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

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

Zinner E. Planetary science. An isotopic view of the early solar system. Science. 2003;300(5617):265-267.

A journal article with 2 authors

Yin YW, Steitz TA. Structural basis for the transition from initiation to elongation transcription in T7 RNA polymerase. Science. 2002;298(5597):1387-1395.

A journal article with 3 authors

Lind PA, Berg OG, Andersson DI. Mutational robustness of ribosomal protein genes. Science. 2010;330(6005):825-827.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Janecka JE, Miller W, Pringle TH, et al. Molecular and genomic data identify the closest living relative of primates. Science. 2007;318(5851):792-794.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Schwartz R. Rethinking Pragmatism. Wiley-Blackwell; 2012.

An edited book

Khojasteh SC. Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics Quick Guide. (Wong H, Hop CECA, eds.). Springer; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Lazenby AJ. Diverticular Colitis. In: Chhieng DC, Siegal GP, eds. Updates in Diagnostic Pathology. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Springer US; 2005:30-34.

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 Spine Surgery.

Blog post

Carpineti A. Chaotic Orbit Of Halley’s Comet Explained. IFLScience. July 1, 2016. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/space/chaotic-orbit-of-halleys-comet-explained/

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 Research: Lessons Learned from the Pilot Technology Access Program. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1995.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Rogers SL. Fear of Cancer and Theory of Planned Behavior as Predictors of Pap Screenings. Doctoral dissertation. Northcentral University; 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

Crow K. The Student, the Sleuth and the Mysterious Pillow. New York Times. September 17, 2000:141.

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 Spine Surgery
Abbreviation	Semin. Spine Surg.
ISSN (print)	1040-7383
Scope	Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Surgery