Citation Policy

Proper citation is fundamental to research integrity — it credits prior work accurately, allows readers to trace the evidence behind a claim, and protects the scientific record from misrepresentation. Anesthesiology (AOJ) requires all submitted manuscripts to follow the citation standards outlined below.

Citation Format

AOJ uses a numbered citation style, consistent with standard biomedical publishing conventions. References are numbered sequentially in the order they first appear in the text, and the numbered reference list at the end of the manuscript follows the ICMJE recommended reference format (based on the NLM/Vancouver style), consistent with the journal's Author Guidelines.

Accuracy of Citations

Authors are responsible for verifying that every cited source is real, accurately represents the claim being made, and has been correctly attributed. Citing a source for a claim it does not actually support — even unintentionally — undermines the reliability of the published record and may be treated as a correction-worthy error if identified after publication (see Corrections & Retractions).

Prohibition on Fabricated or AI-Generated Citations

References must never be invented, including references generated or suggested by AI writing tools that have not been independently verified to exist (see GenAI Policy). Manuscripts found to contain fabricated citations will be treated as a serious breach of the journal's Publication Ethics policy.

Coercive Citation

Authors, reviewers, and editors must not request or require the addition of citations that are not scientifically necessary — including self-citations to inflate an author's or journal's citation count, or requests from reviewers to cite their own unrelated work as a condition of a favorable review, consistent with COPE's guidance on citation manipulation. Any such request should be reported via the journal's Complaints & Appeals process.

Citing Preprints and Unpublished Work

Where a preprint or other unpublished source is cited, this must be clearly identified as such (including the repository name and, where available, its DOI), so readers can correctly assess the evidentiary weight of a claim resting on work that has not yet completed peer review.

Self-Citation

Reasonable self-citation, where genuinely relevant to establishing the context or continuity of a research programme, is acceptable. Excessive or unnecessary self-citation used primarily to inflate citation metrics is not.