How to format your references using the BMC Developmental Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Developmental Biology. 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	Download the output style file
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. Cochrane MA. Fire science for rainforests. Nature. 2003;421:913–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Bowles S, Posel D. Genetic relatedness predicts South African migrant workers’ remittances to their families. Nature. 2005;434:380–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Stunnenberg HG, Vermeulen M, Atlasi Y. Developmental biology. A Me6Age for pluripotency. Science. 2015;347:614–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Selman C, Lingard S, Gems D, Partridge L, Withers DJ. Comment on “Brain IRS2 signaling coordinates life span and nutrient homeostasis.” Science. 2008;320:1012; author reply 1012.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Stenholm S, Suominen K-A. Quantum Approach to Informatics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2005.

An edited book

1. Hawksworth DL, Bull AT, editors. Forest Diversity and Management. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Hu H, Li J, Chen H. Qualitative Interview for Chinese Medicine Research: Challenges and Prospects. In: Leung S-W, Hu H, editors. Evidence-based Research Methods for Chinese Medicine. Singapore: Springer; 2016. p. 65–77.

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 Developmental Biology.

Blog post

1. Luntz S. Brain Injury Releases Astonishing Mathematical Powers. IFLScience. 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/brain/brain-injury-releases-astonishing-mathematical-powers/. 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. Credit Reporting Literacy Survey Data, an E-supplement to GAO-05-223. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2005.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Glassett Farrelly S. Understanding Alternative Education: A Mixed Methods Examination of Student Experiences. Doctoral dissertation. University of California San Diego; 2013.

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. Vecsey G. A 96-Team Tournament? Now That’s Madness. New York Times. 2010;:SP6.

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 Developmental Biology
Abbreviation	BMC Dev. Biol.
ISSN (online)	1471-213X
Scope	Developmental Biology