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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.

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)

Your instructor can tell you which method to use.

Identify Sources in the Text -- Name-Year method

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:

Some prokaryotic cells are visible to the naked eye, but most are microscopic (Pierce 2023).

or

Pierce (2023) notes that Archaea, one type of prokaryotic cell, can often survive in extreme environments.

AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, are treated as a personal communication. Personal communications are not included in the end references but should be acknowledged in the text of the paper. This means any content in your paper that was produced by AI will not be numbered and listed at the end of the paper, but it will have an in-text citation like the following example:

In-Text: (date type of communication)

In-Text:(2025 ChatGPT response to prompt from author)

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 "Accessed References."
In the Name-Year system, references appear in alphabetical order.

The general rules for an end reference list are:

PRINT BOOKS

Last name and Initials of author. Year. Title with only first word and Proper Nouns capitalized.
Edition. Publisher.

Wong DW. 2006. The ABCs of gene cloning. Springer.

ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA

Last name and Initials of author. Year. Title with only first word and Proper Nouns capitalized.
Database. URL

Brasseur GP, Prinn RG. 2023. Stratospheric ozone. McGraw Hill’s Access Science.
https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.757477

-OR-

Last name and Initials of author. Year. Title with only first word and Proper Nouns capitalized. In: Last name and Initials of the editor, editor. Encyclopedia Name. Edition. Volume #. Database. page numbers. URL

Uretsky SD, Davidson T. 2020. Antacids. In: Longe JL, editor. The Gale encyclopedia of medicine. 6th ed. Vol 1. Gale; p. 288–290.
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX7986600110/GVRL

MAGAZINE ARTICLES FROM LIBRARY DATABASE

Last name and Initials of author. Year. Article Title with only first word and Proper Nouns capitalized. Magazine title. Volume#(Issue#):Page numbers. URL

Gottsche M. 2024. Root of rust. Scientific American. 330(6):8–9.
https://research.ebsco.com

WEBSITE

Last name and Initials of author (if available). Year Mon Day. Website name with only first word and Proper Nouns capitalized. Publisher Name; URL

Ground water and drinking water. 2025 Jul 14. United States Environmental Protection Agency.
https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water

OTHER RULES

Journal titles — when longer than one word, the title of a journal should be abbreviated. Recognized abbreviations can be confirmed with https://cassi.cas.org/search.jsp or https://issn.org/.

Issue vs article number — some articles do not have an issue number but do include an article number. The article number should be used in place of the issue number in the end reference.

Organization names — if an organization is used as an author and used frequently in the text, initials of the organization should be used in the in-text reference and in the end reference, but the full name should also be used in the end reference.

The ADA (2006) recommends using plastic containers primarily for cold food storage.

[ADA] American Dietetic Association. 2006. Nutrition diagnosis: a critical step in the nutrition care process. American Dietetic Association.

AI

References to AI are treated as a personal communication. Personal communications are not included in the end references list, but an in-text reference should be included.

In-Text: (date type of communication)

In-Text:(2025 ChatGPT response to prompt from author)

Austin Commmunity College Library Services 12/10/2025 - Barbara Jorge, Jonathan Buckstead, Jordan Hagan, Martha Clark