogels for biomedical applications. Science. 2012;336:1124–8.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Owen R, Jobling S. Environmental science: The hidden costs of flexible fertility. Nature. 2012;485:441.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Sakakura A, Ukai A, Ishihara K. Enantioselective halocyclization of polyprenoids induced by nucleophilic phosphoramidites. Nature. 2007;445:900–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Urani A, Tan R, Rubele R, Mietchen D. Scientists and societies: giving young European students a voice. Nature. 2004;427:378.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Nordenström J. The Hunt for the Parathyroids. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons; 2012.

An edited book

1. Bejan A. Constructal Theory of Social Dynamics. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2007.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Halder P. An Overview of Science Teachers’ Knowledge of Bioenergy and the Need for Future Research: A Case from India. In: Dincer I, Colpan CO, Kizilkan O, Ezan MA, editors. Progress in Clean Energy, Volume 2: Novel Systems and Applications. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015. p. 59–64.

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 Developmental Biology.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Scientists Discover Bone ‘Goo’ That Acts As Shock Absorber. IFLScience. 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-discover-bone-‘goo’-acts-shock-absorber/. 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. Aviation Security: TSA Has Made Progress Implementing Requirements in the Aviation Security Act of 2016. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2017.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. PerLee-Lange DL. An introduction to the juvenile dependency court process and the child welfare system: A curriculum for parents. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 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. Kishkovsky S. Russia Sentences Estonian to 15 Years in Spy Case. New York Times. 2015;:A10.

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 Developmental Biology
Abbreviation	BMC Dev. Biol.
ISSN (online)	1471-213X
Scope	Developmental Biology