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CSE Style Guide (Name-Year System)

A Beginning Guide

This guide is based on Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers 7th ed. (Rockefeller University Press, 2006). 

Note: The CBE (Council of Biology Editors) has since changed its name to the CSE (Council of Science Editors).

Books

Basic form
Last Name followed by Initials. Date of publication. Title of book. Place of
publication: Publisher.
I. A book by a single author
Davies PC. 1995. Are we alone?: philosophical implications of the discovery
of extraterrestrial life. New York: BasicBooks.
II. An anthology or edited volume
Griffen DR, editor. c1986. Physics and the ultimate significance of time:
Bohm Prigogine, and process philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Note: When date of publication is not available, use the copyright date and precede with a "c" as shown above.
III. A book by two or more persons
Smith CM, Marks A, Lieberman M. 2004. Basic medical biochemistry: a
clinical approach. 2nd ed. [place unknown]: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
Note: CSE style permits the use of up to 10 authors in the citation. If there are more than 10 authors, list the first 10, followed by "et al.".
IV. An anonymous book
A guide to the World Bank. 2003. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
V. A book by a corporate or organization author
American Chemical Society. 1951. Chemistry, key to better living; a record
of chemical progress during the first 75 years of the American Chemical Society. Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society.

Articles in Newspapers and Periodicals

Basic form
Last Name followed by Initials. Date.  Title of article.  Publication
Information (Varies depending on type of publication).

I. Newspaper article
A. With an author
Greenberg J. 2007 Jun 23. The garage: focus on autos; robotic cars could
take pressure off nation's highways; engineers say driverless vehicles they are developing may be the way of the future. Los Angeles Times: (Home Ed.). Sect. C:3. (col. 1).
B. Without an author
In study, salmon become surrogates to endangered trout. 2007 Sep 15. Los
Angeles Times (Home Ed.). Sect. A:17.

II. An article in a scholarly journal
Gillman G, Noble A. 2005. Environmentally manageable fertilizers: a new
approach. Environ Qual Manag. 15(2):59-70.

Note: Journal titles are abbreviated when using CSE style.  Consult the Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers 7th ed. for examples on how to abbreviate journal titles (Appendix 29.1).

Government Publications


Because reference to government documents vary in required elements, please see the Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers 7th ed. (sections 29.3.7.10)

Conference Proceedings

Claude JP, editor. 1994. Advanced information processing techniques for
LAN and MAN management. Proceedings of the IFIP TC6/WG6.4 International Conference on Advanced Information Processing Techniques for LAN and MAN Management; 1993 Apr 7-9; Versailles, France. New York (NY): North-Holland.

Technical Reports

Reilly MH. 1979. Equations of powered rocket ascent and orbit trajectory.
Washington (DC): Naval Research Laboratory (US). Report No: 8237.

Online Subscription Sources

Online subscription sources are journal, magazine, and newspaper articles found using the library's databases. CSE recommends the use of the National Library of Medicine Internet Formats supplement, (available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/formats/internet.pdf), for citing online subscription sources.
Suggested Form
Last name followed by Initials. Title of article. Source publication
information (varies according to source). In: Title of the database [Internet]. Place of publication: Publisher; Date of publication [Date of revision; Date of citation]. [Extent]. Available from: URL; Accession Number (if available).
I. A newspaper article from Lexis Nexis
Appel, A. Poor nations and U.S. states offer huge financial breaks to
biotechnology; Development: Poor nations, states dream of a biotech boom. IPS (Latin America). 2007 May 16. In: LexisNexis Academic [Internet]. New York (NY): LexisNexis; c2007 [modified 2007 Jun 1; cited 2007 Oct 13]. [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.lexisnexis.com.
II. A scholarly article from EBSCO
Tripp S, London T, Spend DT. Greeting the protein. J Growth 2005;10
(9):2022-2030. In: EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier [Internet]. Birmingham (AL): EBSCO Industries; [cited 2007 Feb 20]. [about 8 screens]. Available from: http://www.ebsco.com/; Accession No.: 23886517.

Web Sites

For original content from online sources accessed via search engines (i.e. Google and Yahoo), include as much of the following as can be determined.

Suggested form
Title of Web site [Internet]. Date of publication. Edition. Place of
publication: publisher; [date updated; date cited]. Available from: URL.

I. A Web page
MedlinePLUS: Drugs and Supplements [Internet]. 2007. Bethesda (MD):
National Library of Medicine (US) and National Institutes of Health (US); [updated 2007 Jan 31; cited 2007 Feb 20]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html.
II. An entire Web site
APSnet: plant pathology online [Internet]. c1994-2005. St. Paul (MN):
American Phytopathological Association; [cited 2005 Jun 20]. Available from: http://www.apsnet.org/.

In-Text References

In this system, sources are briefly cited in the text, in parentheses, by the author's last name and the year of publication. The list of references contains the full bibliographic information.
I. Work with one author
In 1992, NASA launched a project called the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, in order to detect "radio signals of artificial origi" (Davies, 1995).
II. Works with two authors
The consumption of oil in the United States reached 3,439,000,000 barrels in 1959 (Schackne and Drake 1960).
III. Works with three or more authors
One function of the liver is to detoxify the body by breaking down harmful substances in the bloodstream (Smith et al. 2004).
IV. Work without an author
Begin the reference with the first word or first few words of the title followed by an ellipsis.
In the field of conservation biology, scientists have been injecting newly hatched salmon with rainbow trout sperm-growing cells so that the salmon give birth to trout (In study...2007).

For Further Guidance

For further guidance please consult:


The Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers 7th ed. (Rockefeller University Press, 2006).  This style manual is located at call number T11 .S386 2006 in the Armacost Library in the reference collection.

Hacker D. Sciences: Documenting Sources. Research and Documentation
Online [Internet]. c2006. Bedford/St. Martin's; [cited 2007 Oct 22].  Available from: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c11_o.html
Please ask a librarian for assistance!

Updated October 22, 2007