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

Wellman B. Computer networks as social networks. Science. 2001 Sep 14;293(5537):2031–4.

A journal article with 2 authors

Gorin DJ, Toste FD. Relativistic effects in homogeneous gold catalysis. Nature. 2007 Mar 22;446(7134):395–403.

A journal article with 3 authors

London AJ, Parker LS, Aronson JD. Public health. DNA identification after conflict or disaster. Science. 2013 Sep 13;341(6151):1178–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Georgiou G, Tyagi HK, Mulder P, Bauhuis GJ, Schermer JJ, Rivas JG. Photo-generated THz antennas. Sci Rep. 2014 Jan 7;4:3584.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Boussabaine A. Risk Pricing Strategies for Public-Private Partnerships Projects. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons; 2013.

An edited book

Allen R. Windows Server 2003 Networking Recipes. Hunter LE, Dinerman BJ, editors. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2006. XX, 440 p.

A chapter in an edited book

Smith CAS. Assessing Academic STEM Women’s Sense of Isolation in the Workplace. In: Gilmer PJ, Tansel B, Miller MH, editors. Alliances for Advancing Academic Women: Guidelines for Collaborating in STEM Fields. Rotterdam: SensePublishers; 2014. p. 97–117.

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; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Survey Identifies Hundreds Of Previously Unknown Jets From Young Stars. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/survey-identifies-hundreds-previously-unknown-jets-young-stars/

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. Private Management of Public Schools: Early Experiences in Four School Districts. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1996 Apr. Report No.: HEHS-96-3.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Canan D. Action Research Study on the Gradual Release of Responsibility, Critical Thinking Skills and Use of Intertextuality in a Midwest Suburban High School Setting [Doctoral dissertation]. [ St. Charles, MO]: Lindenwood University; 2016.

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

Rothenberg B. It’s Jelena Ostapenko on Her ID, and Alona to Those in the Know. New York Times. 2017 Jul 8;SP7.

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