How to format your references using the BMJ Open citation style

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

Bloch I. Quantum coherence and entanglement with ultracold atoms in optical lattices. Nature. 2008;453:1016–22.

A journal article with 2 authors

LeRoy BJ, Yankowitz M. Physics. Emergent complex states in bilayer graphene. Science. 2014;345:31–2.

A journal article with 3 authors

Poinar H, Kuch M, Pääbo S. Molecular analyses of oral polio vaccine samples. Science. 2001;292:743–4.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

De Wilde Y, Formanek F, Carminati R, et al. Thermal radiation scanning tunnelling microscopy. Nature. 2006;444:740–3.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Rabe JL, Martorana RJ. Alts Democratized. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc 2014.

An edited book

Behnke R, Mortimore M, editors. The End of Desertification?: Disputing Environmental Change in the Drylands. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

McGrath C, Rowan L. Things That Matter: Student Engagement and Technologies in Knowledge-Producing Schools. In: Rowan L, Bigum C, eds. Transformative Approaches to New Technologies and Student Diversity in Futures Oriented Classrooms: Future Proofing Education. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands 2012:67–83.

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 Open.

Blog post

Taub B. Oldest Man In History Claims To Be 145 But Wants To Die. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/oldest-man-in-history-claims-to-be-145-but-wants-to-die/ (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. Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Strong Leadership Needed to Avoid Disruption of Essential Services. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1998.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Brown VA. Silenced Voices That Cry in the Night: The Transformative Experience of Spouses of Wounded Warriors - Is it Transformative Learning? A Phenomenological Study. 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

Crow K. I Say Yip-Yip, You Say Ruff-Ruff: Small Dogs Lobby for Own Dog Run. New York Times. 2002;145.

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 Open
Abbreviation	BMJ Open
ISSN (online)	2044-6055
Scope	General Medicine