How to format your references using the BMC Ecology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Ecology. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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. Wilks Y. Computer science. Is there progress on talking sensibly to machines? Science. 2007;318:927–8.
A journal article with 2 authors
1. Wilhite AW, Fong EA. Scientific publications. Coercive citation in academic publishing. Science. 2012;335:542–3.
A journal article with 3 authors
1. Basch ML, Bronner-Fraser M, García-Castro MI. Specification of the neural crest occurs during gastrulation and requires Pax7. Nature. 2006;441:218–22.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1. Rauh NR, Schmidt A, Bormann J, Nigg EA, Mayer TU. Calcium triggers exit from meiosis II by targeting the APC/C inhibitor XErp1 for degradation. Nature. 2005;437:1048–52.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1. Hoschette JA. The Engineer’s Career Guide. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.
An edited book
1. Rieser V. Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive Dialogue Systems: A Data-driven Methodology for Dialogue Management and Natural Language Generation. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011.
A chapter in an edited book
1. Seroyer ST, Harner CD. Avoiding and Managing Complications in PCL Reconstruction. In: Meislin RJ, Halbrecht J, editors. Complications in Knee and Shoulder Surgery: Management and Treatment Options for the Sports Medicine Orthopedist. London: Springer; 2009. p. 75–90.

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 Ecology.

Blog post
1. Hale T. This Is What Happens If You Chuck Half A Kilo Of Sodium Into A Lake. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/what-happens-if-you-chuck-half-kilo-sodium-lake/. 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. Army Networks: Select Programs Are Utilizing Competition to Varying Degrees. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2014.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1. Pham MM-X. Flymed Pharmacy, LLC, Home Delivery Services a Business Plan. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 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. Kanter J. European Court Is Urged to Punish Hungary and Slovakia Over Refugees. New York Times. 2017;:A6.

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 titleBMC Ecology
AbbreviationBMC Ecol.
ISSN (online)1472-6785
ScopeEcology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
General Environmental Science

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