The CSE-Style Citation Quick Guide

The CSE Manual presents 3 systems for referring to references (also known as citations) within the text of a journal article, book, or other scientific publication: (1) citation–sequence, (2) name–year, and (3) citation–name. These abbreviated references are called in-text references. They refer to a list of references at the end of the document.

The system of in-text references that you use will determine the order of references at the end of your document. These end references have essentially the same format in all 3 systems, except for the placement of the date of publication in the name–year system.

Though The CSE Manual uses citation–sequence for its own references, each system is widely used in scientific publishing. Consult your publisher to determine which system you will need to follow.

The citation–sequence and citation–name systems, which rely on numbered references in the text, are summarized under the first tab below; the second tab summarizes the name–year system, which uses parenthetical references in the text. Both tabs include examples of how to cite journal articles and other common source types. For more information and many more examples, see Chapter 29 of the 9th edition of The CSE Manual.

Citation—Sequence and Citation—Name

Name—Year

Citation–Sequence and Citation–Name

The following examples illustrate the citation–sequence and citation–name systems. These 2 systems are identical except for the order in which the end references are listed. In both systems, numbers within the text refer to the end references.

In the citation–sequence system, the end references are listed in the sequence in which they first appear within the text. For example, if a reference by Smith is the first one mentioned in the text, then the complete reference to the Smith work will be number 1 in the end references. The same number is used for subsequent in-text references to the same document.

In the citation–name system, the end references are listed alphabetically by the first author’s surname. Multiple works by the same author are listed alphabetically by title. The references are numbered in that sequence, such that a work authored by Acosta is number 1, Brown is number 2, and so on. Numbers assigned to the end references are used for the in-text references regardless of the sequence in which they appear in the text of the work. For example, if a work by Zielinski is number 56 in the reference list, each in-text reference to Zielinski will also be number 56.

Journals

List authors in the order in which they appear in the original text, followed by a period. Periods also follow article and journal titles and volume or issue information. Separate the date from volume and issue by a semicolon. The location (usually the page range for the article or, for journals that follow a continuous publication model, the article number) is preceded by a colon. For journal articles consulted online, add a URL to the end of the reference; no punctuation follows the URL. A DOI-based URL (which starts with https://doi.org/), when available, should be preferred to any other form of URL.

Author(s). Article title. Journal title. Date;volume(issue):location. URL

Journal titles are generally abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations maintained by the ISSN International Centre. See Appendix 29.1 in The CSE Manual for more information.

For articles with more than 1 author, names are separated by a comma.

Haasnoot M, Lawrence J, Magnan AK. Pathways to coastal retreat. Science. 2021;372(6548):1287–1290. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi6594

For articles with more than 5 authors, list the first author followed by “et al.”

Ashraf M et al. Interaction between the distribution of diabetic retinopathy lesions and the association of optical coherence tomography angiography scans with diabetic retinopathy severity. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2020;138(12):1291–1297. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2020.4516

Volume with no issue or other subdivision

Kim KY, Kim BS. The effect of regional warming on the East Asian summer monsoon. Clim Dyn. 2020;54:3259–3277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05169-7

Volume with issue and supplement

Yohannes AM, Kaplan A, Hanania NA. Anxiety and depression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: recognition and management. Cleve Clin J Med. 2018;85(2 Suppl 1):S11–S18. https://doi.org/10.3949/ccjm.85.s1.03

Volume with supplement but no issue

Bhaskar ST, Dholaria BR, Sengsayadeth SM, Savani BN, Oluwole OO. Role of bridging therapy during chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy. eJHaem. 2022;3(Suppl 1):39–45. https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.335

Multiple volume numbers

Bibi S, Alam K, Chishtie F, Bibi H, Rahman S. Temporal variation of black carbon concentration using Aethalometer observations and its relationships with meteorological variables in Karachi, Pakistan. J Atmos Sol Terr Phys. 2017;157–158:67–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2017.03.017

Article number but no volume or issue

Liu L, Bai P, Liu C, Tian W, Liang K. Changes in extreme precipitation in the Mekong Basin. Adv Meteorol. 2020:8874869. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8874869

Books

Separate information about author(s), title, edition, and publisher by periods. The basic format is as follows:

Author(s). Title. Edition. Publisher; year of publication.

For books with more than 1 author, names are separated by a comma.

