How to format your references using the BMC Zoology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Zoology. 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. Manning CE. Geochemistry. Sulfur surprises in deep geological fluids. Science. 2011;331:1018–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Boolchand P, Bresser WJ. Mobile silver ions and glass formation in solid electrolytes. Nature. 2001;410:1070–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Sasaki M, Takagi M, Okamura Y. A voltage sensor-domain protein is a voltage-gated proton channel. Science. 2006;312:589–92.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Kloxin AM, Kasko AM, Salinas CN, Anseth KS. Photodegradable hydrogels for dynamic tuning of physical and chemical properties. Science. 2009;324:59–63.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Glover F, Klingman D, Phillips NV. Network Models in Optimization and their Applications in Practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 1992.

An edited book

1. Purushothaman S, Abraham R, editors. Livelihood Strategies in Southern India: Conservation and Poverty Reduction in Forest Fringes. New Delhi: Springer India; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Maoilearca LCÓ. Since Each of Us Was Several: Collaboration in the Context of the Differential Self. In: Colin N, Sachsenmaier S, editors. Collaboration in Performance Practice: Premises, Workings and Failures. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK; 2016. p. 93–107.

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 Zoology.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Watch The First Ever Video Of The World’s Most Elusive Whale. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/watch-first-ever-video-worlds-most-elusive-whale/. 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. Medical ADP Systems: Composite Health Care System Is Not Ready to Be Deployed. 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. Arntson JD. Heidegger and disclosive rhetoric: Two divergent paths in immanence and transcendence. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 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. Greenhouse L. New Focus on the Effects of Life Tenure. New York Times. 2007;:A20.

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 Zoology
Abbreviation	BMC Zool.
ISSN (online)	2056-3132
Scope