Biotechnology Research Guide

CSE/CBE Style is used by biologists, chemists and other scientists when writing scientific papers to show the sources of information used by the author in the text and in the Bibliography at the end of the paper. In the Name-Year system, citations are provided in the main text through parenthetical citations

On this page you will find information on how to correctly format CSE/CBE citations, in-text citations, and create a Works Cited page. 

Note that, in CSE style, titles of periodicals (newspapers, journals, magazines) are capitalized as they normally are; book titles and article titles have only the first word of the title (and of any subtitles), as well as proper nouns, capitalized. Also note that, throughout CSE style, no commas are used to offset the author's last name from his or her initials, no space separates the first and middle initial, and periods do not, in general, follow initials.

Book Basic Format

Number. Last name Initial(s). Title of book. Edition [if other than first]. Place: Publisher; year.

Example:

1. Jaynes ET. Probability theory: the logic of science. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press; 2003.

Journal Article:

Number. Last name Initial(s). Title of article: subtitle. Journal Title Abbrev. Date;volume (issue):pages.

2. Brunzell JD. Hypertriglyceridemia. N Engl J Med. 2007;357 (10):1009-1017.
3. Wilmers CC, Crabtree RL, Smith D, Murphy KM, Getz WM. Trophic facilitation by introduced top predators: gray wolf subsidies to scavengers in Yellowstone National Park. J Anim Ecol. 2003;72 (3):909-916.

Journal Article from an Online Periodical:

Number. Last name Initial(s). Title of article: subtitle. Journal Title Abbrev [Internet]. Date [cited date];volume (issue):pages. Available from: URL

Example:

4. Isaacs FJ, Blake WJ, Collins JJ. Signal processing in single cells. Science [Internet]. 2005 Mar 25 [cited 2009 Jun 17];307(5717):1886-1888. Available from: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/307/5717/1886

Article from an Online Database

Number. Last name Initial(s). Title of article. Title of Publication Abbrev [Internet]. Date [cited date]:pages. Name of Database. Place: Publisher; copyright year. Available from: Publisher’s URL Document No.: Number [if any].

Example:

5. Morell V. The fragile world of frogs. Natl Geographic [Internet]. 2001 May [cited 2007 Oct 1]:106-123. Expanded Academic ASAP. Farmington Hills (MI): Gale; c2001. Available from: http://www.galegroup.com Document No.: A75434888.

Paper in Published Conference Proceedings:

Number. Last name Initial(s). Title of paper. In: Title of proceedings; date; Place of Conference. Place of Publication: Publisher; year. p. page number(s) of paper.

Example:

6. Rozell CJ, Johnson DH. Examining methods for estimating mutual information in spiking neural systems. In: Proceedings of the Computational Neuroscience Meeting; 2004 Jul; Baltimore, MD. New York: Plenum; 2005. p. 234-252.

Technical Reports:

Number. Last name Initial(s). Title of report. Edition [if other than first]. Place: Publisher; date. Report No.: number. Available from: Distributor or URL

Example:

7. Smith DW, Stahler DR, Guernsey Ds, Metz M, Nelson A, Albers E, McIntyre R. Yellowstone wolf project: annual report 2006. Yellowstone National Park (WY): National Park Service, Yellow Center for Resources; 2007. Report No.: YCR-2007-01. Available from: http//www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/upload/wolfrpt06.pdf

Webpage within a website

Number. Last name Initial(s) [if any]. Title of Web site [Internet]. Place: Publisher; date of publication or copyright. Title of Web page; publication date of page [cited date]. Available from: URL of Web page

Example:

8. Amphibiaweb [Internet]. Berkeley (CA): University of California; c2007. Wordwide amphibian declines: how big is the problem, what are the causes and what can be done? 2006 Jun 15 [cited 2007 Jul 25]. Available from: http://amphibiaweb.org/declines/declines.html

Audiovisual Sources (Videos, Sound Recordings)

Number. Last name Initial(s). Title (medium). Place: Publisher; year. Physical description.

Example:

9. Wilson EO. The future of life: biodiversity in the new millennium [videocassette]. Los Angeles (CA): Into the Classroom Media; c2003. 1 videocassette: 47 min., sound, color.

In addition to the core elements, there are a number of optional elements you may include depending on the source and your instructor's preference. 

Date of Access: For online sources, including the date you accessed the material is helpful because online content can change frequently.  Add the date of access at the end of the citation using the word Accessed and the Day Month Year format: Accessed 4 May 2009.

URLs: URLS may be used as the location element for an online source but are not required. Always check with your instructor see if they prefer URLs to be included. 

DOIs: A DOI is a unique identifier (like a social security number) that are assigned to many new journal articles. While they are not required, DOIs make it easy to find a journal article quickly and are useful to include if the article has one. DOIs may be used as the location element of the citation for an article.