De Doncker RW, Duco WJP, Veltman A. Advanced electrical drives: analysis, modeling, control. Springer; 2020.

For books with more than 5 authors, list the first author followed by “et al.” For an example, see the Agarwal title at the end of this section (under “Online book”).

Organization as author

Advanced Life Support Group. Acute psychiatric emergencies: a practical approach. Wiley-Blackwell; 2020.

Editor in place of author

Gupta HK, editor. Encyclopedia of solid earth geophysics. 2nd ed. Springer; 2021.

Author(s) plus editor(s) or translator(s)

Klarsfeld A, Revah F. The biology of death: origins of mortality. Brady L, translator. Cornell University Press; 2003.

Luzikov VN. Mitochondrial biogenesis and breakdown. Galkin AV, translator; Roodyn DB, editor. Consultants Bureau; 1985.

Chapter or other part of a book, same author(s)

Everard M. Ecosystem services: key issues. Routledge; 2017. Chapter 8, Regenerative landscapes: reversing the cycle; p 141–169.

Chapter or other part of a book, different author(s)

Geisslitz S, Scherf K. The holy grail of ancient cereals. In: Boukid F, editor. Cereal-based foodstuffs: the backbone of Mediterranean cuisine. Springer; 2021. p 269–301.

Volume in a multivolume set

Rabinovich AB, Fritz HM, Tanioka Y, Geist EL, editors. Global tsunami science: past and future. Vol 3. Birkhäuser; 2019.

Online book

Agarwal A et al, editors. Oxford handbook of clinical surgery. 5th ed. Oxford University Press; 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198799481.001.0001

Dissertations and Theses

Liang S. Transport properties of topological semimetals and non-symmorphic topological insulator [dissertation]. Princeton University; 2020. https://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01vm40xv52n

Patents

Engelhardt TP et al, inventors; Roche Diabetes Care, Inc, assignee. Diabetes manager for glucose testing and continuous glucose monitoring. United States patent US10568511B2. 2020 Feb 25.

Newspapers

Zimmer C. To speed vaccination, some call for delaying second shots. The New York Times. 2021 Apr 9 [updated 2021 Apr 27]. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/health/covid-vaccine-second-dose-delay.html

Websites

References to websites and other online formats follow the same general principles as for other references, with the addition of a date of update/revision (if available) along with a URL.

Format:

Author. Title of article. Publisher; date of publication [date updated]. URL

If no author is listed, cite under the title of the article or other component.

Health equity considerations and racial and ethnic minority groups. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Division of Viral Diseases; 2020 Apr 30 [updated 2022 Jan 25]. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html

If no date of publication or update is available, include an access date.

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, Chicago, Illinois. Google Maps; [accessed 2022 Jan 3]. https://goo.gl/maps/GJALYGBXFZ8TSGK5A

Forthcoming or Unpublished Material

Not all forthcoming or unpublished sources are suitable for inclusion in reference lists. Check with your publisher if in doubt.

Forthcoming book

Kasper D et al. Harrison’s principles of internal medicine. 22nd ed. McGraw Hill Professional. Forthcoming 2026.

Journal preprint

Lopez Bernal J et al. Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the B.1.617.2 variant [preprint]. medRxiv 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.22.21257658

Journal article published ahead of print

Corrigan TJ Jr, Businger S. The anatomy of a series of cloud bursts that eclipsed the US rainfall record. Mon Wea Rev. [published online ahead of print 2021 Dec 30]. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-21-0028.1

Paper or poster presented at meeting

Charles L, Gordner R. Analysis of MedlinePlus en Español customer service requests. Poster session presented at: ¡Futuro magnifico! Celebrating our diversity. MLA ’05: Medical Library Association Annual Meeting; 2005 May 14–19; San Antonio, TX.

References to published presentations are cited much like contributions to books, with the addition of information about the date and place of the conference. See Chapter 29 for more information.

Personal communication

References to personal communication are placed in running text rather than as formal end references. Permission is usually required and should be acknowledged in an “Acknowledgments” or “Notes” section at the end of the document.

. . . local and systemic reactions were expected to be stronger after the second dose (2022 letter from TD Perez to author; unreferenced, see “Notes”) . . .

Name–Year

The following examples illustrate the name–year system. In this system, in–text references consist of the surname of the author or authors and the year of publication of the document. End references are unnumbered and appear in alphabetical order by author and year of publication, with multiple works by the same author listed in chronological order.

