How to format your references using the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 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 references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles 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

Sharma P. Physics. How to create a spin current. Science. 2005 Jan 28;307(5709):531–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sarkies P, Miska EA. Molecular biology. Is there social RNA? Science. 2013 Aug 2;341(6145):467–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

Pickrell JK, Gilad Y, Pritchard JK. Comment on “Widespread RNA and DNA sequence differences in the human transcriptome.” Science. 2012 Mar 16;335(6074):1302; author reply 1302.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Porras G, De Deurwaerdere P, Li Q, Marti M, Morgenstern R, Sohr R, et al. L-dopa-induced dyskinesia: beyond an excessive dopamine tone in the striatum. Sci Rep. 2014 Jan 16;4:3730.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Lalanne C. Fatigue Damage. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

Fischer MM, Nijkamp P, editors. Handbook of Regional Science. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2014. 219 illus., 86 illus. in color. eReference.

A chapter in an edited book

Wentz B, Cirba M, Kharal N, Moran J, Slate M. Evaluating the Accessibility and Usability of Blogging Platforms for Blind Users. In: Langdon P, Clarkson J, Robinson P, Lazar J, Heylighen A, editors. Designing Inclusive Systems: Designing Inclusion for Real-world Applications. London: Springer; 2012. p. 43–52.

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 Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Blog post

Andrew E. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Carcass Of Extremely Rare Megamouth Shark Washes Ashore In The Philippines. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/carcass-extremely-rare-megamouth-shark-washes-ashore-philippines/

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

Government Accountability Office. Global Positioning System: Significant Challenges in Sustaining and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009 May. Report No.: GAO-09-670T.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Uzan E. Secondary Mathematics Pre-Service Teachers’ Processes of Selection and Integration of Technology [Doctoral dissertation]. [Bloomington, IN]: Indiana University; 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

Kishkovsky S. Muscovites Replace “This Old House” With “Changing Rooms.” New York Times. 2003 Oct 12;92.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Abbreviation	Ann. R. Coll. Surg. Engl.
ISSN (print)	0035-8843
ISSN (online)	1478-7083
Scope	General Medicine Surgery