How to format your references using the AORN Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for AORN Journal. 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 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

Petherick A. Campaigning for Chagas disease. Nature. 2010;465(7301):S21-2.

A journal article with 2 authors

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

Fuerstman MJ, Garstecki P, Whitesides GM. Coding/decoding and reversibility of droplet trains in microfluidic networks. Science. 2007;315(5813):828-832.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Kang HJ, Coulibaly F, Clow F, Proft T, Baker EN. Stabilizing isopeptide bonds revealed in gram-positive bacterial pilus structure. Science. 2007;318(5856):1625-1628.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Brillson LJ. An Essential Guide to Electronic Material Surfaces and Interfaces. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2016.

An edited book

Bodvarsson ÖB. The Economics of Immigration: Theory and Policy. 2nd ed. 2013. (Van den Berg H, ed.). Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

Zielinska T. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543). In: Ceccarelli M, ed. Distinguished Figures in Mechanism and Machine Science: Their Contributions and Legacies Part 1. History of Mechanism and Machine Science. Springer Netherlands; 2007:117-134.

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 AORN Journal.

Blog post

Andrew E. Video shows that seahorses are master assassins of the ocean. IFLScience. Published December 11, 2013. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/video-shows-seahorses-are-master-assassins-ocean/

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. Federal Communications Commission: Use of the 28 GHz and 31 GHz Bands for Local Multipoint Distribution Service. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Garibay O. Towards a Hybrid Approach to Mariachi Education - Bridging the Gap between Formal and Informal Transmission of Musical Culture. 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

Walsh MW. Untouchable Pensions May Be Tested in California. New York Times. March 17, 2012:B1.

In-text citations

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

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	AORN Journal
Abbreviation	AORN J.
ISSN (print)	0001-2092
Scope	Medical–Surgical