Zoology Research Guide

This page provides a basic introduction to the CSE citation style. It is based on the 8th edition of the Scientific style and format: CSE manual published by the Council of Science Editors in 2014. The CSE manual is generally used for academic writing in the sciences. For additional information and examples refer to the CSE manual and the standard reference for preparing scientific manuscripts for publication, including the two methods for citing and documenting sources: the citation-sequence system and the name-year system.

CSE style requires that journal titles be abbreviated using ISO4 standards. Rules are complex and the correct abbreviation is not always obvious. The following database journal lists include journal abbreviations that follow ISO4 standards.

• Serials Sources for the Biological Sciences (BIOSIS Previews)
• Journals Indexed in Medline (PubMed) (Medline)
• CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool (Chemical Abstracts)

Reference management programs handle journal abbreviations in various ways. Endnote includes "term lists" as part of its software package that automatically connects journal titles with approved abbreviations in biology and other subject areas. Zotero includes a "journal abbreviation" field for each record which you must individually edit.