How to format your references using the International Surgery citation style

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

Ravallion M. Income inequality in the developing world. Science. 2014 May 23;344(6186):851–5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Moore EB, Molinero V. Structural transformation in supercooled water controls the crystallization rate of ice. Nature. 2011 Nov 23;479(7374):506–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

Branco T, Clark BA, Häusser M. Dendritic discrimination of temporal input sequences in cortical neurons. Science. 2010 Sep 24;329(5999):1671–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Corma A, Rey F, Rius J, Sabater MJ, Valencia S. Supramolecular self-assembled molecules as organic directing agent for synthesis of zeolites. Nature. 2004 Sep 16;431(7006):287–90.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Li RCH. RF Circuit Design. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2008.

An edited book

Kole C, editor. Cereals and Millets. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006. XXIII, 349 p. (Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants; vol. 1).

A chapter in an edited book

Mimura N, Shikida A, Yamao M. Policy for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Coastal Zone. In: Mimura N, editor. Asia-Pacific Coasts and Their Management: States of Environment. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2008. p. 173–253. (Haq BU, editor. Coastal Systems and Continental Margins).

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 Surgery.

Blog post

Andrew E. Marine Plankton Found On Surface Of International Space Station [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/marine-plankton-found-surface-international-space-station/

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. First-Year Implementation of the Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act in the Department of Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1984 May. Report No.: HRD-84-49.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Gamez TE. Preventing child maltreatment among children with non-resident fathers: 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

Wagner J. Cubs Slugger Admits He May Cry Over His Unlikely Return to Action. New York Times. 2016 Oct 26;B10.

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	International Surgery
Abbreviation	Int. Surg.
ISSN (print)	0020-8868
Scope	Surgery