How to format your references using the BMC Nephrology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Nephrology. 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. Heintz N. Biomedicine. Ataxin-1 regulators in the spotlight. Science. 2003;301:59–60.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Schuster-Böckler B, Lehner B. Chromatin organization is a major influence on regional mutation rates in human cancer cells. Nature. 2012;488:504–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Lin S-C, Lo Y-C, Wu H. Helical assembly in the MyD88-IRAK4-IRAK2 complex in TLR/IL-1R signalling. Nature. 2010;465:885–90.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Recker M, Nee S, Bull PC, Kinyanjui S, Marsh K, Newbold C, et al. Transient cross-reactive immune responses can orchestrate antigenic variation in malaria. Nature. 2004;429:555–8.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Gray DRJM, Al-Ani DMZ. Temporomandibular Disorders. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.; 2011.

An edited book

1. Lecoq P. Inorganic Scintillators for Detector Systems: Physical Principles and Crystal Engineering. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Mau S. Who are the Globalizers? The Role of Education and Educational Elites. In: Meier L, Lange H, editors. The New Middle Classes: Globalizing Lifestyles, Consumerism and Environmental Concern. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2009. p. 65–79.

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 Nephrology.

Blog post

1. O`Callaghan J. This Is How SpaceX Plans To Land On Mars. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/space/how-spacex-plans-land-mars/. 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. Department of Education: The Eisenhower Math and Science State Grant Program. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1992.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Dinh H. A study of cell-based genetic algorithms with applications to neural networks. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 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. Oestreich JR. Verdi’s Requiem, in All Its Theatricality and Resonance. New York Times. 2016;:C4.

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 Nephrology
Abbreviation	BMC Nephrol.
ISSN (online)	1471-2369
Scope	Nephrology