How to format your references using the British Journal of Biomedical Science citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for British Journal of Biomedical Science. 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

Macilwain C. Thrill of space exploration is a universal constant. Nature. 2013 Nov 21;503(7476):313.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sharp MD, Pogliano K. Role of cell-specific SpoIIIE assembly in polarity of DNA transfer. Science. 2002 Jan 4;295(5552):137–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bartels T, Choi JG, Selkoe DJ. α-Synuclein occurs physiologically as a helically folded tetramer that resists aggregation. Nature. 2011 Aug 14;477(7362):107–10.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Cole MT, Teo KBK, Groening O, Gangloff L, Legagneux P, Milne WI. Deterministic cold cathode electron emission from carbon nanofibre arrays. Sci Rep. 2014 May 2;4:4840.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Kula G, Raab M, Stahn S. Beyond Smart Beta. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2017.

An edited book

Chung KI, Sohn K, Yung M, editors. Information Security Applications: 9th International Workshop, WISA 2008, Jeju Island, Korea, September 23-25, 2008, Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009. XI, 334 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; vol. 5379).

A chapter in an edited book

Poso S. Change Monitoring with Permanent Sample Plots. In: Kangas A, Maltamo M, editors. Forest Inventory: Methodology and Applications. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2006. p. 65–84. (Managing Forest Ecosystems).

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 British Journal of Biomedical Science.

Blog post

Andrews R. Can You Pass A High School Health Class Quiz On Nutrition? [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/high-school-health-class-quiz-nutrition/

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. H.R. 13343, a Bill To Establish a Department of Education, and for Other Purposes. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1978 Aug. Report No.: B-149737.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Labelle DA. Perceived barriers to recruitment and retention in rural healthcare sectors: A physical therapist narrative inquiry [Doctoral dissertation]. [Phoenix, AZ]: University of Phoenix; 2012.

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 C. For Many, Thrift Shops Are a Wardrobe Essential. New York Times. 2008 Apr 26;C6.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	British Journal of Biomedical Science
Abbreviation	Br. J. Biomed. Sci.
ISSN (print)	0967-4845
Scope	Clinical Biochemistry Immunology Microbiology Biochemistry, medical Immunology and Allergy Infectious Diseases Microbiology (medical)