Council of Science Editors CSE Citation-Sequence Documentation
Adapted from The Writing Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison
In the CSE citation systems described here, numbers in a sentence refer to sources listed at the end of the document. The sources are numbered in the reference list by the order they appear in the paper, sequentially (citation-sequence).
In CSE style the numbers appear [bracketed] and before punctuation marks like commas or periods. Example from The CSE Manual:
Traumatic life events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are endemic among American civilians [1].
In the citation-sequence system, sources are numbered by order of reference so that the first reference cited in the paper is [1], the second [2] and so on.
When possible, put numbers immediately after the relevant word or phrase rather than at the end of a sentence.
If the numbers are not in a continuous sequence, use commas (with no spaces) between numbers. If you have more than two numbers in a continuous sequence, use the first and last number of the sequence joined by a hyphen.
For the non-dimorphic polistines such as Polistes, Ropalidia and others, the long-standing view is that differences in the quantity of nourishment received during the larval stage act as a "nutritional switch" to bias development toward one caste or the other [7,8,11-14].
Once you have assigned a source a number, use that same number every time you cite it.
Once associated with an insect, some isolates of Pectobacterium carotovorum can infect and persist in D. melanogaster and activate an immune response [8,9]. The protein Evf (Erwinia virulence factor), present only in insect-associated strains, promotes the persistence of bacteria in the insect midgut. Evf synthesis is regulated by SlyA (Hor), which also regulates plant virulence genes [1,9].
When referring to tables and figures from outside sources if they are from sources you have used for other information, only cite it once and use the same number for the figure.
Tables and Figures that you generate with your research should be labeled Table 1 or Figure 2, for example, below the table, with your description as close to the text where you refer to the table, Table 1.
Although CSE provides rules for how to quote or excerpt sources, in practice almost no scientists publishing in journals that use CSE documentation choose to quote sources. Instead, these authors paraphrase or simply cite authors.
When you quote or excerpt a source, include an in-text reference to help your reader see what source you are quoting from.
Secondary citations refer to material that you have not seen in its original form but rather have obtained from another document that cited the original source. Secondary citations are not listed as a valid form of citation. Instead, find and cite the original source. If you cannot, in your text you will write something like "as discussed by Reuhl [4], Williams....." Here you are citing the work you read by Reuhl who is reviewing results from Williams, which you could not read.
In CSE style interviews and other forms of unpublished personal communication (sucha s emails, texts, letters) are not included in the References list. Cite these in the text of your paper in parenthesis: Ex: ...text (K Fester, interview with author, 21 Apr 2016) continue text.
End references and the reference list
The goal of your reference list is to help your reader identify each numbered source quickly and clearly. CSE has standardized the information to be provided for ease and predictability of reading.
All entries are “flush left”
Little capitalization!
No spacing between year;volume(issue)
Journal names may be abbreviated
No italics, no quotation marks
Capitalize: [Internet] [Digital Image] [Video Online]]
Do not capitalize [cited YYYY MM DD]
References or Cited References. If you used some documents as sources but did not cite them in your paper, list them alphabetically by author under the heading Additional References.
The references are listed by the bracketed number order they were used.
Authors' first names are capitals of first and middle name, after their surnames. No periods. Comma between authors
[1] Otegui MS, Kiessling LL, Batzli J.
Only the first word of a book or article title should be capitalized as well as proper nouns.
[1] The fat-soluble vitamins: handbook of lipid research 2.
Titles are not italicized. However, species names are italicized.
[1] In vitro and in vivo reconstitution of the cadherin-catenin-actin complex from Caenorhabditis elegans. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2010 Aug 17;107(33):14591-6.
Year of publication and volume number are required for all references to articles. Issue number is strongly recommended. To save space, use no spaces to separate an article's date, volume, and page.
[1] Annu Rev Phytopathol. 2012;50:425-49.
Author(s). Title. Edition. Place of publication: publisher; date.
[1] Allen C, Prior P, Hayward AC. Bacterial wilt: the disease and the Ralstonia solanacearumspecies complex. St. Paul: APS Press; 2005.
Author(s). Chapter title. In: Editor(s). Book title. Publisher; year. Page numbers for that chapter.
[2] Otegui MS. Endosperm: development and molecular biology. In: Olson OA, editor. Endosperm cell walls: formation, composition, and functions. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag; 2007. p. 159-178.
