Cite Your Sources: CSE (Name-Year)

• Uses the author and year in parentheses as the in-text citation, e.g., (Jones 2011), and lists the references in alphabetical order within the References list.
• Preferred by many writers in scientific disciplines related to experimental and observational science (including physical sciences, mathematics, and life sciences).
• Information in this guide is based on the 7th edition of Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers.

Place the citation as close as possible following the relevant title, word, or phrase.

• In-text references (also called parenthetical references) include the author's last name and the year of publication.
  • (Smith 2009)
• They can be placed as part of the sentence, using the parentheses to include whatever reference information is not in the sentence.
  • Smith (2009) tested this hypothesis.
  • Smith's (2009) study tested this hypothesis.
  • In 2009, Smith tested this hypothesis.
• Place the citation at the end of a short sentence in parentheses, if the concept is singular and clear.
  • This hypothesis was tested (Smith 2009).
  • Six species share this trait (Jones 2010).
• Do not place the citation at the end of a sentence if the reader would be confused about which information came from which reference. 
• If you include the titles of works within the text of your paper, use "double quotation marks" for the title of an article or chapter, and italics for the title of a book or a periodical.

• The reference list comes at the end of your paper and provides the full bibliographic information for your materials.
• The references are organized in alphabetical order by author last name.
• It should be titled "References" or "Literature Cited."
• If you used other material but didn't specifically cite it, include it in a section called "Additional References."
• Obtain the original paper and cite it instead of the secondary source. If you can't obtain the original paper, cite in the References list only the secondary source that you actually read.
• Square brackets are used to show that information has been added by the person doing the citing, e.g., [date unknown], [videocassette], [cited 2011 Jan 23].
• References to nonprint materials may use both a "content designator" to indicate the nature of a work, (e.g., editorial, letter, dissertation, database, computer program, homepage, etc.) and a "medium designator" to indicate the specific nonprint medium (e.g., videocassette, microfiche, internet, CD-ROM, DVD, etc.). You can combine them as [database on the internet] and [homepage on the internet].

Author AA, Author BB. Year. Article title. Journal Title. Volume number(issue number):inclusive pages.

Burns LH, Thorpe G. 1979. Fears and phobias. Journal of Internal Medical Research. 17(2):235-246.

Author AA, Author BB. Date of publication. Article title. Journal Title (edition) [medium designator]. [date updated; date cited];Volume(issue):inclusive pages. Available from: URL doi#

Tong V, Abbott FS, Mbofana S, Walker MJ. 2001. In vitro investigation of hepatic extraction. Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences [Internet]. [cited 2001 May 3];4(1):15-23. Available from: http://www.ualberta.ca/~csps/JPPS4(1)/F.Abbott/RSD1070.pdf  doi:10.1136/jpps.460.7600.1070

If there is no pagination in your online material, estimate how many pages it has:

Ganz PA. 1997 Apr. Menopause and breast cancer. Innovations in Breast Cancer Care [Internet].[cited 1997 Nov 4];2(3);[about 10 p.]. Available from: http://meniscus.com/Art2_23.html/.

NOTE: When the reference ends with a URL, do not follow with a period unless the URL ends with a forward slash.

Author AA, Author BB, Author CC. Year. Title of work. Edition. Place of publication (State or Prov): Publisher name. Number of pages p.

Agrios GN. 1978. Plant pathology. 2nd ed. New York (NY): Academic Press. 703 p. 

Davidson RH, Lyon WF. 1979. Insect pests of farm garden, and orchard. 7th ed. New York (NY): John Wiley & Sons. 596 p.

Author(s) of the part. Year. Title of the part. In: Author(s) or Editor(s). Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher name. p. pages of part.

Kuret JA, Murad F. 1990. Adenohypophyseal hormones and related substances. In: Gilman AG, Rall TW, Nies AS, Taylor P, editors. The pharmcological basis of therapeutics. 8th ed. New York (NY): Pergamon. p. 1334-1360.

If the author of the part also is the author or editor of the book, place the book information before the part information.

Author(s) or Editor(s). Year. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher name. Kind of part and its numeration, title; p. pages of part.

Hebel R, Stromber MW. 1976. Anatomy of the laboratory rat. Baltimore (MD): Williams & Wilkins. Part C, Digestive system; p. 43-54.

Citing Source Types

Common citation questions