How to format your references using the BMC Geriatrics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Geriatrics. 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. Mervis J. U.S. POSTDOCS: Report Urges Better Treatment, Status. Science. 2000;289:1854b–5b.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Stanley S, Bloxham J. Convective-region geometry as the cause of Uranus’ and Neptune’s unusual magnetic fields. Nature. 2004;428:151–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Tarchini B, Duboule D, Kmita M. Regulatory constraints in the evolution of the tetrapod limb anterior-posterior polarity. Nature. 2006;443:985–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Coleman JR, Papamichail D, Skiena S, Futcher B, Wimmer E, Mueller S. Virus attenuation by genome-scale changes in codon pair bias. Science. 2008;320:1784–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Smirnov BM. Cluster Processes in Gases and Plasmas. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2010.

An edited book

1. Maio M de, Rzany B, editors. Botulinum Toxin in Aesthetic Medicine. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2007.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Kiayias A, Pehlivanoglu S. Pirate Evolution. In: Pehlivanoglu S, editor. Encryption for Digital Content. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2010. p. 171–97.

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 Geriatrics.

Blog post

1. Fang J. Fin cams reveal the secret lives of sharks. IFLScience. 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/fin-cams-reveal-secret-lives-sharks/. 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. Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Strong Leadership and Partnerships Needed to Address Risk of Major Disruptions. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1998.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Mai J. College Application Behaviors: Factors Impacting the College Choices of High School Seniors. 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. Craig S. Trump’s Brand Gets Lift From Aging Air Fleet. New York Times. 2016;:A1.

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 Geriatrics
Abbreviation	BMC Geriatr.
ISSN (online)	1471-2318
Scope	Geriatrics and Gerontology