How to format your references using the BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 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. Weinstock JV. Autoimmunity: The worm returns. Nature. 2012;491:183–5.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Wei H-R, Deng F-G. Scalable quantum computing based on stationary spin qubits in coupled quantum dots inside double-sided optical microcavities. Sci Rep. 2014;4:7551.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Thomas DSG, Knight M, Wiggs GFS. Remobilization of southern African desert dune systems by twenty-first century global warming. Nature. 2005;435:1218–21.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Choe J, Lin S, Zhang W, Liu Q, Wang L, Ramirez-Moya J, et al. mRNA circularization by METTL3-eIF3h enhances translation and promotes oncogenesis. Nature. 2018;561:556–60.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Quesnel F. Scheduling of Large-Scale Virtualized Infrastructures. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2014.

An edited book

1. Greil R, Pleyer L, Faber V, Neureiter D, editors. Chronic Myeloid Neoplasias and Clonal Overlap Syndromes: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology and Treatment Options. Vienna: Springer; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Groenendijk L, Sturm J. Curing society by better education: Wilhelm Stekel on parental influences in the causation and prevention of compulsion neuroses. In: Groenendijk L, Sturm J, Roazen P, editors. The Self-Marginalization of Wilhelm Stekel: Freudian Circles Inside and Out. New York, NY: Springer; 2007. p. 67–83.

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 Pregnancy and Childbirth.

Blog post

1. Carpineti C. There Could Be An Enormous Secret Concealed Within Tutankhamun’s Tomb. IFLScience. 2017. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/there-could-be-an-enormous-secret-concealed-within-tutankhamuns-tomb/. 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. Automated Patent System: Information on PTO’s Program to Automate Patent Information and Processes. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1992.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Poudyal Kharel A. Pyrolysis Studies of Copper and Copper Phosphate Mixtures on a Tungsten Surface. Doctoral dissertation. Southern Illinois University; 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. Rice SE. To Be Great, America Must Be Good. New York Times. 2017;:A21.

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 Pregnancy and Childbirth
Abbreviation	BMC Pregnancy Childbirth
ISSN (online)	1471-2393
Scope	Obstetrics and Gynaecology