How to format your references using the Journal of Surgical Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Surgical Research. 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

Nieto MA. Epithelial plasticity: a common theme in embryonic and cancer cells. Science. 2013;342(6159):1234850.

A journal article with 2 authors

Postma E, van Noordwijk AJ. Gene flow maintains a large genetic difference in clutch size at a small spatial scale. Nature. 2005;433(7021):65-68.

A journal article with 3 authors

Noda S, Chutinan A, Imada M. Trapping and emission of photons by a single defect in a photonic bandgap structure. Nature. 2000;407(6804):608-610.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Zeng BJ, Huang JZ, Ni RW, et al. Metallic resist for phase-change lithography. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5300.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Adam C. Forensic Evidence in Court. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2016.

An edited book

Garcia JL, ed. Pierre Musso and the Network Society: From Saint-Simonianism to the Internet. Vol 27. Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

Volkmann CK, Tokarski KO, Grünhagen M. Organization and Personnel. In: Tokarski KO, Grünhagen M, eds. Entrepreneurship in a European Perspective: Concepts for the Creation and Growth of New Ventures. Gabler; 2010:243-281.

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 Journal of Surgical Research.

Blog post

Andrews R. Boaty McBoatface Is Ready For Its First Big Antarctic Adventure. IFLScience. March 13, 2017. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/boaty-mcboatface-ready-first-big-antarctic-adventure/

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. Medicare: New Claims Processing System Benefits and Acquisition Risks. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1994.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Wuite J. Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Three East Antarctic Outlet Glaciers and Their Floating Ice Tongues. Doctoral dissertation. Ohio State University; 2006.

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. Seven More Call-Ups, Four Homers and a Victory. New York Times. September 7, 2016: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	Journal of Surgical Research
Abbreviation	J. Surg. Res.
ISSN (print)	0022-4804
Scope	Surgery