How to format your references using the BMC Pediatrics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Pediatrics. 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. Seeman P. Comment on “Diverse psychotomimetics act through a common signaling pathway.” Science. 2004;305:180; author reply 180.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Rock JR, Hogan BLM. Developmental biology. Branching takes nerve. Science. 2010;329:1610–1.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Heuer AH, Jia CL, Lagerlöf KPD. The core structure of basal dislocations in deformed sapphire (alpha-Al₂O₃). Science. 2010;330:1227–31.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Dale GL, Friese P, Batar P, Hamilton SF, Reed GL, Jackson KW, et al. Stimulated platelets use serotonin to enhance their retention of procoagulant proteins on the cell surface. Nature. 2002;415:175–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Lalanne C. Random Vibration. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

1. Ghoshal D, editor. Current Perspectives in High Energy Physics: Lectures from SERC Schools. Gurgaon: Hindustan Book Agency; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Jacobs K, Spierings N. Intraparty Relations: David versus Nabal and Abigail. In: Spierings N, editor. Social Media, Parties, and Political Inequalities. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan US; 2016. p. 103–29.

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 Pediatrics.

Blog post

1. Luntz S. Climate Change Shortening Bees’ Tongues. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/climate-change-shortening-bees-tongues/. 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. Telecommunications: Charges for Itemized Cellular Telephone Bills. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1993.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Acosta J. Building bridges: A specialized training program for professionals in school settings to address bullying in LGBTQ youth: A grant proposal. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2013.

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. Wagner J. In Mets’ Lost Season, Collins Defends His Decisions. New York Times. 2017;:D5.

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 Pediatrics
Abbreviation	BMC Pediatr.
ISSN (online)	1471-2431
Scope	Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health