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. Stafford N. Turbulent times. Nature. 2006;443:385.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Scruggs J, Jacob P. Engineering. Harvesting ocean wave energy. Science. 2009;323:1176–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Richardson CE, Kooistra T, Kim DH. An essential role for XBP-1 in host protection against immune activation in C. elegans. Nature. 2010;463:1092–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Lane BF, Kuchner MJ, Boden AF, Creech-Eakman M, Kulkarni SR. Direct detection of pulsations of the Cepheid star zeta Gem and an independent calibration of the period-luminosity relation. Nature. 2000;407:485–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Beecken WH, Beecken CA. Fraud Examination Casebook with Documents. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2017.

An edited book

1. Feng X, Karakashian O, Xing Y, editors. Recent Developments in Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Methods for Partial Differential Equations: 2012 John H Barrett Memorial Lectures. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Xue H, Wang L, Li D. Design and Development of Dissolved Oxygen Real-Time Prediction and Early Warning System for Brocaded Carp Aquaculture. In: Li D, Chen Y, editors. Computer and Computing Technologies in Agriculture VI: 6th IFIP WG 5.14 International Conference, CCTA 2012, Zhangjiajie, China, October 19-21, 2012, Revised Selected Papers, Part I. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. p. 35–42.

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. Andrew E. India’s Tiger Population Is Up 30% Since 2010. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/conservation-success-india-s-tiger-population-30-2010/. 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. Health Information Technology: DOD Needs to Provide More Information on Risks to Improve Its Program Management. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2010.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Salazar A. Small school, big gains: A case study of urban high school reform. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2012.

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. Barron J. Mystery of the Hamilton Painting at City Hall: Lost, Stolen or Never There? 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 Zoology
Abbreviation	BMC Zool.
ISSN (online)	2056-3132
Scope

Research and Writing Guides