How to format your references using the BMC Palliative Care citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Palliative Care. 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. Kemp M. Science in culture: peas without pictures--Gregor Mendel and the mathematical birth of modern genetics. Nature. 2002;417:490.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Hench LL, Polak JM. Third-generation biomedical materials. Science. 2002;295:1014–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Khan SUM, Al-Shahry M, Ingler WB Jr. Efficient photochemical water splitting by a chemically modified n-TiO2. Science. 2002;297:2243–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Kepecs A, Uchida N, Zariwala HA, Mainen ZF. Neural correlates, computation and behavioural impact of decision confidence. Nature. 2008;455:227–31.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Moloney MG. How to Solve Organic Reaction Mechanisms. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2015.

An edited book

1. Zhang Y. Zhang Functions and Various Models. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Ferrara SD. Causal Value and Causal Link. In: Ferrara SD, Boscolo-Berto R, Viel G, editors. Malpractice and Medical Liability: European State of the Art and Guidelines. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. p. 93–107.

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 Palliative Care.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Hang Gliders Could Be Heading To Mars. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/hang-gliders-mars/. 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. GAO’s Review of Federal Efforts To Reduce Asbestos Hazards in Schools. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1984.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Gunhan-Senol NE. “I’m Turkish, I’m Honest...” I’m Autistic: Perceptions Regarding the Label of Autism. Doctoral dissertation. University of Louisiana; 2015.

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. Creswell J, de la MERCED MJ. Activist Investor Seeks Seat at Procter & Gamble. New York Times. 2017;:B1.

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 Palliative Care
Abbreviation	BMC Palliat. Care
ISSN (online)	1472-684X
Scope	General Medicine