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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Medical Genomics. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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. Inan U. Atmospheric science. Gamma rays made on Earth. Science. 2005;307:1054–5.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Katzenellenbogen BS, Katzenellenbogen JA. Biomedicine. Defining the “S” in SERMs. Science. 2002;295:2380–1.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Cross CP, Cyrenne D-LM, Brown GR. Sex differences in sensation-seeking: a meta-analysis. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2486.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Schwab SR, Pereira JP, Matloubian M, Xu Y, Huang Y, Cyster JG. Lymphocyte sequestration through S1P lyase inhibition and disruption of S1P gradients. Science. 2005;309:1735–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Volpe MA. Rethinking Christian Identity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2013.

An edited book

1. Maldonado JK, Colombi B, Pandya R, editors. Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples in the United States: Impacts, Experiences and Actions. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Pecci F, Pontarollo N. The Application of Spatial Filtering Technique to the Economic Convergence of the European Regions between 1995 and 2007. In: Taniar D, Gervasi O, Murgante B, Pardede E, Apduhan BO, editors. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2010: International Conference, Fukuoka, Japan, March 23-26, 2010, Proceedings, Part I. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010. p. 46–61.

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 Genomics.

Blog post

1. Andrew D. Early Signs Show Legal High Ban Is Pushing Sales From The High Street To Street Dealers. IFLScience. 2017. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/early-signs-show-legal-high-ban-is-pushing-sales-from-the-high-street-to-street-dealers/. 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. Commercial Motor Vehicles: Significant Actions Remain to Improve Truck Safety. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2000.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Moncur HB. Exploring primary caregivers’ perceptions of the effects of secondhand marijuana smoke on children: A quantitative study. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2014.

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. Brantley B. She Breaks the Mold, and Keeps On Giving. New York Times. 2016;:C1.

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 Genomics
Abbreviation	BMC Med. Genomics
ISSN (online)	1755-8794
Scope	Genetics Genetics(clinical)