How to format your references using the BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation. 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. Joffre M. Comment on “Coherent control of retinal isomerization in bacteriorhodopsin.” Science. 2007;317:453; author reply 453.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Tani K, Stoltz BM. Synthesis and structural analysis of 2-quinuclidonium tetrafluoroborate. Nature. 2006;441:731–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Reimand J, Wagih O, Bader GD. The mutational landscape of phosphorylation signaling in cancer. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2651.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Frearson JA, Brand S, McElroy SP, Cleghorn LAT, Smid O, Stojanovski L, et al. N-myristoyltransferase inhibitors as new leads to treat sleeping sickness. Nature. 2010;464:728–32.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Sharma YC. A Guide to the Economic Removal of Metals from Aqueous Solutions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2011.

An edited book

1. Yeung DWK. Subgame Consistent Cooperation: A Comprehensive Treatise. Singapore: Springer; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Cammaerts B, Bruter M, Banaji S, Harrison S, Anstead N. Youth Participation in European Policymaking: Representation and Limits to Participation. In: Bruter M, Banaji S, Harrison S, Anstead N, editors. Youth Participation in Democratic Life: Stories of Hope and Disillusion. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK; 2016. p. 83–104.

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 Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. New Study Suggests Viruses Are Alive, And That They Share An Ancestor With Modern Cells. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/viruses-might-be-alive-after-all/. 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. EPA Science Advisory Panels: Preliminary Observations on the Processes for Providing Scientific Advice. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2015.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Lutchman C. Leadership impact on turnover among power engineers in the Oil Sands of Alberta. Doctoral dissertation. University of Phoenix; 2008.

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. Hodara S. The (Forever) New Romantics. New York Times. 2016;:CT9.

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 Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation
Abbreviation	BMC Sports Sci. Med. Rehabil.
ISSN (online)	2052-1847
Scope	Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Rehabilitation Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation