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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for International Journal of Surgery Open. 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]

Burgess D. Taking on that first faculty job. Nature 2007;447:1142.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Thompson WG, Goldstein SL. Open-system coral ages reveal persistent suborbital sea-level cycles. Science 2005;308:401–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Tayagaki T, Hoshi Y, Usami N. Investigation of the open-circuit voltage in solar cells doped with quantum dots. Sci Rep 2013;3:2703.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Wohlschlegel JA, Dwyer BT, Dhar SK, Cvetic C, Walter JC, Dutta A. Inhibition of eukaryotic DNA replication by geminin binding to Cdt1. Science 2000;290:2309–12.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Jarry P, Beneat J. Advanced Design Techniques and Realizations of Microwave and RF Filters. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2007.

An edited book

[1]

Li M, Zhao Y, editors. Exploring Learning & Teaching in Higher Education. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Murakami D, Yamagata Y. Flood Risk Management in Cities. In: Yamagata Y, Maruyama H, editors. Urban Resilience: A Transformative Approach, Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016, p. 63–77.

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 International Journal of Surgery Open.

Blog post

[1]

Hamilton K. Virtual Reality Tech May Make “Going Shopping’ In Real Life A Thing Of The Past. IFLScience 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/virtual-reality-tech-may-make-going-shopping-in-real-life-a-thing-of-the-past/ (accessed October 30, 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

[1]

Government Accountability Office. Computer Operations: FAA Needs to Implement an Effective Capacity Management Program. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1991.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Thom RC. Digital Martyrs and Shadowless Assailants: The Projective Shadow’s Emergence in Cyberspace. Doctoral dissertation. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 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

[1]

Vecsey G. Empty Gray Gives Way to Blues and Boos, Just Like Before. New York Times 2010:D7.

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	International Journal of Surgery Open
Abbreviation	Int. J. Surg. Open
ISSN (print)	2405-8572
Scope