How to format your references using the BMC Health Services Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Health Services Research. 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. Burrows AS. Highlights in the study of exoplanet atmospheres. Nature. 2014;513:345–52.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Einstein TL, Stasevich TJ. Materials science. Epitaxial growth writ large. Science. 2010;327:423–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Moreno M, Rosenau M, Oncken O. 2010 Maule earthquake slip correlates with pre-seismic locking of Andean subduction zone. Nature. 2010;467:198–202.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Jompol Y, Ford CJB, Griffiths JP, Farrer I, Jones GAC, Anderson D, et al. Probing spin-charge separation in a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid. Science. 2009;325:597–601.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Ytterdal T, Cheng Y, Fjeldly TA. Device Modeling for Analog and RF CMOS Circuit Design. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2003.

An edited book

1. Cognetta AB Jr, Mendenhall WM, editors. Radiation Therapy for Skin Cancer. New York, NY: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Hou Y-J. Taiwanese EFLs’ Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy and Reading Comprehension. In: Schmorrow DD, Fidopiastis CM, editors. Foundations of Augmented Cognition: 7th International Conference, AC 2013, Held as Part of HCI International 2013, Las Vegas, NV, USA, July 21-26, 2013. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. p. 41–9.

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 Health Services Research.

Blog post

1. Carpineti A. Astronomers Discover A Rare Relic Of The Early Milky Way. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/space/astronomers-discover-a-rare-relic-of-the-early-milky-way/. 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. Next Generation Air Transportation System: Preliminary Analysis of Progress and Challenges Associated with the Transformation of the National Airspace System. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2006.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Shen H. Organization -employee relationships model: A two -sided story. Doctoral dissertation. University of Maryland, College Park; 2009.

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. Burghardt LF. Neighbors Protest Flea Market’s Move to Belmont Park. New York Times. 2007;:14CN5.

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 Health Services Research
Abbreviation	BMC Health Serv. Res.
ISSN (online)	1472-6963
Scope	Health Policy