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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The American Journal of 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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.
Mattick JS. Genome-sequencing anniversary. The genomic foundation is shifting. Science. 2011;331(6019):874.
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Coombs R, Georghiou L. Research and development. A new “industrial ecology.” Science. 2002;296(5567):471.
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Jeong KH, Kim J, Lee LP. Biologically inspired artificial compound eyes. Science. 2006;312(5773):557-561.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1.
Pelletier L, O’Toole E, Schwager A, Hyman AA, Müller-Reichert T. Centriole assembly in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature. 2006;444(7119):619-623.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Seagal ZM, Surnina OM. Ultrasonic Topographical and Pathotopographical Anatomy. John Wiley &;#38; Sons, Inc.; 2016.
An edited book
1.
Collins B, Bradshaw E, eds. Bowel Dysfunction: A Comprehensive Guide for Healthcare Professionals. Springer International Publishing; 2016.
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Chakravarthy S, Jiang Q. MODELING CONTINUOUS QUERIES OVER DATA STREAMS. In: Chakravarthy S, ed. Stream Data Processing: A Quality of Service Perspective: Modeling, Scheduling, Load Shedding, and Complex Event Processing. Advances in Database Systems. Springer US; 2009:49-93.

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 Surgery.

Blog post
1.
Andrews R. Ancient Pottery Reveals Mysterious Invasion Of Prehistoric Britain. IFLScience. Published May 18, 2017. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/ancient-pottery-mysterious-invasion-shook-prehistoric-britain/

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. Technology Transfer: Clearer Priorities and Greater Use of Innovative Approaches Could Increase the Effectiveness of Technology Transfer at Department of Energy Laboratories. U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1.
Nevin MJ. Addressing the Learning Outcomes and Assessment Methods Associated with Participation in Student Government Associations: A Qualitative Study of California Community Colleges. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 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
1.
Cowen T. From Colonial India, Lessons for a Changed Economy. New York Times. August 22, 2014:BU4.

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 titleThe American Journal of Surgery
AbbreviationAm. J. Surg.
ISSN (print)0002-9610
ScopeGeneral Medicine
Surgery

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