How to format your references using the BMC Microbiology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Microbiology. 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. Bonetta L. Protein-protein interactions: Tools for the search. Nature. 2010;468:852.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Renshaw CE, Schulson EM. Universal behaviour in compressive failure of brittle materials. Nature. 2001;412:897–900.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Chouard T, Weiss U, Dhand R. Good “omics” for the poor? Nature. 2002;419:489.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Landry CR, Lemos B, Rifkin SA, Dickinson WJ, Hartl DL. Genetic properties influencing the evolvability of gene expression. Science. 2007;317:118–21.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Bagdonavičius V, Kruopis J, Nikulin MS. Non-parametric Tests for Censored Data. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2011.

An edited book

1. Natkin S, Dupire J, editors. Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2009: 8th International Conference, Paris, France, September 3-5, 2009. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Lynch DE. ISO and the International Standardization of Adult Education. In: Strohschen GIE, editor. Handbook of Blended Shore Education: Adult Program Development and Delivery. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2009. p. 63–70.

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 Microbiology.

Blog post

1. Carpineti A. New Paper Explains How The “Impossible’ EM Drive Might Work. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/new-paper-explains-how-the-impossible-em-drive-might-work/. 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. Year 2000 Computing Challenge: Much Biomedical Equipment Status Information Available, Yet Concerns Remain. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1999.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Pezzolesi MG. Novel Mechanisms of PTEN Dysfunction in PTEN Hamartoma Tumor Syndromes. Doctoral dissertation. Ohio State University; 2008.

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. Vecsey G. The World Is Watching. New York Times. 2012;:SP11.

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 Microbiology
Abbreviation	BMC Microbiol.
ISSN (online)	1471-2180
Scope	Microbiology Microbiology (medical)

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