Each example of an end reference is accompanied here by an example of a corresponding in-text reference. For more details and many more examples, see Chapter 29 of The CSE Manual.

Journals

For the end reference, list authors in the order in which they appear in the original text. The year of publication follows the author list. Use periods to separate each element, including author(s), date of publication, article and journal titles, and volume or issue information. The location (usually the page range for the article or, for journals that follow a continuous publication model, the article number) is preceded by a colon. For journal articles consulted online, add a URL to the end of the reference; no punctuation follows the URL. A DOI-based URL (which starts with https://doi.org/), when available, should be preferred to any other form of URL.

Author(s). Date. Article title. Journal title. Volume(issue):location. URL

Journal titles are generally abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations maintained by the ISSN International Centre. See Appendix 29.1 in The CSE Manual for more information.

For the in-text reference, use parentheses and list author(s) by surname followed by year of publication.

(Author(s) Year)

For articles with 2 authors, names are separated by a comma in the end reference but by “and” in the in-text 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

(Fauci and Lane 2020)

For articles with 3 to 5 authors, list all authors in the end reference; for articles with more than 5 authors, list the first author followed by “et al.” In either case, list only the first author followed by “et al” in the in-text reference.

Haasnoot M, Lawrence J, Magnan AK. 2021. Pathways to coastal retreat. Science. 372(6548):1287–1290. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi6594

(Haasnoot et al 2021)

For 2 or more works published by the same author(s) in the same year, add a, b, and so on to the year and order the titles either from oldest to newest (if exact date of publication is known) or alphabetically by title. See Chapter 29 in The CSE Manual for more details.

Lee SMC et al. 2020a. Arterial structure and function during and after long-duration spaceflight. J Appl Physiol. 129(1):108–123. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00550.2019

Lee SMC et al. 2020b. Efficacy of gradient compression garments in the hours after long-duration spaceflight. Front Physiol. 11:784. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00784

(Lee et al 2020a, 2020b)

Volume with no issue or other subdivision

Kim KY, Kim BS. 2020. The effect of regional warming on the East Asian summer monsoon. Clim Dyn. 54:3259–3277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05169-7

(Kim and Kim 2020)

Volume with issue and supplement

Yohannes AM, Kaplan A, Hanania NA. 2018. Anxiety and depression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: recognition and management. Cleve Clin J Med. 85(2 Suppl 1):S11–S18. https://doi.org/10.3949/ccjm.85.s1.03

(Yohannes et al 2018)

Volume with supplement but no issue

Bhaskar ST, Dholaria BR, Sengsayadeth SM, Savani BN, Oluwole OO. 2022. Role of bridging therapy during chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy. eJHaem. 3(Suppl 1):39–45. https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.335

(Bhaskar et al 2022)

Multiple volume numbers

Bibi S, Alam K, Chishtie F, Bibi H, Rahman S. 2017. Temporal variation of black carbon concentration using Aethalometer observations and its relationships with meteorological variables in Karachi, Pakistan. J Atmos Sol Terr Phys. 157–158:67–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2017.03.017

(Bibi et al 2017)

Article number but no volume or issue

Liu L, Bai P, Liu C, Tian W, Liang K. 2020. Changes in extreme precipitation in the Mekong Basin. Adv Meteorol. 8874869. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8874869

(Liu et al 2020)

Books

In the end reference, separate information about author(s), date, title, edition, and publisher by periods. The basic format is as follows:

Author(s). Date. Title. Edition. Publisher.

For books with 2 authors, names are separated by a comma in the end reference but by “and” in the in-text reference.

Reiss MJ, Ruse M. 2023. The new biology: a battle between mechanism and organicism. Harvard University Press.

(Reiss and Ruse 2023)

For books with 3 to 5 authors, list all authors in the end reference; for books with more than 5 authors, list the first author followed by “et al.” In either case, list only the first author followed by “et al” in the in-text reference.

De Doncker RW, Duco WJP, Veltman A. 2020. Advanced electrical drives: analysis, modeling, control. Springer.

(De Doncker et al 2020)

Organization as author

[ALSG] Advanced Life Support Group. 2020. Acute psychiatric emergencies: a practical approach. Wiley-Blackwell.

(ALSG 2020)

Editor in place of author

Gupta HK, editor. 2021. Encyclopedia of solid earth geophysics. 2nd ed. Springer.

