How to format your references using the BMC Research Notes citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Research Notes. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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. Milani A. Astronomy. Extraterrestrial material--virtual or real hazards? Science. 2003;300:1882–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Friend SH, Schadt EE. Translational genomics. Clues from the resilient. Science. 2014;344:970–2.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Rowe T, McBride EF, Sereno PC. Dinosaur with a heart of stone. Science. 2001;291:783.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Vivian JP, Duncan RC, Berry R, O’Connor GM, Reid HH, Beddoe T, et al. Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor 3DL1-mediated recognition of human leukocyte antigen B. Nature. 2011;479:401–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Voldman SH. ESD. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

1. Nuzzolo A, Wilson NHM, editors. Schedule-Based Modeling of Transportation Networks: Theory and applications. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Xu D, Hadzic A. Complications of Peripheral Nerve Blocks. In: Peng P, editor. Regional Nerve Blocks in Anesthesia and Pain Therapy: Traditional and Ultrasound-Guided Techniques. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015. p. 67–78.

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 Research Notes.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Huge Ancient Hidden Monument Found In Petra Using Satellites, Drones, And Google Earth. IFLScience. 2016. 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. NASA Human Space Exploration: Opportunity Nears to Reassess Launch Vehicle and Ground Systems Cost and Schedule. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2016.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Carrier TH. Using Grunig’s Situational Theory for Analysis of Frames in Human Trafficking Awareness Organizations’ YouTube Videos. Doctoral dissertation. University of Louisiana; 2017.

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. Williams J. One Side Effect of Viagra: Inspiration to Write. New York Times. 2017;:C6.

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 Research Notes
Abbreviation	BMC Res. Notes
ISSN (online)	1756-0500
Scope	General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Medicine