How to format your references using the BMC Medical Genetics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Medical 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. Masood E. Major biodiversity initiative needs support. Nature. 2015;518:7.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Zaki N, Mora A. A comparative analysis of computational approaches and algorithms for protein subcomplex identification. Sci Rep. 2014;4:4262.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Grinberg I, Cooper VR, Rappe AM. Relationship between local structure and phase transitions of a disordered solid solution. Nature. 2002;419:909–11.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Lee JH, Holland TB, Mukherjee AK, Zhang X, Wang H. Direct observation of Lomer-Cottrell locks during strain hardening in nanocrystalline nickel by in situ TEM. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1061.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Ribéreau-Gayon P, Dubourdieu D, Donèche B, Lonvaud A. Handbook of Enology. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

1. Dubbink W, Liedekerke L van, Luijk H van, editors. European Business Ethics Cases in Context: The Morality of Corporate Decision Making. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Castro FA, Silva Santos CMP, Palma JMLM. Parallelisation of the CFD Code of a CFD-NWP Coupled System for the Simulation of Atmospheric Flows over Complex Terrain. In: Palma JMLM, Amestoy PR, Daydé M, Mattoso M, Lopes JC, editors. High Performance Computing for Computational Science - VECPAR 2008: 8th International Conference, Toulouse, France, June 24-27, 2008. Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2008. p. 27–38.

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 Medical Genetics.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Scientists Discover 20 Shark Pups In The First Tiger Shark Sonogram Ever. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/scientists-discover-20-shark-pups-in-the-first-shark-sonogram-ever/. 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. Intercity Passenger Rail: The Financial Viability of Amtrak Continues to Be Threatened. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Ware RJ. Middle School Students’ Perceptions of Their Interests in Reading As Defined By Engagement and Social Interaction When Using Sustained Silent Reading, SSR, and Peer Interests Reading Strategies, PIRS. Doctoral dissertation. Lindenwood 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. Kenigsberg B. Daddy’s Dreams, Recast by His Girls. New York Times. 2016;:C13.

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 Medical Genetics
Abbreviation	BMC Med. Genet.
ISSN (online)	1471-2350
Scope	Genetics Genetics(clinical)

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