How to format your references using the BMC Genetics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Genetics. 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. Morrow R. Engineering. Wi-Fi-Fo-Fum. Science. 2008;320:1018–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Rouse J, Jackson SP. Interfaces between the detection, signaling, and repair of DNA damage. Science. 2002;297:547–51.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Ryu H-W, Park C-W, Ryu K-Y. Disruption of polyubiquitin gene Ubb causes dysregulation of neural stem cell differentiation with premature gliogenesis. Sci Rep. 2014;4:7026.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Seki A, Coppinger JA, Jang C-Y, Yates JR, Fang G. Bora and the kinase Aurora a cooperatively activate the kinase Plk1 and control mitotic entry. Science. 2008;320:1655–8.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Pandey JN. The Hilbert Transform of Schwartz Distributions and Applications. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 1995.

An edited book

1. Ebbin SA, Håkon Hoel A, Sydnes AK, editors. A Sea Change: The Exclusive Economic Zone and Governance Institutions for Living Marine Resources. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Lambrechts J, Sinha S. The Sub-systems of an Energy Harvesting Device: Focus on RFID Fundamentals. In: Sinha S, editor. Microsensing Networks for Sustainable Cities. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 135–63.

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 Genetics.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Brain Stimulation Can Modify Learning In Humans. IFLScience. 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/brain/brain-stimulation-can-modify-learning-humans/. 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. [Comments on NASA Employee’s Proposed Work Schedule]. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1995.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Binkley PM. Relationship of Graduate Student Involvement to Graduate Alumni Donor Behavior. Doctoral dissertation. George Washington University; 2012.

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. Gorman J. Analyzing Ah-Choos: All Dogs in Favor Of the Motion, Sneeze. New York Times. 2017;:D2.

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 Genetics
Abbreviation	BMC Genet.
ISSN (online)	1471-2156
Scope	Genetics Genetics(clinical)