How to format your references using the BMJ citation style

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

Winnacker E-L. A chance to drive forward Europe’s science. Nature. 2013;495:283.

A journal article with 2 authors

Radisky DC, Bissell MJ. Cancer. Respect thy neighbor! Science. 2004;303:775–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

Schuler B, Lipman EA, Eaton WA. Probing the free-energy surface for protein folding with single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy. Nature. 2002;419:743–7.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Sorefan K, Girin T, Liljegren SJ, et al. A regulated auxin minimum is required for seed dispersal in Arabidopsis. Nature. 2009;459:583–6.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Rhee MY. Wireless Mobile Internet Security. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 2013.

An edited book

Laurila T. Interfacial Compatibility in Microelectronics: Moving Away from the Trial and Error Approach. London: Springer 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

Pelagatti* MM. Price Indexes across Space and Time and the Stochastic Properties of Prices. In: Biggeri L, Ferrari G, eds. Price Indexes in Time and Space: Methods and Practice. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag HD 2010:97–114.

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.

Blog post

Luntz S. Earth’s Gravity Gives The Moon A Massage. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/space/earths-gravity-gives-moon-massage/ (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. ADP Modernization: Health Care Financing Administration’s Software Redesign Contract. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1989.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Yamada M. The role of the TRANSPORT INHIBITOR RESPONSE2 (TIR2) gene in auxin synthesis in Arabidopsis. 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

Sisario B. Streaming Services Struggle to Root Out Music That Incites Hatred. New York Times. 2017;B5.

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
Abbreviation	BMJ
ISSN (print)	0959-8138
ISSN (online)	1756-1833
Scope