How to format your references using the BMC Oral Health citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Oral Health. 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. Wolpert AJ. The future of electronic data. Nature. 2002;420:17–8.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Krajcik JS, Sutherland LM. Supporting students in developing literacy in science. Science. 2010;328:456–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Tao C, Cullen WG, Williams ED. Visualizing the electron scattering force in nanostructures. Science. 2010;328:736–40.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Montoya D, Zavala MA, Rodríguez MA, Purves DW. Animal versus wind dispersal and the robustness of tree species to deforestation. Science. 2008;320:1502–4.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Talbot DB. Frequency Acquisition Techniques for Phase Locked Loops. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2012.

An edited book

1. Kindlmann P, editor. Himalayan Biodiversity in the Changing World. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Lu C, Mai Y-W, Shen Y-G. The Origin of Superhardness in Nanocomposite Coatings: Analysis of Nanoindentation and Scratch Tests. In: Bai YL, Zheng QS, Wei YG, editors. IUTAM Symposium on Mechanical Behavior and Micro-Mechanics of Nanostructured Materials: Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium held in Beijing, China, June 27–30, 2005. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2007. p. 39–49.

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 Oral Health.

Blog post

1. Hale T. NASA Is Hiring Astronauts, And You Could Apply. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/space/you-could-be-one-nasas-next-astronauts/. 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. Competition: Information on Federally Funded Research and Development Centers. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1988.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Tetley J. An investigation of self-authorship, hope, and meaning in life among second-year college students. Doctoral dissertation. George Washington University; 2009.

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. Cooper M. Philip Gossett, Scholar, 75; Revived Lost Opera Scores. New York Times. 2017;:B14.

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 Oral Health
Abbreviation	BMC Oral Health
ISSN (online)	1472-6831
Scope	General Dentistry