How to format your references using the BMC Neurology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Neurology. 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. Pockley P. Gene screens for nuclear veterans. Nature. 2001;412:5.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. MacMillan T, Benton TG. Agriculture: Engage farmers in research. Nature. 2014;509:25–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Zhou T, Gao Y, Wang ZD. Topological quantum phase transitions and edge states in spin-orbital coupled Fermi gases. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5218.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Dong L, Luo Q, Cheng K, Shi H, Wang Q, Weng W, et al. Facet-specific assembly of proteins on SrTiO₃ polyhedral nanocrystals. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5084.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Raczynski S. Modeling and Simulation. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

1. Gordon KB, Ruderman EM, editors. Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis: An Integrated Approach. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Vadász P. Analytical Transition to Weak Turbulence and Chaotic Natural Convection in Porous Media. In: Vadász P, editor. Emerging Topics in Heat and Mass Transfer in Porous Media: From Bioengineering and Microelectronics to Nanotechnology. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2008. p. 111–32.

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 Neurology.

Blog post

1. Hale T. The Internet Is Hooked On This Color Perception Quiz - How Did You Score? IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/brain/the-internet-is-hooked-on-this-color-perception-quiz-how-did-you-score/. 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. Transportation Research: The Department of Transportation Has Made Progress in Coordinating and Reviewing Its Research Activities. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Wheeler JA. The Scaling of High Harmonics with Mid-Infrared Driving Fields and a Method for the Spatial Isolation of Individual Subfemtosecond Pulses. Doctoral dissertation. Ohio State University; 2012.

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. Schwartz J, Shear MD, Paulson M. New Tack on Unrest Eases Tension in Missouri. New York Times. 2014;:A1.

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 Neurology
Abbreviation	BMC Neurol.
ISSN (online)	1471-2377
Scope	General Medicine Clinical Neurology