How to format your references using the BMJ Open Respiratory Research citation style

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

Le Bot N. Developmental biology: Earn your wings. Nature 2015;519:420.

A journal article with 2 authors

McPherson MS, Schapiro MO. Education. Funding roller coaster for public higher education. Science 2003;302:1157.

A journal article with 3 authors

Kayser MS, Yue Z, Sehgal A. A critical period of sleep for development of courtship circuitry and behavior in Drosophila. Science 2014;344:269–74.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Nakatsu T, Ichiyama S, Hiratake J, et al. Structural basis for the spectral difference in luciferase bioluminescence. Nature 2006;440:372–6.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Dewe PJ, O’Driscoll MP, Cooper CL. Coping with Work Stress. Chichester, UK: : John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 2010.

An edited book

Hãkansson A, Hartung R, Nguyen NT, editors. Agent and Multi-agent Technology for Internet and Enterprise Systems. Berlin, Heidelberg: : Springer 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

de Morais WO, Lundström J, Wickström N. A Database-Centric Architecture for Home-Based Health Monitoring. In: Nugent C, Coronato A, Bravo J, eds. Ambient Assisted Living and Active Aging: 5th International Work-Conference, IWAAL 2013, Carrillo, Costa Rica, December 2-6, 2013, Proceedings. Cham: : Springer International Publishing 2013. 26–34.

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 Respiratory Research.

Blog post

Andrew E. Molecules of noble gases have been discovered in space. IFLScience. 2013.https://www.iflscience.com/space/molecules-noble-gases-have-been-discovered-space/ (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

Government Accountability Office. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites: Progress Has Been Made, but Improvements Are Needed to Effectively Manage Risks. Washington, DC: : U.S. Government Printing Office 2007.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Russo RA. Using a socio -cultural framework to evaluate farmland preservation policy success in Maryland. 2009.

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

Kelly M. Clinton’s Chief of Staff Ponders Undefined Post. New York Times. 1992;:B6.

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 Respiratory Research
Abbreviation	BMJ Open Respir. Res.
ISSN (online)	2052-4439
Scope

Research and Writing Guides