How to format your references using the The American Journal of Gastroenterology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The American Journal of Gastroenterology (AJG). 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

Dijkstra JM. TH2 and Treg candidate genes in elephant shark. Nature 2014;511:E7-9.

A journal article with 2 authors

Frenking G, Holzmann N. Chemistry. A boron-boron triple bond. Science 2012;336:1394–1395.

A journal article with 3 authors

Osawa M, Anderson DE, Erickson HP. Reconstitution of contractile FtsZ rings in liposomes. Science 2008;320:792–794.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Seehawer M, Heinzmann F, D’Artista L, et al. Necroptosis microenvironment directs lineage commitment in liver cancer. Nature 2018;562:69–75.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Sadati N, Dumont GA, Hamed KA, et al. Hybrid Control and Motion Planning of Dynamical Legged Locomotion. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2012.

An edited book

ICoRD’15 – Research into Design Across Boundaries Volume 1: Theory, Research Methodology, Aesthetics, Human Factors and Education. New Delhi: Springer India; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

Zatt B, Shafique M, Bampi S, et al. Energy-Efficient Architectures for Multiview Video Coding. In: Shafique M, Bampi S, Henkel J, editor(s). 3D Video Coding for Embedded Devices: Energy Efficient Algorithms and Architectures. New York, NY: Springer; 2013. p. 127–150.

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 The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Blog post

Davis J. Vast Annual Migration Of Insects Across The UK Recorded At High Altitude [Internet]. IFLScience 2016;[cited 2018 Oct 30] Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/vast-annual-migration-of-insects-across-the-uk-recorded-at-high-altitude/

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. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites: Improvements Needed in Continuity Planning and Involvement of Key Users. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2010.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Broussard J. An Analysis of Corporal Punishment Practices in the State of Georgia. 2014;

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

Pilon M. Awash in an Olympics Afterglow, but Still Remote. New York Times 2014;TR7.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	The American Journal of Gastroenterology
Abbreviation	Am. J. Gastroenterol.
ISSN (print)	0002-9270
ISSN (online)	1572-0241
Scope	Gastroenterology Hepatology