How to format your references using the The Surgeon citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The Surgeon. 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

Kagan JC. Immunology. Sensing endotoxins from within. Science. 2013 Sep 13;341(6151):1184–5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Helms B, Meijer EW. Chemistry. Dendrimers at work. Science. 2006 Aug 18;313(5789):929–30.

A journal article with 3 authors

Rauzi M, Lenne PF, Lecuit T. Planar polarized actomyosin contractile flows control epithelial junction remodelling. Nature. 2010 Dec 23;468(7327):1110–4.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Miller GH, Fogel ML, Magee JW, Gagan MK, Clarke SJ, Johnson BJ. Ecosystem collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a human role in megafaunal extinction. Science. 2005 Jul 8;309(5732):287–90.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Minei I, Lucek J. MPLS-Enabled Applications. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

Chmura A. Logical Data Modeling: What it is and How to do it. Heumann JM, editor. New York, NY: Springer; 2005. XII, 228 p. (Integrated Series in Information Systems; vol. 5).

A chapter in an edited book

Jirsa VK, Ghosh A. Spontaneous brain dynamics emerges at the edge of instability. In: Steyn-Ross DA, Steyn-Ross M, editors. Modeling Phase Transitions in the Brain. New York, NY: Springer; 2010. p. 81–98.

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 Surgeon.

Blog post

Andrew D. Alcohol Is One Of The 5 Most Addictive Substances On The Planet. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016.

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. USDA Telecommunications: Strong Leadership Needed to Resolve Management Weaknesses, Achieve Savings. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1998 Jun. Report No.: AIMD-98-131.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Kolakoski M. The appeal to be heard and the trope of listening in classic film and African American literature [Doctoral dissertation]. [Tucson, AZ]: University of Arizona; 2013.

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

Hodara S. Where Art Is in the Air, and in the Ground. New York Times. 2013 Oct 20;WE9.

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 title	The Surgeon
Abbreviation	Surgeon
ISSN (print)	1479-666X
Scope	Surgery