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. Newman DK. Microbiology. Feasting on minerals. Science. 2010;327:793–4.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Karki BB, Stixrude LP. Viscosity of MgSiO3 liquid at Earth’s mantle conditions: implications for an early magma ocean. Science. 2010;328:740–2.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Goes S, Capitanio FA, Morra G. Evidence of lower-mantle slab penetration phases in plate motions. Nature. 2008;451:981–4.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Petreanu L, Mao T, Sternson SM, Svoboda K. The subcellular organization of neocortical excitatory connections. Nature. 2009;457:1142–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Borisenko VE, Ossicini S. What is What in the Nanoworld. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2012.

An edited book

1. Sagonas K, editor. Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages: 15th International Symposium, PADL 2013, Rome, Italy, January 21-22, 2013. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Kamakura S. Tooth and Tooth-Supporting Structures. In: Niinomi M, Narushima T, Nakai M, editors. Advances in Metallic Biomaterials: Tissues, Materials and Biological Reactions. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2015. p. 99–122.

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. Fang J. Marmoset Babies Learn to Wait for Their Turn to Talk. IFLScience. 2015. 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. Vocational Education: Opportunity to Prepare for the Future. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1989.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Pence PL. Emotional intelligence, motivation, and retention among undergraduate students attending associate-degree nursing programs in Illinois. Doctoral dissertation. University of Phoenix; 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. Shear MD, Smale A. Foreign Leaders Lament U.S. Withdrawal, but Say It Won’t Stop Climate Effort. New York Times. 2017;:A9.

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