CSE Documentation Style Guidelines
CSE Documentation Style Guidelines
CSE style consists of two elements: citations in the text and a list of references at the end of the document.
CSE Textual Citations For CSE-style textual citations, you may use one of three systems: citation-sequence, citation-name, or name-year. Find out which system your instructor or organization prefers.
- Citation-sequence system. In this system, superscript numbers are inserted in the text to indicate borrowed material. There is no space between a superscript number and the preceding word or punctuation mark. (Note that the superscript number is placed after a punctuation mark, not before it.) If two or more superscript numbers appear together, they are separated by a comma or commas, with no space following a comma. If a citation consists of three or more consecutive numbers, a hyphen (or en dash) is used to represent the range.
Pollution and climate change have seriously damaged our oceans and rivers,1–3 but scientists don’t all subscribe to the same solution.4
The numbers used for textual citations can instead be placed within parentheses. In this case, full-size numbers are preferred, and the parenthetical citation is preceded and followed by a space, unless it has a punctuation mark right after it.
… as research (1-3) has shown. If Fausch’s data (4) are correct …
Later textual references to the same sources repeat the numbers already used. In the list of references at the end of the document, the entries for the sources are numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text.
- Citation-name system. The appearance of citations within the text is identical to that in the citation-sequence system. However, in the list of references at the end of the document, the cited sources are alphabetized first by author, then by title. They are then numbered, and those numbers are used as superscripts (or in parentheses) within the text to indicate the borrowed material.
- Name-year system. In this system, the author’s last name and the year of publication are given in the text, with the name and the year or just the year in parentheses immediately following the borrowed material.
Pollution and climate change have seriously damaged our oceans and rivers (Henson 2014; Walter 2014; Weis 2015), but scientists don’t all subscribe to the same solution (Fausch 2015).
… as research has shown (Henson 2014). If Fausch’s data (2015) are correct …
The word and separates the names in parentheses when there are two or more authors.
The most recent study on this topic was inconclusive (Wagner and Weitzman 2015).
In the list of references at the end of the document, the cited sources are listed alphabetically by the first author’s last name.
The CSE Reference List Whether you use the citation-sequence, citation-name, or name-year system in the body of your document, you will also prepare a list of references that is placed at the end. The following guidelines will help you prepare a CSE-style reference list.
- Arranging entries: citation-sequence system. Each source cited in the document is given a number that corresponds to its first appearance in the text (that is, the first source cited is numbered 1, the second source cited is 2, and so on). The entries in the reference list are then arranged in numerical order. Do not list a source more than once in the reference list, even if you refer to it many times in the text.
- Arranging entries: citation-name system. Arrange the entries alphabetically by the last name of the first author, then by title. Number the entries in that order. Do not list a source more than once in the list of references, even if you refer to it many times in the text. Use the numbers assigned to the entries in the textual citations.
- Arranging entries: name-year system. Arrange the entries alphabetically by the last name of the first author. If two or more works are by the same author, arrange those entries by date, earliest to latest. If two or more works are by the same author in the same year, add a lowercase letter after the date: Smith 2016a, Smith 2016b, and so on. Assign the letters according to the exact date of publication, earliest first, or, if the exact date cannot be determined, with the entries ordered alphabetically by title. Alphabetize works by an organization by the first significant word in the name of the organization. Drop any initial A, An, or T.
- Book titles. Do not underline or italicize titles of books, and do not place them in quotation marks. Capitalize the first word of a book’s title and any proper nouns within the title.
- Publication information. Include both the publisher’s city and the state or country (in parentheses). Give a shortened form of the publisher’s name, omitting first names or initials and words or abbreviations like Company or Inc. Do not abbreviate or omit University Press.
- Periodical titles. Abbreviate titles of journals and magazines according to CSE style. Capitalize abbreviated titles but do not underline or italicize them, and do not place them in quotation marks. Do not abbreviate or italicize titles of magazines and newspapers. It is acceptable to omit any article from the beginning of this type of periodical title.
- Article titles. Do not underline or italicize titles of articles, and do not place them in quotation marks. Capitalize the first word of an article’s title and any proper nouns within the title.
- Electronic sources. Include author, title, version or edition, place of publication (or use “[place unknown]”), publisher (or “[publisher unknown]”), and copyright date (“c2015”). Include in brackets the date the source was modified (if known) and the date it was accessed. Include the URL, followed by a period. A URL should be broken only after a slash or any other mark of punctuation if it has to continue on another line.
