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CSE Citation Style

This guide provides basic instruction about the CSE (Council of Science Educators) Citation Style.

Name-Year

This system uses the last names of up to 2 authors and the year of publication in parentheses.

If there are 3 or more authors, the in-text reference should give only the first author’s name followed by “et al” and the publication year. The end reference should list up to 5 authors’ names. If there are 6 or more authors, use the first author’s name and “et al.”

CSE Style requires that you abbreviate journal titles. Use the NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases to identify the official abbreviation for a journal title.

From CSE Manual 9th ed., Ch. 29.2.1.2 Name-Year

*Note: Biology students will most often use this style of citation.

Example

In-text reference:

Randomized clinical trials of HIV vaccine candidates are ongoing (Fauci and Lane 2020).

End reference:

Fauci AS, Lane HC. 2020. Four decades of HIV/AIDS—much accomplished, much to do. N Engl J Med. 383(1):1–4. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1916753

From CSE Manual 9th ed., Ch. 29.2.1.2 Name-Year