How to format your references using the BMC Molecular Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Molecular Biology. 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. Nabel GJ. Challenges and opportunities for development of an AIDS vaccine. Nature. 2001;410:1002–7.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Jacobs HO, Whitesides GM. Submicrometer patterning of charge in thin-film electrets. Science. 2001;291:1763–6.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Begun DR, Richmond BG, Strait DS. Comment on “Origin of human bipedalism as an adaptation for locomotion on flexible branches.” Science. 2007;318:1066; author reply 1066.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Ou G, Blacque OE, Snow JJ, Leroux MR, Scholey JM. Functional coordination of intraflagellar transport motors. Nature. 2005;436:583–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Bains G. Cultural DNA. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2015.

An edited book

1. Prade H, Subrahmanian VS, editors. Scalable Uncertainty Management: First International Conference, SUM 2007, Washington,DC, USA, October 10-12, 2007. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2007.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Johnson P, Nordström L, Lagerström R. Formalizing Analysis of Enterprise Architecture. In: Doumeingts G, Müller J, Morel G, Vallespir B, editors. Enterprise Interoperability: New Challenges and Approaches. London: Springer; 2007. p. 35–44.

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 Molecular Biology.

Blog post

1. Hale T. The Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks TONIGHT - Here’s How To Watch. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/space/speedy-leonid-meteor-shower-will-hit-skies-week/. 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. Digital Television Transition: Questions on Administrative Costs of an Equipment Subsidy Program. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2005.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Pulukkunat D. Biochemical Studies on Archaeal Ribonuclease P Reveal Thematic Convergence in Protein-Facilitated RNA Catalysis. 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. Sisario B. Bob Krasnow, 82, Executive Who Revived Elektra Records. New York Times. 2016;:A30.

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 Molecular Biology
Abbreviation	BMC Mol. Biol.
ISSN (online)	1471-2199
Scope	Molecular Biology

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