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Research Guides

Citing Sources: CSE 9th ed.

This guide offers resources to help you document the sources you're citing in your research papers and projects.

CSE Style Overview

The CSE citation style is typically used by scholars in the natural science fields such as Biology and Environmental Studies. It is established by the Council of Science Editors.

 

Important Changes in The CSE Manual 9th Edition

The complete list of changes and clarifications in the 9th edition is available in the books Preface as well as in this article: The CSE Manual, Ninth Edition: 10 Years in the Making. Below is a list of the changes most relevant to student papers.

  • List author's names up to five authors. If there are more than 5 (five), then only use the first author's name followed by "et al."
  • Access dates can be dropped. Only use them when the date of publication, copyright, or revision can not be found.
  • Publisher locations are no longer required since most works can now be found online, and publishers sometimes have multiple locations. 
  • This edition includes reference examples for journal preprints, motion pictures, YouTube videos, and multiple social media platforms.
  • DOIs are the preferred resource locators whenever one is available. Use CrossRef to check if one is not immediately apparent. 
  • Capitalization of words in a title are determined by word classification, not word size. Do not capitalize articles, coordinate conjunctions, or prepositions unless they come at the beginning or end of a title (The CSE Manual 9.3.1.1).
  • Eliminate periods for standard Latin abbreviations such as "eg" and "ie". 
  • Chapter 30 provides examples of tables, figures, and indexes, with instructions on both what to do and what NOT to do when adding these visuals to your paper. 

How to Format Your Paper

The CSE Manual is geared toward the publication of manuscripts and does not provide instruction on how to format a college-level paper. Consult with your instructor on how to properly format your paper for their course.

CSE style has three variations for citations, which refer to how sources are cited in-text and how they are ordered in the end Reference List.

  • Name-Year (N-Y): In-text citations look like this: (Johnson 2017). Bibliography is alphabetical, and year appears after author name in the bibliography citation.
  • Citation-Sequence (C-S): In-text citations are superscripts1. Bibliography is in the order sources are cited in the paper, and year appears later in the citation.
  • Citation-Name (C-N): In-text citations are superscripts2. Bibliography is alphabetical and numbered in that order, and year appears later in the citation.

Journal Abbreviations

Journal titles must be abbreviated in CSE citations.