When you use the words or original ideas of another person in your writing, you need to document, or give credit to, the sources of those words or ideas. If exact words from the original are used, quotation marks are necessary. If you paraphrase or restate the idea in your own words, quotation marks are not required, but documentation of the source is still required.
There are several different formats for documentation. This page explains the CSE (Council of Science Editors) format. In this format, you briefly identify your sources in the text of your paper, then give the full information in the list of references at the end of the paper.
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The CSE style manual describes two systems of documentation:
- the Citation-Sequence system (used for the chemistry lab/library assignment)
- the Name-Year system (used by most biology classes)
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According to CSE style, you identify in the text of your paper the sources of information (references) you have used. This serves the same purpose as "footnotes," but is integrated smoothly into the text of your paper, rather than listed separately. The CSE style offers several methods of citing your references. This handout illustrates the Name-Year method. As each source is mentioned in the text, list the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication in parentheses. Page numbers are not added. One author or editor: (Wong 2006) Two authors: (Fasulo and Walker 2007) Three or more authors: (Bormann et al. 2007) Organization as author: (American Dietetic Association 2006) No author? Use title: (Cool energy; the renewable solution to global warming 1991) No date? Use "[date unknown]": (Texas endemics: distribution of family Amaryllidaceae [date unknown]) Placement of the parentheses depends on whether you use the author’s name in your text: Prokaryotic cells, the bacteria, number in the tens of thousands of species (Prescott 1992). Prescott (1992) notes that prokaryotes occur in nearly every earthly environment, including on plant roots. Please note: A much more recent version of the Prescott article is in AccessScience @ McGraw-Hill: encyclopedia of science and technology online. |
Listing Your References
The list of references (or bibliography) at the end of your paper should be a list of all the sources that contributed ideas and information to your paper. It can be titled "References" or "Cited References."
In the Name-Year system, references appear in alphabetical order.
Note: Write down the URL and access date for citations when downloading articles from a full-text database; they may not appear on your printed document.If you have a type of source not covered by the example reference list
below, ask a librarian to show you the CSE style manual, Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors,
Editors, and Publishers, 7th ed. Reston , VA: Council
of Science Editors; 2006.
REF T11 .S386 2006
Note: Print and Electronic sources are listed separately below to aid in locating the correct format. In your Reference List, print and electronic sources will be integrated into one list.
Print Sources (Name-Year Method)
| Signed encyclopedia article | Prescott DM. 1992. Cell (biology). In: McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science and technology. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Volume 3, p332-337. |
| Book with author | Wong DW. 2006. The ABCs of gene cloning. New York: Springer. 242p. |
| Book with two authors | Fasulo M, Walker P. 2007. Careers in the environment. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. 343 p. |
| Book with organization as author | American Dietetic Association. 2006. Nutrition diagnosis: a critical step in the nutrition care process. Chicago: American Dietetic Association. 173 p. |
| Book with two editors | Bisio A, Boots S, editors. 1997. The Wiley encyclopedia of energy and the environment. New York: Wiley. |
| Work within a larger work | Style Manual Committee. 2006. Books, technical reports, and monographs. In: Style Manual Committee, Council of Biology Editors, editors. Scientific style and format; the CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers. New York: Rockefeller University Press. p468-489. |
| Journal article with three authors | Bormann BT, Haynes RW, Martin, JR. 2007 Feb. Adaptive management of forest ecosystems: did some rubber hit the road? Bioscience. 57(2):186-191. |
| Magazine article with author and discontinuous pages | Birkland TA. 1998 Sep. In the wake of the Exxon Valdez; how environmental disasters influence policy. Environment 40(7):4-9, 27-32. |
| Newspaper article with author | Broad WJ. 2007 Sep 28. Useful mutants, bred with radiation. New York Times 156(54,050):D1, D6. |
| Pamphlet | Cool energy; the renewable solution to global warming. 1991 May. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists. |
Electronic Sources (Name-Year Method)
Note: Write down the URL and date accessed (cited) for citations when
downloading. They may not appear on printouts or in saved files.
| Signed encyclopedia article found in an online database | Brasseur GP, Prinn RG. 2007. Stratospheric ozone. In AccessScience @ McGraw-Hill: encyclopedia of science and technology online [database on the Internet]. 2007 ed. [New York]: McGraw-Hill. [cited 2007 Aug 22]. Available from: http://www.accessscience.com/. |
| Science magazine article found in an online database | Travis J. Toxin trumped. 2002. Science News Aug 17:99. In: Academic Search Complete [database on the Internet]. Ipswich (MA): EBSCO [cited 2007 Aug 22]. Available from: http://search.ebscohost.com/. |
| Journal article
examples for same article found in two different
indexes: Journal article found in an online database with first page number and then number of pages given and all multiple authors listed |
Chiuchiolo AL, Dickhut RM, Cochran MA, Ducklow HW. 2004. Persistent organic pollutants at the base of the Antarctic marine food web. Environmental Science & Technology 38(13):3551-3557. In: Academic Search Complete [database on the Internet]. Ipswich (MA): EBSCO [cited 2006 Sep 5]. 7p. Available from: http://search.ebscohost.com/. |
| Journal article found in an online database with page number range given and all multiple authors listed | Chiuchiolo AL, Dickhut RM, Cochran MA, Ducklow HW. 2004. Persistent organic pollutants at the base of the Antarctic marine food web. Environmental Science & Technology 38(13):3551-3557. In: American Chemical Society Publications: Journals and Magazines [database on the Internet]. Washington (DC): ACS; c2000-2007 [cited 2007 Aug 22]. Available from: http://pubs.acs.org/about.html. |
| Newspaper article found online | Brody, J. 2007 Aug 21. Cutting cholesterol, an uphill battle. The New York Times [Internet]. [cited 2007 Sep 27]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/health/21brod.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. |
| Abstract found in an online database | Eun JP, Koh GY. 2004 Apr 30. Suppression of angiogenesis by the plant alkaloid, sanguinarine [abstract]. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 317(2):618-24. In: PubMed [database on the Internet]. Washington (DC): NLM [cited 2007 Aug 22]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/. |
| WWW site | Texas A&M Bioinformatics Working Group. [date unknown]. Texas endemics: distribution of family Amaryllidaceae [Internet]. Flora of Texas Consortium web site. [cited in 2007 Sep 27]. Available from: http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/cgi/endemics_map_page2?fam=Amaryllidaceae. |
| Online database | McKusick VA et al., editors. 2007 Sep. OMIM, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man Database [Internet]. Johns Hopkins University and National Center for Biotechnology Information. [cited 2007 Sep 27]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=OMIM. |