How to format your references using the European Spine Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for European Spine 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

Leonard KE (2015) Perspective: Beyond the neural circuits. Nature 522:S56

A journal article with 2 authors

Hwang J, Druffel ERM (2003) Lipid-like material as the source of the uncharacterized organic carbon in the ocean? Science 299:881–884

A journal article with 3 authors

Brunton BW, Botvinick MM, Brody CD (2013) Rats and humans can optimally accumulate evidence for decision-making. Science 340:95–98

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Ogawa M, Yoshimori T, Suzuki T, et al (2005) Escape of intracellular Shigella from autophagy. Science 307:727–731

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Goering H, Roos H-G, Tobiska L (2010) Die Finite-Elemente-Methode für Anfänger. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany

An edited book

Jevtić M (2016) Taylor Coefficients and Coefficient Multipliers of Hardy and Bergman-Type Spaces. Springer International Publishing, Cham

A chapter in an edited book

Saeed A, Abubakar M, Kul O (2015) Modification of Animal Products for Fat and Other Characteristics. In: Abubakar M, Saeed A, Kul O (eds) The Role of Biotechnology in Improvement of Livestock: Animal Health and Biotechnology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 55–89

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 European Spine Journal.

Blog post

Luntz S (2015) Flexible Implant Restores Rodent Mobility To Paralyzed Rats. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/flexible-implant-restores-rodent-mobility/. Accessed 30 Oct 2018

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 (2010) High Speed Rail: Learning From Service Start-ups, Prospects for Increased Industry Investment, and Federal Oversight Plans. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Ratzlaff K (2012) Dynamics of chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) infection in amphibians in the Rincon Mountains and Tucson, Arizona. Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona

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

Grynbaum MM, Koblin J (2016) Fox Settles Sex Harassment Suit as Another Host Abruptly Exits. New York Times A1

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

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	European Spine Journal
Abbreviation	Eur. Spine J.
ISSN (print)	0940-6719
ISSN (online)	1432-0932
Scope	Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Surgery