How to format your references using the BMC Obesity citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Obesity. 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. Macilwain C. Scottish science is ready to go it alone. Nature. 2013;493:579.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Backwell PRY, Jennions MD. Animal behaviour: coalition among male fiddler crabs. Nature. 2004;430:417.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Sampat BN, Shadlen KC, Amin TM. Intellectual property. Challenges to India’s pharmaceutical patent laws. Science. 2012;337:414–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Fellay J, Thompson AJ, Ge D, Gumbs CE, Urban TJ, Shianna KV, et al. ITPA gene variants protect against anaemia in patients treated for chronic hepatitis C. Nature. 2010;464:405–8.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Ness L. Securing Utility and Energy Infrastructures. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2006.

An edited book

1. Louveaux Q, Skutella M, editors. Integer Programming and Combinatorial Optimization: 18th International Conference, IPCO 2016, Liège, Belgium, June 1-3, 2016, Proceedings. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Barkmann J, Hillmann BM, Marggraf R. The Research Unit RU 816: Overall Approach in the Light of the Ecosystem Services Concept. In: Bendix J, Beck E, Bräuning A, Makeschin F, Mosandl R, Scheu S, et al., editors. Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity and Environmental Change in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem of South Ecuador. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. p. 41–9.

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 Obesity.

Blog post

1. Hale T. 900 Million Android Devices Could Be Vulnerable To Hackers Due To A Bug. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/900-million-android-devices-could-be-vulnerable-to-hackers-due-to-a-bug/. 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. Truck Safety: Information on Driver Training. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1989.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Szurley JC. The use of edge detection techniques to analyze thoracoabdominal movement and infer breathing volume. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 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. Otis J. For the First Time, She Hears the Birds Chirp And the Wind Whistle. New York Times. 2017;:A19.

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 Obesity
Abbreviation	BMC Obes.
ISSN (online)	2052-9538
Scope