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Council of Science Editors (CSE) Citation Style Guide

An overview of the CSE citation style used across the sciences.

Databases

Database

Title of database. Version. Publisher; beginning date–ending date [date updated]. DOI/URL

Anatomy of a citation
  1. Database name
  2. Version: Databases may have version numbers, similar to edition numbers.
  3. Publisher
  4. Date: The lifespan of the database; if it's ongoing, leave the ending date blank. For update, format as year month (abbreviated) day.
  5. DOI/URL: DOI is preferred, try to use a permalink or stable URL when possible.

 

Examples

The Human Protein Atlas. Version 24.0. SciLifeLab; 2003– [updated 2024 Oct 22]. https://www.proteinatlas.org

Data sets

Data set

Authors. Title of data set [data set]. Publisher; date. URL

Anatomy of a citation
  1. Authors: Formatted as last name and initials (no periods) and separated by commas. Do not use & or "and" before the last author. For more than 5 authors, list the first author followed by “et al.”
  2. Title: Use sentence case.
  3. Content designator: "data set" in brackets
  4. Publisher
  5. Date: Formatted as year month (abbreviated) day; state year if that's all that's available.
  6. DOI/URL: DOI is preferred, try to use a permalink or stable URL when possible.

 

Examples

Van Essen GM et al. The Egg Model [data set]. Figshare; 2013 Nov 11. https://doi.org/10.4121/uuid:916c86cd-3558-4672-829a-105c62985ab2