How to format your references using the European Surgery citation style

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

1. Bray D. Genomics. Molecular prodigality. Science. 2003;299:1189–90.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Haushofer J, Fehr E. On the psychology of poverty. Science. 2014;344:862–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Prieto MA, Brunetti G, Mack K-H. Particle accelerators in the hot spots of radio galaxy 3C 445, imaged with the VLT. Science. 2002;298:193–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Chen G-Y, Chen S-L, Li C-M, Chen Y-N. Examining non-locality and quantum coherent dynamics induced by a common reservoir. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2514.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. van Helvoort H. SDH/SONET Explained in Functional Models. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

1. Wierzbicki AP, Nakamori Y, editors. Creative Space: Models of Creative Processes for Knowledge Civilization Age. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Shin H, Riaz I. Detection of Vehicles and Pedestrians. In: Kim J, Shin H, editors. Algorithm & SoC Design for Automotive Vision Systems: For Smart Safe Driving System. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2014. p. 107–42.

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 Surgery.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Smartphone Microscope Diagnoses Parasitic Worm Infection [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/smartphone-microscope-diagnoses-parasitic-worm-infection/

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. Motor Vehicle Safety: Key Issues Confronting the National Advanced Driving Simulator. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1992 Aug. Report No.: RCED-92-195.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Navarro C. Advocacy services for high-risk Latino families caring for children with autism: A grant proposal [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2012.

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. Sisario B. Bill Is Passed to Ban Bots That Ticket Scalpers Use. New York Times. 2016 Dec 9;B5.

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 Surgery
Abbreviation	Eur. Surg.
ISSN (print)	1682-8631
ISSN (online)	1682-4016
Scope	Surgery

Research and Writing Guides