How to format your references using the Surgery Today citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Surgery Today. 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. Ley RE. The gene-microbe link. Nature. 2015;518:S7.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Leeb M, Wutz A. Derivation of haploid embryonic stem cells from mouse embryos. Nature. 2011;479:131–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Furlong KP, Lay T, Ammon CJ. A great earthquake rupture across a rapidly evolving three-plate boundary. Science. 2009;324:226–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Zagoskin AM, Wilson RD, Everitt M, Savel’ev S, Gulevich DR, Allen J, et al. Spatially resolved single photon detection with a quantum sensor array. Sci Rep. 2013;3:3464.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Stack T, Ostrom LT, Wilhelmsen CA. Occupational Ergonomics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2016.

An edited book

1. Artmann GM, Minger S, Hescheler J, editors. Stem Cell Engineering: Principles and Applications. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Komatineni S, MacLean D. Understanding Content Providers. In: MacLean D, editor. Pro Android 4. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2012. p. 79–112.

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 Surgery Today.

Blog post

1. Fang J. Iceland Volcano Erupts After Weeks of Unrest [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/iceland-volcano-erupts-after-weeks-unrest/

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. Space Acquisitions: Committing Prematurely to the Transformational Satellite Program Elevates Risks for Poor Cost, Schedule, and Performance Outcomes. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2003 Dec. Report No.: GAO-04-71R.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Forget MA. Tumor Angiogenesis is all Tied up in Tie2-Expressing Macrophages [Doctoral dissertation]. [Columbus, OH]: Ohio State University; 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

1. Steven Lee Myers;, Joyce H. Man contributed reporting for this article. Emphasizing Creativity, Not Collectivity. New York Times. 2005 Feb 5;B7.

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	Surgery Today
Abbreviation	Surg. Today
ISSN (print)	0941-1291
ISSN (online)	1436-2813
Scope	General Medicine Surgery