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

Schwab ME. Repairing the injured spinal cord. Science. 2002;295:1029–31.

A journal article with 2 authors

Koentges G, Matsuoka T. Evolution. Jaws of the fates. Science. 2002;298:371–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

Savaldi-Goldstein S, Peto C, Chory J. The epidermis both drives and restricts plant shoot growth. Nature. 2007;446:199–202.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Peterson BJ, McClelland J, Curry R, et al. Trajectory shifts in the Arctic and subarctic freshwater cycle. Science. 2006;313:1061–6.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Mauthe A, Thomas P. Professional Content Management Systems. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 2005.

An edited book

Gurtoo A, Williams C, editors. Developing Country Perspectives on Public Service Delivery. New Delhi: Springer India 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

Seroyer ST, Harner CD. Avoiding and Managing Complications in PCL Reconstruction. In: Meislin RJ, Halbrecht J, eds. Complications in Knee and Shoulder Surgery: Management and Treatment Options for the Sports Medicine Orthopedist. London: Springer 2009:75–90.

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. Increasing Antibiotic Efficacy With Silver. IFLScience. 2013. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/increasing-antibiotic-efficacy-silver/ (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. Technology Transfer: Barriers Limit Royalty Sharing’s Effectiveness. 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

Brown ER. Comparison of instructional techniques of high school economics teachers in Georgia and Shenzhen, China. 2011.

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

Hardy M. After Storm, Houston Hopes to Regain Tourism Momentum. New York Times. 2017;TR2.

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