How to format your references using the BMJ Case Reports citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMJ Case Reports. 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

Pan J. China expects leadership from rich nations. Nature. 2009;461:1055.

A journal article with 2 authors

Gitlin AD, Nussenzweig MC. Immunology: Fifty years of B lymphocytes. Nature. 2015;517:139–41.

A journal article with 3 authors

Miller KM, Rog O, Cooper JP. Semi-conservative DNA replication through telomeres requires Taz1. Nature. 2006;440:824–8.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Chung HJ, Steinberg JP, Huganir RL, et al. Requirement of AMPA receptor GluR2 phosphorylation for cerebellar long-term depression. Science. 2003;300:1751–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Vento JJ. Financial Independence (Getting to Point X ). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2013.

An edited book

Bhattacharya N, Stubblefield PG, editors. Human Fetal Growth and Development: First and Second Trimesters. Cham: Springer International Publishing 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

Ren B, Ge SS, Chen C, et al. Altitude and Yaw Control of Helicopters with Uncertain Dynamics. In: Ge SS, Chen C, Fua C-H, et al., eds. Modeling, Control and Coordination of Helicopter Systems. New York, NY: Springer 2012:93–119.

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 BMJ Case Reports.

Blog post

Andrew E. Don’t Fall For The Deep-Sea Scaremongers – Wild Fishing Is Healthy And Sustainable. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/don-t-fall-deep-sea-scaremongers-wild-fishing-healthy-and-sustainable/ (accessed 30 October 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

Government Accountability Office. Helium Program: Key Developments Since the Early 1990s and Future Considerations. 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

Sparks GA. Charismatic leadership: An exploratory investigation of the techniques of influence. 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

Rothenberg B. Nadal and Federer Steady a Collision Course. New York Times. 2017;SP1.

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	BMJ Case Reports
Abbreviation	BMJ Case Rep.
ISSN (online)	1757-790X
Scope