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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Medical Imaging. 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. Hunten DM. Atmospheric science. An iron deficiency in polar mesospheric clouds. Science. 2004;304:395–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Dar-Nimrod I, Heine SJ. Exposure to scientific theories affects women’s math performance. Science. 2006;314:435.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Debruyne R, Schwarz C, Poinar H. Comment on “Whole-genome shotgun sequencing of mitochondria from ancient hair shafts.” Science. 2008;322:857; author reply 857.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Kops GJPL, Dansen TB, Polderman PE, Saarloos I, Wirtz KWA, Coffer PJ, et al. Forkhead transcription factor FOXO3a protects quiescent cells from oxidative stress. Nature. 2002;419:316–21.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Moritz FG. Electromechanical Motion Systems. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2013.

An edited book

1. McLean KC, Pasupathi M, editors. Narrative Development in Adolescence: Creating the Storied Self. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Goñi N, Arregui I, Lezama A, Arrizabalaga H, Moreno G. Small Scale Vertical Behaviour of Juvenile Albacore in Relation to Their Biotic Environment in the Bay of Biscay. In: Nielsen JL, Arrizabalaga H, Fragoso N, Hobday A, Lutcavage M, Sibert J, editors. Tagging and Tracking of Marine Animals with Electronic Devices. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2009. p. 51–73.

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 Imaging.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Forest Loss Has Halved In The Past 30 Years, Latest Global Update Shows. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/forest-loss-has-halved-past-30-years-latest-global-update-shows/. 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. Routine Disclosure of Broadcaster Financial Records. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1980.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Yu B. Periodic Motions and Bifurcation Tree in a Periodically Excited Oscillator with Quadratic Nonlinearity. Doctoral dissertation. Southern Illinois University; 2013.

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. Kishkovsky S. Russian Orthodox Church Elects Outspoken Patriarch. New York Times. 2009;:A10.

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 Imaging
Abbreviation	BMC Med. Imaging
ISSN (online)	1471-2342
Scope	Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging