Which citation style to use depends on the discipline of your course and professor for whom you are writing. For courses in Environmental and Earth Sciences, you may be asked to use the Council of Science Editors (CSE) style. The University of Wisconsin Madison has created a quick guide to the CSE style.
The library also has a copy of the CSE handbook available on reserve for you to check out. Just ask for it at the service desk!
Scientific Style and Format by Alternatively, your professor may require you to follow a style of writing references for a specific journal publication. Here are the style guides for a few popular journals:
If the guide does not give you enough information to cite a source, pull a recent issue from the periodical shelves in the Library and look at reference lists for various articles to see if you can find a citation to model.
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue provides great overviews of the three most common citation styles: APA, MLA, and Chicago.
There also are many citation helpers on the internet. Remember, when you are using a citation builder you should always double check the format of the citation before including it in the final version of your paper - they may be machines but they are not always perfect!
The Librarians are here to help if you still have questions!
Many science faculty members at Doane encourage their students to use a reference manager like Zotero or Mendeley. Check out our comprehensive guide to these two tools for more information. Here is a quick overview:
Zotero |
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Mendeley |
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