How to format your references using the BMC Medical Ethics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Medical Ethics. 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. Garwin R. How the mighty have fallen. Nature. 2007;449:543.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Ou X, Wu H. Impact of spin-orbit coupling on the magnetism of Sr₃MIrO₆ (M = Ni, Co). Sci Rep. 2014;4:4609.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Okuda S, Freinkman E, Kahne D. Cytoplasmic ATP hydrolysis powers transport of lipopolysaccharide across the periplasm in E. coli. Science. 2012;338:1214–7.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Choi SH, Boo SJ, Lee J-H, Kang YC. Electrochemical properties of tungsten sulfide-carbon composite microspheres prepared by spray pyrolysis. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5755.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Gerardi MH, Zimmerman MC. Wastewater Pathogens. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2004.

An edited book

1. Perales FJ, Fisher RB, editors. Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects: 4th International Conference, AMDO 2006, Port d’Andratx, Mallorca, Spain, July 11-14, 2006. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Narayana Swamy BK, Nagaraju Y. Methodological Issues in Social Science Research for Bioresource Conservation and Livelihood Development Under Global Climate Change. In: Nautiyal S, Schaldach R, Raju KV, Kaechele H, Pritchard B, Rao KS, editors. Climate Change Challenge (3C) and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building: Exploring Potential Adaptation Strategies for Bio-resource Conservation and Livelihood Development. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 65–81.

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 Medical Ethics.

Blog post

1. Carpineti A. Chicken Study Shows That Evolution Can Happen Quickly. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/chicken-study-shows-evolution-can-happens-quickly/. 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. Airline Passenger Protections: More Data and Analysis Needed to Understand Effects of Flight Delays. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2011.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Taboada-Peña R. A Self-Empowering Holistic Art-Based Model Designed to Promote Emotional Well-Being, Coping Skills, and Self-Esteem in Youth. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 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. Simon L. In the Blink of an Eye, a Vision of Disaster. New York Times. 2007;:F6.

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 Medical Ethics
Abbreviation	BMC Med. Ethics
ISSN (online)	1472-6939
Scope	Health Policy Issues, ethics and legal aspects Health(social science)