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. Watanabe S. Slow or fast? A tale of synaptic vesicle recycling. Science. 2015;350:46–7.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Dasgupta PS, Ehrlich PR. Pervasive externalities at the population, consumption, and environment nexus. Science. 2013;340:324–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Chakraborty S, Yanchulova P, Thiemens MH. Mass-independent oxygen isotopic partitioning during gas-phase SiO2 formation. Science. 2013;342:463–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Tang F, Kauffman EJ, Novak JL, Nau JJ, Catlett NL, Weisman LS. Regulated degradation of a class V myosin receptor directs movement of the yeast vacuole. Nature. 2003;422:87–92.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Robinson MD. An Employer’s and Engineer’s Guide to the FIDIC Conditions of Contract. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons; 2013.

An edited book

1. Pawankar R, Holgate ST, Rosenwasser LJ, editors. Allergy Frontiers: Diagnosis and Health Economics. Tokyo: Springer Japan; 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Pettigrew S, Jongenelis MI. Promoting Public Health: Understanding the Limitations of Marketing Principles and the Need for Alternative Approaches. In: Plewa C, Conduit J, editors. Making a Difference Through Marketing: A Quest for Diverse Perspectives. Singapore: Springer; 2016. p. 61–72.

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. Davis J. Tens Of Thousands Of Fish Die In Yellowstone River, Prompting Authorities To Close It Down [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/tens-of-thousands-of-fish-die-in-yellowstone-river-prompting-authorities-to-close-it-down/

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. Acquisition of Automatic Data Processing Equipment. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1976 Oct. Report No.: B-115369.07.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Mac Garrigle EF. A validation of the enterprise management engineering approach to knowledge management systems engineering [Doctoral dissertation]. [Washington, DC]: George Washington 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

1. Novick SM. Elevating the Humble Wing at Sports Bars. New York Times. 2015 Dec 13;LI11.

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