How to format your references using the BMC Biophysics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Biophysics. 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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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. Kuhn NJ. Learn lateral thinking first and specialize later. Nature. 2000;404:542.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Mabuchi H, Doherty AC. Cavity quantum electrodynamics: coherence in context. Science. 2002;298:1372–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Sommer MOA, Dantas G, Church GM. Functional characterization of the antibiotic resistance reservoir in the human microflora. Science. 2009;325:1128–31.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Vogeley L, Sineshchekov OA, Trivedi VD, Sasaki J, Spudich JL, Luecke H. Anabaena sensory rhodopsin: a photochromic color sensor at 2.0 A. Science. 2004;306:1390–3.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Lemma A. Introduction to the Practice of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2008.

An edited book

1. Lindquist JD, editor. Proceedings of the 1984 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Tile M. Fractures of the Proximal Humerus. In: Tile M, editor. The Rationale of Operative Fracture Care. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2005. p. 57–89.

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 BMC Biophysics.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Watch As The Moon “Photobombs” A NASA Satellite’s View Of Earth. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/space/watch-as-the-moon-photobombs-a-nasa-satellites-view-of-earth/. 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

1. Government Accountability Office. Performance and Accountability: Challenges Facing the Department of Transportation. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2001.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Wizda LL. A case study of online peer coaching of consultant communication skill development. Doctoral dissertation. University of Maryland, College Park; 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

1. Walsh MW. Hispanic Contingent in Congress Asks Treasury to Prevent ‘Catastrophe’ in Puerto Rico. New York Times. 2015;:B3.

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	BMC Biophysics
Abbreviation	BMC Biophys.
ISSN (online)	2046-1682
Scope	Biophysics