- Spacing. Double-space the entire reference list. Do not add extra space between entries.
- Page numbers. If you are giving a range of pages for a specific chapter or section in a book, use the abbreviation p. and the complete numbers: p. 151–153, not p. 151–53 or p. 151–3.
- Dates. Follow the format “year month (abbreviated) day,” with no periods or commas: 2016 Oct 31. Use only the first three letters of a month’s name as its abbreviated form.
- Additional references. A reference list includes only the sources you cite in your document. You may include other sources you used in researching and preparing your document in a separate alphabetical list titled “Additional References.”
In all three systems, the first line of each reference-list entry is set flush left, and each subsequent line is indented one-quarter inch.
Wagner G, Weitzman ML. 2015. Climate shock: the economic consequences of a hotter planet. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.
For further examples showing the correct use of these systems, consult Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, Eighth Edition (2014).
CSE Style for Reference List Entries The models in this section illustrate CSE’s citation-sequence system. A sample reference list organized according to this system is presented in the next section.
- Book by One Author
- Book by Multiple Authors
- Book Issued by an Organization
- Edited Book
- Chapter or Section in an Edited Book
- Book in an Edition Other Than the First
- Journal Article
- Magazine Article
- Newspaper Article
- Online Book (Monograph)
- Article in an Online Journal or Magazine
- Article in an Online Newspaper
- Article from a Database
- Work from a Web Site
- Government Site
- E-mail Message
- Online Posting
- Scientific or Technical Report
- Paper Published in Conference Proceedings
- Government Document
- Unpublished Document
- Map or Chart
- Other Media
When citing a book, use the information from the title page and the copyright page (typically found on the reverse side of the title page), not from the book’s cover or a library catalog.
1. Book by One Author Include the author’s last name and initial or initials (not separated by a comma), followed by the book’s title, the location and name of the publisher, and the year of publication. Including the number of pages is optional.
- Kolbert E. The sixth extinction: an unusual history. New York: Henry Holt; 2014.
2. Book by Multiple Authors List all the authors’ names and initials. Use a comma but not the word and between names.
- Cohen S, Eimicke W, Miller A. Sustainability policy: hastening the transition to a cleaner economy. Hoboken (NJ): Wiley; 2015.
3. Book Issued by an Organization The organization’s name takes the place of an author’s.
- American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. Arlington (VA): American Psychiatric Association; 2013.
In the name-year system, an abbreviated form of the organization name may be used in both the text and the reference list. The entry should be alphabetized according to the full name of the organization, not the abbreviation; for example, American Psychiatric Association (APA) is alphabetized by “American.”
4. Edited Book Include the word editor or editors after the name(s).
- Rapp RR, Benhart BL, editors. Construction site planning and logistical operations: site-focused management for builders. West Lafayette (IN): Purdue University Press; 2015.
5. Chapter or Section in an Edited Book Give the author and the title of the chapter or section first, followed by the word In, a colon, the book’s editor(s), and the book’s title. Then give the publication information for the book and the page numbers on which the chapter or section appears.
- Ellis, EC. Too big for nature. In: Minteer BA, Pyne SJ, editors. After preservation: saving American nature in the age of humans. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press, 2015; p. 24-31.
6. Book in an Edition Other Than the First The edition number follows the title of the book.
- McFarland DS, Grover C. Dreamweaver CC: the missing manual. 2nd ed. Sebastopol (CA): O’Reilly Media, 2015.
Periodicals include journals, magazines, and newspapers.
7. Journal Article List the author’s name, the article’s title, and the abbreviated title of the journal followed by a period. Then give the year, followed by a semicolon, the volume and (in parentheses) issue, followed by a colon, and the page numbers.
- Baker, M. Inner scientists unleashed. Nature. 2015;523(7560):276-278.
8. Magazine Article List the author’s name, the article’s title, and the magazine’s title. Then give the issue date followed by a colon and the page number(s).
- McKibben B. Power to the people: why the rise of green energy makes utility companies nervous. New Yorker. 2015 Jun 29:30-35.
9. Newspaper Article List the author’s name, the article’s title, and the newspaper’s title, followed by the issue date, section designation, page number(s), and column number(s). If the newspaper does not have sections, place a colon between the date and the page number.
- Driebusch C. Tech laggards pay the price. Wall Street Journal. 2015 Aug 3;Sect. C:1 (col. 1).
