How to format your references using the BMC Urology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Urology. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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. Higgins CF. Multiple molecular mechanisms for multidrug resistance transporters. Nature. 2007;446:749–57.
A journal article with 2 authors
1. Dove W, Susman M. Retrospective. James F. Crow (1916-2012). Science. 2012;335:812.
A journal article with 3 authors
1. Richmond JE, Weimer RM, Jorgensen EM. An open form of syntaxin bypasses the requirement for UNC-13 in vesicle priming. Nature. 2001;412:338–41.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1. Lee S-M, Pippel E, Gösele U, Dresbach C, Qin Y, Chandran CV, et al. Greatly increased toughness of infiltrated spider silk. Science. 2009;324:488–92.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1. Wesley LD. Geotechnical Engineering in Residual Soils. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.
An edited book
1. Castanho MARB, Güner-Akdogan G, editors. The Researching, Teaching, and Learning Triangle. New York, NY: Springer; 2012.
A chapter in an edited book
1. Balliauw M, Decoster X. Publishing Packages. In: Decoster X, editor. Pro NuGet. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2012. p. 81–103.

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 Urology.

Blog post
1. Andrew E. Volcano Eruptions In Alaska Could Cause Trans-Atlantic Chaos For Airlines. IFLScience. 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/volcano-eruptions-alaska-could-cause-trans-atlantic-chaos-airlines/. 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. Computer-Based Patient Records: Sound Planning and Project Management Are Needed to Achieve a Two-Way Exchange of VA and DOD Health Data. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2004.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1. Liza JS. Mentors’ perceptions of bullying in middle and high school settings. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2009.

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. Greenhouse L. roberts court may be defined in second term. New York Times. 2006;:A1.

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 titleBMC Urology
AbbreviationBMC Urol.
ISSN (online)1471-2490
ScopeGeneral Medicine
Reproductive Medicine
Urology

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