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

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

1. Levitt P. Neuroscience. Sealing cortical cell fate. Science. 2004;303:48–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Boller T, He SY. Innate immunity in plants: an arms race between pattern recognition receptors in plants and effectors in microbial pathogens. Science. 2009;324:742–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Hua W, Chung J, Gelles J. Distinguishing inchworm and hand-over-hand processive kinesin movement by neck rotation measurements. Science. 2002;295:844–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Sussan TE, Yang A, Li F, Ostrowski MC, Reeves RH. Trisomy represses Apc(Min)-mediated tumours in mouse models of Down’s syndrome. Nature. 2008;451:73–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Zhong Q-C, Hornik T. Control of Power Inverters in Renewable Energy and Smart Grid Integration. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.; 2012.

An edited book

1. Balks MR. Celebrating Soil: Discovering Soils and Landscapes. Zabowski D, editor. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Bushek D, Allen DM. Motile Suspension-Feeders in Estuarine and Marine Ecosystems. In: Dame RF, Olenin S, editors. The Comparative Roles of Suspension-Feeders in Ecosystems: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on The Comparative Roles of Suspension-Feeders in Ecosystems Nida, Lithuania 4–9 October 2003. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2005. p. 53–71.

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 Journal of Biomedical Semantics.

Blog post

1. Luntz S. Lack Of Risk-Taking In Scientific Research Is Hurting Progress [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/cautious-topic-choice-hurting-science/

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

1. Government Accountability Office. Space Transportation: Status of the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Program. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1999 Aug. Report No.: NSIAD-99-176.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Mahiko J. Community Connections: Supporting Rural Youth with Disabilities Who Are Work-Bound [Doctoral dissertation]. [Minneapolis, MN]: Capella University; 2017.

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

1. Werdigier J. BP Says Talks With Venture Investors Continue. New York Times. 2008 Jun 12;C2.

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	Journal of Biomedical Semantics
Abbreviation	J. Biomed. Semantics
ISSN (online)	2041-1480
Scope