Libraries subscribe to services such as LexisNexis, ProQuest, InfoTrac, and EBSCOhost, which provide access to databases of electronic texts. The databases provide publication information, abstracts, and the complete texts of documents in a specific subject area, discipline, or profession.
10. Online Book (Monograph)
- Rohrmann GF. Baculovirus molecular biology. 3rd ed. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information; 2013 [cited 2015 Apr 17]. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/?term=Baculovirus+Molecular+Biology.
11. Article in an Online Journal or Magazine
- Soekarjo M, Oostendorp H. 2015 Measuring effectiveness of persuasive games using an information control condition. Int J Serious Games. 2015 [accessed 2015 July 5];2(2):37-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-14-00087.1.
12. Article in an Online Newspaper
- Gillis J. Naomi Oreskes, a lightning rod in a changing climate. New York Times. 2011 Jan 20 [accessed 2011 Jul 16]. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/science/naomi-oreskes-a-lightning-rod-in-a-changing-climate.html.
13. Article from a Database
- Tregaskis S. Into the woods: how a father’s queries sparked a new theory of human development. Hum Ecol. 2015 [accessed 2015 Aug 5];43(1):12-18. Expanded Academic ASAP. http://go.galegroup.com. Document No.: A421909870.
- World Wildlife Fund. Washington (DC): World Wildlife Fund; c2015. Record low for winter sea ice in the Arctic; 2015 Mar 9 [accessed 2015 Aug 4]; http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/record-low-for-winter-sea-ice-in-the-arctic.
- National Institutes of Health (US). Bethesda (MD): National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. What is sickle cell disease? [Modified 2015 Jun 22; accessed 2015 Aug 5]; http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sca.
16. E-mail Message E-mail is considered personal communication; cite it only in the text of your document.
- … (2015 e-mail to Christensen; unreferenced).
- Lilburne J. Peak oil review [online post]. Media Lens Message Board. 2015 Aug 3 [accessed 2015 Aug 4]. http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1438603169.html.
18. Scientific or Technical Report
- Gerard D, Hoff P (Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA). Adaptive higher-order spectral estimators. Seattle (WA): University of Washington; 2015. Report No. 633. http://www.stat.washington.edu/research/reports/2015/tr633.pdf.
19. Paper Published in Conference Proceedings
- Baily C, Astolfi C. Student reasoning about the divergence of a vector field. In: Engelhardt PV, Churukian AD, Jones DL, editors. PERC 2014. 2014 PERC Proceedings: 2014 Jul 30-31; Minneapolis (MN): American Association of Physics Teachers; c2014. p. 31-34.
- Senate (US), Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. E-Warranty Act of 2015: report of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on S. 1359. Washington (DC): Government Publishing Office; 2015.
21. Unpublished Document Give information about the document’s availability.
- Zhou M. 2014: Speciation and the evolution of male breeding coloration in darters [dissertation]. Urbana (IL): University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
22. Map or Chart Include the type of map in brackets.
- Ohio Oil and Gas Wells [interactive map on the Internet]. Columbus (OH): Ohio Department of National Resources (US); c2015 [accessed 2015 Aug 5]. https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/website/mrm/OhioMines/.
23. Other Media Give a description of the medium in brackets.
- Dollemore D. A common myth about e-cigarettes goes up in smoke [podcast, episode 5350]. Science Elements. American Chemical Society. 2015 Jul 30, 2:35. [accessed 2014 Aug 4]. http://web.1.c2.audiovideoweb.com/1c2web3536/ScienceElements_July30_2015.mp3.
Sample CSE Reference List Following is a sample reference list using the CSE citation-sequence system.
1. Baker, M. Inner scientists unleashed. Nature. 2015;523(7560):276-278.
2. McFarland DS, Grover C. Dreamweaver CC: the missing manual. 2nd ed. Sebastopol (CA): O’Reilly Media, 2015.
3. Ellis, EC. Too big for nature. In: Minteer BA, Pyne SJ, editors. After preservation: saving American nature in the age of humans. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press, 2015; p. 24-31.
4. Soekarjo M, Oostendorp H. 2015 Measuring effectiveness of persuasive games using an information control condition. Int J Serious Games. 2015 [accessed 2015 July 5];2(2):37-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-14-00087.1.
5. Tregaskis S. Into the woods: how a father’s queries sparked a new theory of human development. Hum Ecol. 2015 [accessed 2015 Aug 5];43(1):12-18. Expanded Academic ASAP. http://go.galegroup.com. Document No.: A421909870.