Name-Year (N-Y) System in CSE
CSE has three documentation systems which provide the same information, but in different formats:
This guide summarizes instructions for the name-year system only. For guidelines on the citation sequence and citation-name systems, consult section 29.2.1 of the Scientific Style and Format : The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 8th Ed.
A note on formatting papers: CSE style does not specify guidelines for the physical layout of student research papers; most instructors will want the layout of your paper to be consistent with common scientific practice. Be aware that instructor requirements may differ, and ask your own instructor about the requirements for your assignment.
In-text citations consist of the last name of the author(s) and the year of publication. Enclose the name and year in parentheses without a comma, e.g., (Smith 2011).
Order: List entries in alphabetical order beginning with the first author’s last name (or, if there is no known author, by organization name or by the title of the work). Ignore "a", "an", and "the" at the beginning of a title when alphabetizing. Place the year after the last author’s name, followed by a period.
Organization/group as author: Where you used an abbreviated form of an organization's name for the in-text citation, include the abbreviation in square brackets as the first part of the citation in your reference list, e.g., [CLA] Canadian Lung Association.
Authors’ names: Give authors’ last names, followed by initials for first and middle names. Do not use periods or spaces between the initials. Do not use a comma between the last name and the initials, e.g., Smith BL. Include all authors’ names if a work has up to ten authors; for a work with eleven or more authors, list the first ten names followed by a comma and “et al.” (which means “and others”). For works with two authors, do not use “and” or “&” to separate the authors’ names.
No author: If no author can be identified, put the title in place of the author.
Multiple citations by same author: If you are citing more than one item by the same author(s), list works in chronological order (oldest first). If you are including works by a particular author as both a single author and as a coauthor, list the the items published individually first. List the multi-author publications in alphabetical order by the second author's last name.
Formatting titles: Do not italicize or underline the titles of books or journals.
Titles of books and articles: Only the first letter of the title’s first word and any proper nouns should be capitalized. Do not enclose article titles in quotation marks.
Titles of journals: Abbreviate the titles of any journals that consist of more than one word. Omit articles, conjunctions, and prepositions (e.g., the, and, of). Do not use apostrophes. Capitalize all the words or abbreviated words in the title.
Examples:
To find journal abbreviations:
UBC Woodard Library Science and Engineering Journal Abbreviations
https://woodward.library.ubc.ca/woodward/research-help/journal-abbreviations/
CalTech ISI Journal Title Abbreviations:
http://library.caltech.edu/reference/abbreviations/
NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals
Edition: Include edition information where provided, abbreviated as "ed."
Examples:
Page ranges: Include page ranges for articles in journals/magazines/newspapers and for chapters in books. When an article appears on discontinuous pages, list all pages or page ranges, separated by commas, e.g., 145-149, 162-174. For chapters in books, use the abbreviation “p.” before the numbers (p. 63-90).
No date of publication: Use the abbreviation [date unknown]. Exception: When citing electronic publications (e.g., websites), use the dates of update/revision (or both) instead.
More than one city of publication: Use the first one listed.