How to format your references using the BMC Medical Research Methodology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Medical Research Methodology. 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. Koenig R. EUROPEAN SCIENCE: Research Behemoth Slated for Overhaul. Science. 2000;289:2019b.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Kim N, Grey CP. Probing oxygen motion in disordered anionic conductors with 17O and 51V MAS NMR spectroscopy. Science. 2002;297:1317–20.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Maffione M, Morris A, Anderson MW. Recognizing detachment-mode seafloor spreading in the deep geological past. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2336.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Nemec P, Altmann J, Marhold S, Burda H, Oelschlager HH. Neuroanatomy of magnetoreception: the superior colliculus involved in magnetic orientation in a mammal. Science. 2001;294:366–8.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Ferdjallah M. Introduction to Digital Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2011.

An edited book

1. Strauß P-M. Proactive Spoken Dialogue Interaction in Multi-Party Environments. 1st edition. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Fioranelli M, Lanzillo C, Peverini F. Coronary Pathophysiology. In: Fioranelli M, Dowe DA, editors. CT Evaluation of Coronary Artery Disease. Milano: Springer; 2009. p. 53–7.

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 Research Methodology.

Blog post

1. Luntz S. Rats Get Ticklish When They’re Happy. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/brain/rats-get-ticklish-when-they-are-happy/. 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. Examination of the Treatment of Peer Reviewers’ Comments on Support for the “Individualized Science Instructional System” Project. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1976.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Harris KR. The need for social workers in community clinic settings: A grant writing project. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2010.

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. 2017 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour. New York Times. 2017;:C10.

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 Research Methodology
Abbreviation	BMC Med. Res. Methodol.
ISSN (online)	1471-2288
Scope	Epidemiology Health Informatics