Citation Styles Playbook

The CSE citation style is a set of rules (used to document sources in research papers) created by the Council of Science Editors. This style is commonly used by biologists, but other scientists may use it as well.

The CSE style has three main variations: the citation-sequence system, the citation-name system, and the name-year system. The main difference between the systems is the placement of the year of publication. The citation-sequence system and the citation-name system use superscript numerals in the text (similar to the Chicago style); the name-year system uses parenthetical citations similar to the APA style.

You can use any of these systems; just be sure to be consistent and use only the system you chose. Do not mix systems.

The examples in this playbook were taken from:

The list of end references is titled References.

Entries on the References list are single spaced.

Entries are formatted using the hanging indent.

Journal titles must be abbreviated.  Look up abbreviations here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals

No spacing between the year of publication, volume, issue, and page numbers.

If there is a doi (digital object identifier), include it in the citation.

In the name-year system (also called the Harvard style),  place the last name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication in parentheses.

In-text reference:

The NIH has called for a change in smallpox vaccination policy (Fauci 2002) that....

...and the most recent work on albuterol administration (Mazan and Hoffman 2001) is...

An early Belgian study (Lederer [date unknown]) on nutrition showed...

End reference:

Fauci AS.2002. Smallpox vaccination policy--the need for dialogue. N Engl J Med. 346(17): 1319-1320.

Lederer J. [date unknown]. Alimentation et cancer [Diet and cancer]. 3rd ed. Brussels (Belgium): Nauwelaerts.

Mazan MR, Hoffman AM. 2001. Effects of aerosolized albuterol on physiologic responses to exercise in standardbreds. Am J Vet Res. 62(11):1812-1817.

The citation-sequence system uses superscript numbers within the text to refer to the end references. The end references are then numbered in the order in which they appear in the text.  This means that end references are not alphabetized, so if Smith is mentioned first in the text and Anderson is mentioned second, the end references will list Smith first and Anderson second.

In-text reference:

Traumatic life events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are endemic among American civilians.¹ Each year....

End reference:

1. Kessler RC, Sonnega A, Brommet E, Hughes M, Nelson CB. Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1995 Dec; 52(12):1048-1060.

In this system, the list of end references is alphabetized and numbered.  The numbers assigned to the end references must be used used in the text. For example, if a work by Zielinski is the first in-text reference, and the number for Zielinski is 56 in the end references list, the in-text reference will also be numbered 56. Use the same number for any in-text references to the same document.

In-text reference:

Traumatic life events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are endemic among American civilians.²² Each year....

End reference:

22. Kessler RC, Sonnega A, Bromet E, Hughes M, Nelson CB. Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1995 Dec;52(12):1048-1060.