Citing references properly and appropriately in scientific research papers is crucial to acknowledge your sources and give credit wherever required. Science progresses only by building upon the work of others.
2. Introduction
Citing references properly and appropriately in scientific research
papers is crucial to acknowledge your sources and give credit
wherever required. Science progresses only by building upon the
work of others.
Every formal research paper includes a list of bibliographic citations
describing the books, articles, and other sources consulted.
You should acknowledge a source any time (and every time) you use
a fact or an idea that you obtained from that source.
3. Why citation is important
Why citation is important
1) Ideas are the currency of academia
First, citing sources is crucial because the currency of academia is
ideas.
2) Failing to cite violates the rights of the person who originated
the idea
Second, keeping track of sources is important because, if you use
someone else's idea without giving credit, you violate that person's
ownership of the idea.
3) Academics need to be able to trace the geneology of ideas
Third, keeping track of sources is essential because academics value
being able to trace the way ideas develop.
4. Various citation formats
A citation can appear in various formats:
1) Within the text (in-text citation)
2) At the bottom of the page (footnotes)
3) At the end of the paper (endnotes)
The citation style varies with the style guide. In this presentation,
we will be discussing the different citation styles used in the
Council of Science Editors (CSE) style guide.
5. Citation styles used in the Council of
Science Editors (CSE) Style Guide
In-text references
CSE offers three systems of documentation for in-text
references:
1) Citation-name system
2) Citation-sequence system
3) Name-year system
6. In-text references
1) Citation-name system:
Sources are numbered alphabetically by each author's last name
in the reference list at the end of your paper.
In the sentences of your paper, cite these sources using the
number from the reference list.
This means that the in-text citation 1 refers to the first source in
your alphabetical list.
7. In-text references
2) Citation-sequence system:
Sources are numbered in the reference list at the end of the paper
by the order in which you refer to them in your paper. In the
sentences of your paper, cite these sources using the number from
the reference list. This means that the in-text citation 1 refers to the
first source mentioned in your text.
The aforementioned two systems further include the following:
a) Citing multiple sources in one sentence
b) Citing one source in multiple sentence
c) Citing sources in tables and figures
8. In-text references
2) Citation-sequence system:
a) Citing multiple sources in one sentence
If the numbers are not in a continuous sequence, use commas
(with no spaces) between numbers. If you have more than two
numbers in a continuous sequence, use the first and last number of
the sequence joined by a hyphen.
For the non-dimorphic polistines such as Polistes, Ropalidia and
others, the long-standing view is that differences in the quantity of
nourishment received during the larval stage act as a "nutritional
switch" to bias development toward one caste or the other 7,8,11-
14.
9. In-text references
2) Citation-sequence system:
b) Citing one source in multiple sentences
Once you have assigned a source a number, use that same number
every time you cite it.
Moreover, the use of ROMP is advantageous because it can yield
polymers of well-defined length 6. To synthesize the target
polymers 8a and 8b we employed the ruthenium initiator
(H2IMes)(3-Br-py)2(Cl)2RudCHPh. Its rate of initiation relative to
propagation affords polymers of well-defined average lengths 6,8.
10. In-text references
2) Citation-sequence system:
c) Citing sources in tables and figures
Avoid using superscripted numerals in figures where they might be
misconstrued as exponents. Instead, use superscripted letters like
a,b for tables and figures. List them sequentially after all the text
citations.
Moreover, citations precede the final punctuation of the sentence
that contains the reference.
11. In-text references
3) Name-year system:
Sources are listed alphabetically in the reference list at the end of
your paper. In the sentences of your paper, cite these sources by
giving the author's last name and year of publication in
parentheses.
Name-year in-text reference in CSE style takes the form of the
author's last name and the year of publication in parentheses.
These can further include the following:
ā¢ A source written by one author
The rapid discovery of the unique mechanisms underlying crown gall
disease demonstrated how quickly an area could advince given
significant investment and competition (Zambryski 1988).
12. In-text references
ā¢ A source written by two authors
ā¢ A source written by three or more authors
Initial infection of tubers by H. solani occurs in the field either from
the seed tuber (Jellis and Taylor 1977) or soil (Merida and Loria
1994).
For example, terrestrial carbon can play a central role in supporting
lake food webs (Pace et al. 2004), while the problem of aquatic
ecosystem eutrophication is driven by urban and agricultural land
use that contributes nutrients to downstream aquatic systems
(Carpenter et al. 1998).
13. In-text references
Furthermore, the following points need to be noted:
ā¢ Cite sources as close as practicable to the information they
support. This might mean citing a source at the end of a
sentence or in the middle of a sentence.
ā¢ If you name your author in the sentence near the citation, you
do not need to repeat that name in the citation itself.
14. End references and the reference list
The goal of your reference list is to help your reader identify each
numbered source quickly and clearly. CSE has standardized the
information to be provided for ease and predictability of reading.
What to call your reference list
"Reference list" is a generic term used by CSE for the list of sources
at the end of your document.
Your list should be given a more formal title: References or Cited
References.
If you used some documents as sources but did not cite them in
your paper, list them alphabetically by author under the heading
Additional References.
15. End references and the reference list
Format your end references
ā¢ Authors' first names are rendered as capitals after their
surnames.
ā¢ The reference list is organized alphabetically by author's last
name. When there is more than one work by an author, those
works are organized chronologically.
Otegui MS, Kiessling LL, Batzli J.
Allen C, Bent A, Charkowski AO. 2009.
Bennett AB, Gratton C. 2012.
Bennett AB, Gratton C. 2013.
Gratton C, Vander Zanden MJ. 2009
16. End references and the reference list
ā¢ Only the first word of a book or article title should be capitalized.
ā¢ Titles are not italicized. However, species names are italicized.
ā¢ To save space, journal titles are abbreviated according to the ISO
4 standard, shortening significant words and omitting
insignificant words.
The fat-soluble vitamins: handbook of lipid research 2.
In vitro and in vivo reconstitution of the cadherin-catenin-actin
complex from Caenorhabditis elegans.
Livestock Prod Sci.
Biochem Mol Biol Educ.
J Dairy Sci.
17. End references and the reference list
ā¢ Year of publication and volume number are required for all
references to articles. Issue number is strongly recommended. To
save space, use no spaces to separate an article's date, volume,
and page.
Annu Rev Phytopathol. 50:425-49.
Mol Plant Microbe Interact. 24(7):773-86.
