Library Research: CSE

CSE (Council of Science Editors) citation style is commonly used in the physical and life sciences for referencing various materials, such as journal articles, books, and websites. It's favored by researchers and students in fields like biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental science.

There are three common systems used in CSE style: Name-Year, Citation-Sequence, and Citation-Name.

1. Name - Year System 

In this system, you cite sources by listing the author's last name and the year of publication in the text.

In-Text Citation

• Single Author: (Smith 2020) 
• Two Authors: (Smith and Johnson 2020) 
• Three or More Authors: (Smith et al. 2020) 
• No Author: (Anonymous 2018)

Reference List

• Book: Smith J. 2020. Introduction to Chemistry. 3rd ed. Science Press. 
• Journal Article: Johnson M. 2021. New trends in biology. Biology Today. 34(2): 123-130. 
• Website: NASA. 2023. Mars exploration program. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/mars-exploration

2. Citation-Sequence System

In this system, sources are numbered sequentially in the order they appear in the document. Each source is cited with a number in square brackets. 

In-Text Citation

• First Citation: [1]
• Subsequent Citations: [1],[2],[3], etc. based on their order in the reference list. 

Reference List

The reference list is arranged numerically (in the order the citations appear in the text). 

• Book: [1] Smith J. 2020. Introduction to Chemistry. 3rd ed. Science Press. 
• Journal Article: [2] Johnson, M. 2021. New trends in biology. Biology Today. 34(2):123-130.
• Website: [3] NASA. 2023. Mars exploration program. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/mars-exploration

3. Citation-Name System

This system is similar to the Citation-Sequence system, but the reference list is arranged alphabetically by author name, and each reference is still assigned a number for in-text citation. 

In-Text Citation

• First Citation: (1) 
• Subsequent Citations: (1), (2), etc. based on their order in the reference list. 

Reference List 

The reference list is alphabetized by the author's last name and numbered accordingly. 

• Journal Article: [1] Johnson M. 2021. New trends in biology. Biology Today. 34(2): 123-130. 
• Website: [2] NASA. 2023. Mars exploration program. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/mars-exploration
• Book: [3] Smith J. 2020. Introduction to Chemistry. 3rd ed. Science Press.