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. Balibar S. The enigma of supersolidity. Nature. 2010;464:176–82.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Wulder MA, Coops NC. Satellites: Make Earth observations open access. Nature. 2014;513:30–1.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Labrosse S, Hernlund JW, Coltice N. A crystallizing dense magma ocean at the base of the Earth’s mantle. Nature. 2007;450:866–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Noda T, Sagara H, Yen A, Takada A, Kida H, Cheng RH, et al. Architecture of ribonucleoprotein complexes in influenza A virus particles. Nature. 2006;439:490–2.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Hoy J. Forensic Radio Survey Techniques for Cell Site Analysis. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2015.

An edited book

1. Karch M. Android for Work: Productivity for Professionals. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Furneaux B. Task-Technology Fit Theory: A Survey and Synopsis of the Literature. In: Dwivedi YK, Wade MR, Schneberger SL, editors. Information Systems Theory: Explaining and Predicting Our Digital Society, Vol. 1. New York, NY: Springer; 2012. p. 87–106.

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. Andrew E. Rosetta Arrives at Comet After 10 Year Voyage. IFLScience. 2014. 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. Drug Testing: Management Problems and Legal Challenges Facing DOT’s Industry Programs. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1989.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Seymour CR. Natives Versus Exotics and Grasses Versus Forbs: A Long-Term Study of Vegetation in La Jolla Valley. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 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. Schwirtz M. The Top Uniformed Officer on Rikers Island Steps Down, Ahead of Schedule. New York Times. 2017;:A19.

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

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