(Gupta 2021)

Author(s) plus editor(s) or translator(s)

Klarsfeld A, Revah F. 2003. The biology of death: origins of mortality. Brady L, translator. Cornell University Press.

Luzikov VN. 1985. Mitochondrial biogenesis and breakdown. Galkin AV, translator; Roodyn DB, editor. Consultants Bureau.

(Klarsfeld and Revah 2003)

(Luzikov 1985)

Chapter or other part of a book, same author(s)

Everard M. 2017. Ecosystem services: key issues. Routledge. Chapter 8, Regenerative landscapes: reversing the cycle; p 141–169.

(Everard 2017)

Chapter or other part of a book, different authors

Geisslitz S, Scherf K. 2021. The holy grail of ancient cereals. In: Boukid F, editor. Cereal-based foodstuffs: the backbone of Mediterranean cuisine. Springer. p 269–301.

(Geisslitz and Scherf 2021)

Volume in a multivolume set

Rabinovich AB, Fritz HM, Tanioka Y, Geist EL, editors. 2019. Global tsunami science: past and future. Vol 3. Birkhäuser.

(Rabinovich et al 2019)

Online book

Agarwal A et al, editors. 2022. Oxford handbook of clinical surgery. 5th ed. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198799481.001.0001

(Agarwal et al 2022)

Dissertations and Theses

Liang S. 2020. Transport properties of topological semimetals and non-symmorphic topological insulator [dissertation]. Princeton University. https://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01vm40xv52n

(Liang 2020)

Patents

Engelhardt TP et al, inventors; Roche Diabetes Care, Inc, assignee. 2020 Feb 25. Diabetes manager for glucose testing and continuous glucose monitoring. United States patent US10568511B2.

(Engelhardt et al 2020)

Newspapers

Zimmer C. 2021 Apr 9. To speed vaccination, some call for delaying second shots. The New York Times. [updated 2021 Apr 27]. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/health/covid-vaccine-second-dose-delay.html

(Zimmer 2021)

Websites

References to websites and other online formats follow the same general principles as for other references, with the addition of a date of update/revision (if available) along with a URL.

Format for end reference:

Author. Date. Title of article. Publisher; [date updated]. URL

If no author is listed, cite under the title of the article or other component. For the in-text reference, include only the first word or two of the title (enough to distinguish it from other titles in the reference list), followed by an ellipsis.

Health equity considerations and racial and ethnic minority groups. 2020 Apr 30. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Division of Viral Diseases; [updated 2022 Jan 25]. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html

(Health equity . . . 2020)

If no date of publication is available, use “date unknown” and include an access date.

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, Chicago, Illinois. [date unknown]. Google Maps; [accessed 2022 Jan 3]. https://goo.gl/maps/GJALYGBXFZ8TSGK5A

(Montrose Point . . . [date unknown])

Forthcoming or Unpublished Material

Not all forthcoming or unpublished sources are suitable for inclusion in reference lists. Check with your publisher if in doubt.

Forthcoming book

Kasper D et al. Forthcoming 2026. Harrison’s principles of internal medicine. 22nd ed. McGraw Hill Professional.

(Kasper, forthcoming 2026)

Journal preprint

Lopez Bernal J et al. 2021. Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the B.1.617.2 variant [preprint]. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.22.21257658

(Lopez Bernal et al. 2021)

Journal article published ahead of print

Corrigan TJ Jr, Businger S. 2021 Dec 30. The anatomy of a series of cloud bursts that eclipsed the US rainfall record. Mon Wea Rev. [published online ahead of print]. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-21-0028.1

(Corrigan and Businger 2021)

Paper or poster presented at meeting

Charles L, Gordner R. 2005 May 14–19. Analysis of MedlinePlus en Español customer service requests. Poster session presented at: ¡Futuro magnifico! Celebrating our diversity. MLA ’05: Medical Library Association Annual Meeting; San Antonio, TX.

(Charles and Gordner 2005)

References to published presentations are cited much like contributions to books, with the addition of information about the date and place of the conference. See Chapter 29 for more information.

Personal communication

References to personal communications are placed in running text rather than as formal end references. Permission is usually required and should be acknowledged in an “Acknowledgments” or “Notes” section at the end of the document.

. . . local and systemic reactions were expected to be stronger after the second dose (2022 letter from TD Perez to author; unreferenced, see “Notes”) . . .