CSE Citation Generator

What this tool does

This generator builds CSE-style references following Scientific Style and Format, 9th edition (CSE, 2024) — the citation style used across the biology and life-sciences literature. CSE supports two subsystems, and this tool handles both:

• Citation-Sequence (the numbered style used by Nature, Cell, Science, PNAS, and most biology journals)
• Name-Year (the author-year style common in ecology, evolution, and environmental sciences)

Toggle the subsystem at the top of the form and the reference output adapts.

How CSE citation format works

Three core conventions:

Authors are Family GM. Initials follow the family name, with no periods between them and no spaces. Jane Marie Smith → Smith JM. Authors are comma-separated: Smith JM, Chen RB, Park EJ. For more than ten authors, list the first ten then , et al. This is more generous than AMA (six-author cap) and matches the modern biology practice of large collaborative groups.

Abbreviated journal names. CSE uses NLM-style journal abbreviations: Nat Genet, Cell, PLoS One, Genome Biol, J Mol Biol. The full title (Nature Genetics) is incorrect. The PubMed/NLM catalogue is the source of truth for abbreviations.

Two subsystems, distinct year placement.

• Citation-Sequence: year sits near the volume/issue. Example: Smith JM, Chen RB. The genomics of high-altitude adaptation. Nat Genet. 2024;56(4):512-525.
• Name-Year: year sits right after the authors. Example: Smith JM, Chen RB. 2024. The genomics of high-altitude adaptation. Nat Genet. 56(4):512-525.

Citation-Sequence in practice

In-text citation is a superscript or bracketed number (the style varies slightly by journal): “Recent studies have shown a strong correlation between population structure and disease prevalence¹.”

The reference list is numbered in the order references first appear in the text. When a source is cited a second time, it keeps its original number. This means alphabetical sorting of the bibliography is wrong in Citation-Sequence — sources stay in the order they were first cited.

If you restructure your manuscript and a reference’s first appearance changes, you must renumber the entire bibliography. Most reference managers handle this automatically.

Name-Year in practice

In-text citation is (Author year): “Recent studies have shown a strong correlation between population structure and disease prevalence (Smith and Chen 2024).”

Two authors: both names with and between them. Three or more: first author plus et al. (note: the period is retained in CSE 9th ed.).

The reference list is alphabetised by first author’s family name — the opposite of Citation-Sequence. This is the same alphabetical ordering as APA or Chicago Author-Date.

When to use which subsystem

Most biology journals specify the subsystem in their author guidelines. Rough patterns:

• Cell / molecular biology / genetics / biochemistry: typically Citation-Sequence. Nature, Cell, Science, PNAS, Nat Genet, J Biol Chem, EMBO J.
• Ecology / evolution / environmental sci / behaviour: typically Name-Year. Ecology, Evolution, Oecologia, J Anim Ecol, Conserv Biol.
• Some journals accept either and leave the choice to the author — in which case Citation-Sequence is the more common biology default.

If you’re writing for a journal that hasn’t specified or for a thesis with mixed guidance, Citation-Sequence is the safer default in biology contexts.

Worked examples

Citation-Sequence, journal article:

1. Park L, Kumar A. Genome-wide associations for plasma lipid traits in 30 populations. Nat Genet. 2024;56(4):512-525.

Name-Year, journal article:

Park L, Kumar A. 2024. Genome-wide associations for plasma lipid traits in 30 populations. Nat Genet. 56(4):512-525.

Citation-Sequence, book chapter:

2. Stryer L, Berg JM, Tymoczko JL. Biochemistry. 9th ed. New York (NY): W. H. Freeman; 2023.

Name-Year, website citation:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2024. Influenza surveillance update [Internet]. CDC; [accessed 2026 May 21]. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/.

Citation-Sequence, conference paper:

3. Tan WL. Single-cell trajectory inference in early embryogenesis. In: Annual Meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology; San Diego, CA; 2024. p. 1245.

CSE vs CBE

CSE was previously called CBE (Council of Biology Editors). The organisation renamed in 2000 to reflect its broader scope across the sciences, but the style lineage is continuous. If your institution or target journal still references “CBE style,” they mean the modern CSE.

Privacy

The generator builds the reference by concatenating strings in JavaScript, locally on your device. There are no fetch calls, no analytics on the values you enter, and no server-side logging.