How to format your references using the Surgical Case Reports citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Surgical Case Reports. 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. Dalvit DAR. Quantum physics: shaking photons out of the vacuum. Nature. 2011;479:303–4.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Abrams NE, Primack JR. Essays on science and society. Cosmology and 21st-century culture. Science. 2001;293:1769–70.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Goossen LJ, Deng G, Levy LM. Synthesis of biaryls via catalytic decarboxylative coupling. Science. 2006;313:662–4.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Lev-Yadun S, Ne’eman G, Abbo S, Flaishman MA. Comment on “Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley.” Science. 2006;314:1683; author reply 1683.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Mallée R, Fuchs W, Eligehausen R. Design of Fastenings for Use in Concrete - the CEN/TS 1992-4 Provisions. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2013.

An edited book

1. Zheng R. Sequential Learning and Decision-Making in Wireless Resource Management. Hua C, editor. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Knaster S, Malik W, Dalrymple M. Inheritance. In: Malik W, Dalrymple M, editors. Learn Objective-C on the Mac: For iOS and OS X. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2012. p. 53–65.

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 Surgical Case Reports.

Blog post

1. Hale T. 50 Years Ago, We Were Taking The First Photos From The Moon [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/50-years-ago-we-were-taking-the-first-photos-from-the-moon/

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. Federal Research and Development: Contributions to and Results of the Small Business Technology Transfer Program. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2001 Jun. Report No.: GAO-01-766R.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Reynolds PE. Learning the Ropes: A Grounded Theory Study of Children Crossing Cultures [Doctoral dissertation]. [Scottsdale, AZ]: Northcentral 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. Vecsey G. Alchemists Needed for Mets’ Golden Anniversary. New York Times. 2012 Apr 1;SP9.

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	Surgical Case Reports
Abbreviation	Surg. Case Rep.
ISSN (online)	2198-7793
Scope

Research and Writing Guides