How to format your references using the Seminars in Pediatric Surgery citation style

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

Macilwain C. World view: disaster, unmitigated. Nature. 2010;465(7296):287.

A journal article with 2 authors

Shields GA, Kasting JF. Palaeoclimatology: evidence for hot early oceans? Nature. 2007;447(7140):E1; discussion E1-2.

A journal article with 3 authors

Friedberg EC, Wagner R, Radman M. Specialized DNA polymerases, cellular survival, and the genesis of mutations. Science. 2002;296(5573):1627-1630.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Mills EL, Pierce KA, Jedrychowski MP, et al. Accumulation of succinate controls activation of adipose tissue thermogenesis. Nature. 2018;560(7716):102-106.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Nedoma J, Stehlík J, Hlaváček I, Daněk J, Dostálová T, Přečková P. Mathematical and Computational Methods in Biomechanics of Human Skeletal Systems. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2011.

An edited book

Nicolescu G, O’Connor I, Piguet C, eds. Design Technology for Heterogeneous Embedded Systems. Springer Netherlands; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

Havskov J, Alguacil G. Seismic Recorders. In: Alguacil G, ed. Instrumentation in Earthquake Seismology. Springer International Publishing; 2016:149-196.

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 Seminars in Pediatric Surgery.

Blog post

Taub B. Gene Editing Saves The Life Of Baby Girl With Terminal Cancer. IFLScience. November 6, 2015. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/baby-girl-has-terminal-cancer-reversed-using-gene-edited-immune-cells/

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. Federal Aviation Administration: Financial Management Issues. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1999.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Aguirre BL. The Rise in Pharmaceutical Drug Abuse among American Adolescents. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2010.

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

Kenigsberg B. Moscow Never Sleeps. New York Times. June 8, 2017:C9.

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	Seminars in Pediatric Surgery
Abbreviation	Semin. Pediatr. Surg.
ISSN (print)	1055-8586
Scope	Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health Surgery