Website
Website Example
Council of Science Editors. 2024. CSE style guide. CSE Online; [accessed 2024 Mar 20]. https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/style-guide
CSE author-date style is one of three CSE citation systems, using parenthetical author-date citations, commonly used in biological and physical sciences.
See how to format different source types in Council of Science Editors (author-date).
Website Example
Council of Science Editors. 2024. CSE style guide. CSE Online; [accessed 2024 Mar 20]. https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/style-guide
Journal Article Example
Smith J, Doe M. 2024. Scientific research methods. J Sci Res. 45(2):123-45.
Book Example
Brown C. 2023. Introduction to Science. 3rd ed. New York: Academic Press.
Last name Initial(s). Use 'and' before last author. List all authors or use 'et al.' for 10+ authors.
Sentence case for article titles. Journal names are abbreviated.
Year in parentheses after author. Include month and day for web sources.
Abbreviated journal name. year;volume(issue):page range.
Use author-date format: (Author Year) or Author (Year). Reference list is alphabetical by author.
Incorrect citations cost you grades. Our Council of Science Editors (author-date) citation generator is built by formatting experts who've refined every algorithm for precision. Trusted by educators and students worldwide, we help you cite sources correctly the first time.

Tom Atkinson
Citation Expert

Garrett Becker
Style Specialist

Briggs Knight
Citation Developer
CSE author-date (Name-Year) is one of three CSE citation systems. It uses parenthetical (Author Year) citations with an alphabetical reference list.
Author-date uses (Author Year) in text with alphabetical references. Citation-sequence uses numbered [1] citations with references in order of appearance.
Use (Author Year) format, e.g., (Smith 2024). For multiple authors, use (Smith and Doe 2024) or (Smith et al. 2024).
Use CSE author-date when your journal or field prefers author-date citations. It's common in ecology, biology, and environmental sciences.
Free, accurate, and easy-to-use citation generator for students and researchers worldwide.