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

Simon JA. Transcription. Sweet silencing. Science. 2009 Jul 3;325(5936):45–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

Krishnan R, Lindquist SL. Structural insights into a yeast prion illuminate nucleation and strain diversity. Nature. 2005 Jun 9;435(7043):765–72.

A journal article with 3 authors

Chen A, Wang S, Pacala SW. Comment on “Global correlations in tropical tree species richness and abundance reject neutrality.” Science. 2012 Jun 29;336(6089):1639; author reply 1639.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Fumagalli L, Esfandiar A, Fabregas R, Hu S, Ares P, Janardanan A, et al. Anomalously low dielectric constant of confined water. Science. 2018 Jun 22;360(6395):1339–42.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Kühn V. Wireless Communications over MIMO Channels. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

LeRoith D, editor. Insulin-like Growth Factors and Cancer: From Basic Biology to Therapeutics. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2012. XII, 284 p. (Cancer Drug Discovery and Development).

A chapter in an edited book

Simoff MJ. Quality Control Mechanism for Endoscopic Procedures. In: Ernst A, Herth FJF, editors. Principles and Practice of Interventional Pulmonology. New York, NY: Springer; 2013. p. 49–62.

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

Andrew E. Elephant Herd Teams Up To Rescue Baby [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/watch-mother-elephant-saves-her-drowning-baby/

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. Telecommunications: States’ Collection and Use of Funds for Wireless Enhanced 911 Services. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2006 Mar. Report No.: GAO-06-338.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Duberstein JN. The shape of the commons: Social networks and the conservation of small-scale fisheries in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico [Doctoral dissertation]. [Tucson, AZ]: University of Arizona; 2010.

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

Vecsey G. In Yanks-Phillies Rivalry, a Wife May Have Been the Key Player. New York Times. 2011 Feb 27;SP3.

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)

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