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CSE Bibliographic Style Guide

University of Alicante Library Guide to the CSE 9th ed. style, developed by the Council of Science Editors and used in all areas of science.

How to elaborate references

  • The CSE style establishes that all references used in the work must be included in a final reference list.

  • At the end of a document, list the references to sources that have been cited within the text, including those found in tables and figures, under the headings "References", “Reference List”, "Cited References", "Literature Cited" or "Bibliography".

  • Each reference normally contains the following mandatory elements: authorship, title, publisher, and date of publication. Other items such as length, secondary authors and location of the document are, in general, optional.

  • Information that has not been found in the document and that has been added by the person preparing the reference will be included in square brackets.

     

 

  • The names of the authors should be included in the order in which they appear in the document, placing first the last name followed by the initial of the first name.
  • If a document has up to 5 authors, all authors must be included separated by a comma and a space..
  • In a document with more than 5 authors, only the first author should be included, followed by the expression "et al."

Ojeda-Martínez C et al. A conceptual framework for the integral management of marine protected areas. Ocean Coast Manag. 2009;52(2):89-101.

 

  • The title is a mandatory component of all references. If the title does not appear, one is constructed with the first words of the document in square brackets and placed in the reference. It is recommended that, whenever possible, an English translation of titles of works written in other languages be included in square brackets and the language of the document be indicated at the end of the reference.

Gómez Lavin C, Zapata García R. Psiquiatría, salud mental y trabajo social [Psychiatry, mental health and social work]. Ediciones Eunate; c2000. Spanish.

  • Subtitles may be placed after the title, separated by a colon and a space. The subtitle begins with a lowercase letter.
  • The publisher and date of publication are required in some references such as books. If these elements are not mentioned in the document, they will be indicated by the expressions [publisher unknown], and [date unknown].

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

  • If several publishers appear in the document, the one indicated first or the one that appears more highlighted by the typeface or in bold type should be used. Do not indicate more than one publisher.
  • If the year of publication cannot be determined, the copyright year is included preceded by the letter "c". If both dates appear, only the year of publication should be indicated unless they are separated by at least 3 years, in which case both dates should be indicated.
  • If no date is shown, [date unknown] or an estimated date if a date cannot be determined will be indicated in square brackets.

Karlson RG. Essays on the history of psychology. Modern History Press; 1999, c1995. 
Pathak L, editor. Echocardiography noninvasive diagnosis. Cardiological Society of India; [date unknown].

  • For electronic documents, the date of access shall be indicated only when the date of publication, copyright or date of update cannot be determined. 
  • If a publication has been published over several years, it will be indicated by hyphenating the first and last year “2020-2023.”
  • Although most references include only the year, sometimes it will also be necessary to indicate the month, day or season.

2021 Sep
2022 Dec-2023 Jan
2022 Jan 3
2020 Mar 1-15
Summer   
2019 Fall-Winter

  • The references of documents accessible via the Internet generally follow the same patterns as those of printed documents. However, it is necessary to add some information that reveals the digital nature of these information resources and helps us to locate them.
  • The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of an information resource is its address on the Internet that allows the web browser to find and display it appropriately.
  • The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a unique alphanumeric series assigned by the publisher to an electronic document in order to identify the content and provide a stable link for its location on the Internet. 
  • An update/revision date must be incorporated along with a URL. 
  • Only if no publication or update date is available, an access date will be included.
  • Punctuation will not be added after the URL.
  • If the document has a DOI, it is preferable to a URL.
  • All references should follow the DOI format established by the International DOI Foundation: https://doi.org/xxxxx.
  • The string “https://doi.org/” is a way of presenting a DOI as a link, and “xxxxx” refers to the DOI number.

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