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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Canadian 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:

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

Weaire D. Applied physics. A fresh start for foam physics. Science. 2013 May 10;340(6133):693–4.

A journal article with 2 authors

Barouch DH, Deeks SG. Immunologic strategies for HIV-1 remission and eradication. Science. 2014 Jul 11;345(6193):169–74.

A journal article with 3 authors

Krupic J, Burgess N, O’Keefe J. Neural representations of location composed of spatially periodic bands. Science. 2012 Aug 17;337(6096):853–7.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Yazaki-Sugiyama Y, Kang S, Câteau H, Fukai T, Hensch TK. Bidirectional plasticity in fast-spiking GABA circuits by visual experience. Nature. 2009 Nov 12;462(7270):218–21.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Eichhorn MP. Natural Systems. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2016.

An edited book

Zurlo F. Designing Pilot Projects as Boundary Objects: A Brazilian Case Study in the Promotion of Sustainable Design. 1st ed. 2016. Nunes V dos GA, editor. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. XIV, 112 p. 15 illus. in color. (SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology).

A chapter in an edited book

Aptekar L, Stoecklin D. Programs: Typical and Exemplary. In: Stoecklin D, editor. Street Children and Homeless Youth: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2014. p. 163–216.

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 Canadian Journal of Surgery.

Blog post

Evans K. One Delicious Combination Will Boost Attention Better Than Any Other Drink, Says Study. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2017.

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. Space Exploration: Cost, Schedule, and Performance of NASA’s Magellan Mission to Venus. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1988 May. Report No.: NSIAD-88-130FS.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Roberts S. The Other Side of Adversity: Surviving a Destructive Leader Experience [Doctoral dissertation]. [Washington, DC]: George Washington University; 2019.

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

Williams J. Outside The Bars. New York Times. 2016 Aug 21;BR4.

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	Canadian Journal of Surgery
Abbreviation	Can. J. Surg.
ISSN (print)	0008-428X
ISSN (online)	1488-2310
Scope	Surgery

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