PRINT: Author(s). Article title. Abbreviated or full journal title. Date;volume(issue):pages.
[3] Wang Y, Zhu J, DeLuca HF. Where is the vitamin D receptor? Arch Biochem Biophys. 2012 Jul 1;523(1):123-33.
ONLINE: Add [Internet] at the end of the journal title, citation date and the URL.
[4] Werling BP, Lowenstein DM, Straub CS, Gratton C. Multi-predator effects produced by functionally distinct species vary with prey density. J Insect Sci [Internet]. 2012 [cited 12 Sep 2013];12(30). Available from: insectscience.org/12.30
Author(s). Title of article [Internet]. Title of Website; date published [date cited]. Available from: url
Author(s). Title or description of image [Digital image]. TItle of Website; date published [date cited]. Available from: url
If image is created by author to document your research do not include an author, do include date image taken
[5] How Dengue fever is transmitted [Digital Image]. Siam News Network; 2017 [cited 2017 Aug 25]. Available from: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/health/46250-record-dengue-season-predicted-in-thailand.html
[6] Threats: overfishing [Internet]. World Wildlife Fund; 18 Jan 2018 [cited 2018 Mar 20]. Available from: https://worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing
[7] University of Wisconsin-Madison policy for multisite research studies using an pluripotent stem cells [Internet]. University of Wisconsin-Madison; 2009 [cited 2013 Sep 12]. Available from http://www.grad.wisc.edu/admin/committees/scro.pdf
Author(s). Title [video online]. Place of publication: publisher; date published [date cited]. Available from: url
[8] Cort J. NOVA: life's greatest miracle [Video Online]. Boston: WGBH Educational Foundation; 2001 [cited 2018 Mar 15]. Available from: http://www.pbs.org/video/nova-lifes-greatest-miracle/
Add country designation after title and after agency. Ex: (UK)
[9] Draft report diversity in the biomedical research workforce [Internet]. National Institutes of Health (US); 2012 Jun 13 [cited 2013 Sep 12]. Available from http://acd.od.nih.gov/Diversity%20in%20the%20Biome.pdf
[10] Oliver SS. Context dependent protein interpretation of the histone language [Dissertation]. University of Wisconsin-Madison; 2012. 238 p.
[11] Vierstra R. Atomic perspectives on phytochrome photoactivation and signaling. Paper presented at: Steenbock 35. Proceedings of the 35th Steenbock Symposium on Advances in Biomolecular NMR; 2011 June 26-28; Madison, WI.
In CSE, there is no standard format to follow as science writers are typically submitting papers to journals and must follow the journal's standards for formatting. However, here are some guidelines for citations we will use at Concordian:
List the citation in the numerical order that it appears in the text [similar to Wikipedia citations]. If you reuse that citation, the number is still the same, no matter where it appears in the text.
All lines are flush with the left margin, no hanging indentations are used.
Authors’ last names are listed first, then the first and middle initial (if given). No commas are used in between the last name and first initial. In addition, no periods or spaces are used in between initials. Example: Brown AC.
Use all authors’ names if a work has up to ten authors listed. For a work with more than ten authors, list the first ten names followed by a comma and “et al.” Example: Brown MW, Keats EJ, Willems M, Lowry L, Sachar L, Rylant C, Collins S, London J, Tolkien JR, Bang M, et al.
Titles of books and articles are not italicized, “placed within quotation marks”, or underlined. Only the first word of the title is capitalized, after that only proper names in the title are the only words that should be capitalized.
Journal titles that consist of more than one word are abbreviated. All the words in the abbreviated title are capitalized. For a searchable database of journal abbreviations visit CASSI (http://cassi.cas.org/search.jsp), American Chemical Society’s Source Index search tool.
No end period when you include the URL.
Example of Chart (labeled Figure) from a source Notice [in-text citation] since this is a chart from research found
Example of using a Formula / Equation
Example of Table created by author Ex: When referred to in text: ...see table 1...
Example of Figure / Graph created by author Ex: When referred to in text: ...as seen in figure 8, ...
Example of Digital Image created by author Ex: When referred to in text: (see figure 7)
Example of Acknowledgement This can go in the introduction or at the end of the Extended Essay
Example of References
