How to format your references using the BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. 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. Dang CV. Gene regulation: fine-tuned amplification in cells. Nature. 2014;511:417–8.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Anderson MC, Green C. Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control. Nature. 2001;410:366–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Beddington JR, Agnew DJ, Clark CW. Current problems in the management of marine fisheries. Science. 2007;316:1713–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Sun M, Liao H-G, Niu K, Zheng H. Structural and morphological evolution of lead dendrites during electrochemical migration. Sci Rep. 2013;3:3227.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Stephans RA. System Safety for the 21 st Century. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2004.

An edited book

1. Gulliver JS, editor. Transport and Fate of Chemicals in the Environment: Selected Entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. New York, NY: Springer; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

1. De Moor R, Delmé K, Keulemans F. Adhesion and Erbium-Lased Enamel and Dentin. In: Olivi G, Olivi M, editors. Lasers in Restorative Dentistry: A Practical Guide. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2015. p. 87–107.

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 Informatics and Decision Making.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Previous Sexual Partner’s Semen Can Influence Another Fly’s Offspring. IFLScience. 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/previous-sexual-partner-can-influence-another-flys-offspring/. 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. Federal Student Loan Programs: Opportunities Exist to Improve Audit Requirements and Oversight Procedures. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2010.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Beattie LJ. Meeting the Needs of Low Income Students. 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. Cowley S, Corkery M. After Scandal, Wells Fargo’s Board Faces a Contentious Re-election Vote. New York Times. 2017;:B1.

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 Informatics and Decision Making
Abbreviation	BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak.
ISSN (online)	1472-6947
Scope	Health Informatics Health Policy