How to format your references using the British Journal of Surgery citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for British Journal of Surgery. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
1
Hansen B. A bright future for dark matter. Nature. 2000 Jan 6; 403: 30–31.
A journal article with 2 authors
1
Satheesh SK, Ramanathan V V. Large differences in tropical aerosol forcing at the top of the atmosphere and Earth’s surface. Nature. 2000 May 4; 405: 60–63.
A journal article with 3 authors
1
Marshall CH, Pielke RA Sr, Steyaert LT. Wetlands: crop freezes and land-use change in Florida. Nature. 2003 Nov 6; 426: 29–30.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1
Mattsson J, Wyss HM, Fernandez-Nieves A, Miyazaki K, Hu Z, Reichman DR, et al. Soft colloids make strong glasses. Nature. 2009 Nov 5; 462: 83–86.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1
Lipiansky E. Electrical, Electronics, and Digital Hardware Essentials for Scientists and Engineers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2012.
An edited book
1
Lawrenz W, editor. CAN System Engineering: From Theory to Practical Applications. 2nd ed. 2013. London: Springer; 2013.
A chapter in an edited book
1
Cristea IA, Stefan S, David O, Mogoase C, Dobrean A. Rational Stories for Children. A Rational Emotive Education Protocol for Approaching Anxiety in Children and Adolescents Based on the Stories Book The Retmagic and Wonderful Adventures of Retman. In: Stefan S, David O, Mogoase C, Dobrean A, editors. REBT in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adults. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 69–79.

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 British Journal of Surgery.

Blog post
1
Andrew E. Junk Food Rats Ditch Balanced Diet To Eat Just Like Obese People [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/brain/junk-food-rats-ditch-balanced-diet-eat-just-obese-people/

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. Use of Computers by Firms Providing Architect-Engineer Services to Federal Agencies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1980 Oct. Report No.: LCD-81-2.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1
Robertson M. Respite efficacy for parents of adults with intellectual disabilities: An ethnographic perspective [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: 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
Walsh MW. Steps Toward Settling Puerto Rico’s Debt. New York Times. 2016 Feb 16; B3.

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 titleBritish Journal of Surgery
AbbreviationBr. J. Surg.
ISSN (print)0007-1323
ScopeSurgery

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