A free CSE citation generator online for Council of Science Editors (formerly CBE) references in citation–sequence, citation–name, or name–year format. Paste a DOI, PubMed ID, ISBN, or URL, or upload a PDF — no sign-up.
Numbered in the order sources are first cited in your text, e.g. ¹ or (1).
Or drop a PDF here. It's read in your browser and never uploaded.
Your bibliography
0 references · numbered in order of first citation
No references yet
Cite a source above and it will appear here, sorted and numbered for the system you choose. Your list is saved in this browser.
This CSE citation generator builds reference lists that follow the Council of Science Editors manual, the style used in biology, medicine, and environmental science. It is a free CSE citation generator in the full sense: there is no account to create, no ads, and no limit on how many references you make. Because it runs as a CSE citation generator online, it works in any modern browser on a laptop, tablet, or phone, and your list stays saved on your device until you export it.
CSE style was called CBE style until the Council of Biology Editors renamed itself the Council of Science Editors in 2000. Many instructors and lab manuals still use the old name, so if your assignment asks for a CBE/CSE citation generator, this is the same style. The generator follows the current 9th edition (2024) by default and can switch to the 8th edition if your course or journal still requires it.
CSE format comes in three systems, and each one changes how sources are cited in the text and how the reference list is ordered. Name–year is the system most biology classes use. If you need a CSE citation generator with name–year output, pick name–year from the system menu: the list is sorted alphabetically and a/b suffixes are added when one author has two papers from the same year.
Working from downloaded articles? Use it as a CSE citation generator for PDF files: drop the article onto the form and the reference is built from the official record at Crossref, PubMed, or DataCite.
Every reference needs a matching CSE in-text citation. In name–year, that looks like (Fauci and Lane 2020) for two authors or (Haasnoot et al 2021) for three or more. In the numbered systems, it is a superscript number or a number in parentheses. Once a source is in your list, the in-text citation generator gives you the correct form, including one citation for several sources at once.
Each entry follows the CSE rules as you build it, from sentence-case titles to official NLM journal abbreviations, and warnings flag missing volumes, pages, or publishers before you hand in your paper. When you are done, copy the list into Word or Google Docs with its formatting intact, or download it as a Word file, PDF, RIS, or BibTeX.
Why use this generator
Most CSE generators still output the 2014 rules. This one follows the official 9th-edition examples exactly, and every example on this site is produced by the generator itself.
Follows the 2024 CSE Manual: 5-author limit, https://doi.org links, no publisher location, and access dates only when needed. The 8th edition is one click away.
Switch between citation–sequence, citation–name, and name–year at any time. The whole list is re-sorted, renumbered, and given a/b year suffixes automatically.
Paste a DOI, PubMed ID, PMC ID, ISBN, arXiv ID, or URL, or drop in an article PDF. Metadata comes straight from Crossref, PubMed, DataCite, and Open Library.
Titles go into sentence case without breaking acronyms like CRISPR or mRNA, species names are italicized, and official NLM journal abbreviations are used.
Every reference is checked for missing volumes, pages, dates, or publishers, so you can fix gaps before your marker finds them.
Copy with italics intact into Word or Google Docs, download a .docx or PDF, or export RIS, BibTeX, and CSL-JSON for Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote.
The three CSE systems
The reference entries are almost identical. What changes is the in-text citation, where the date goes, and how the list is ordered.
Sources are numbered in the order you first cite them. Reuse the same number every time you cite that source again.
In the text
Coastal retreat is now unavoidable in places¹.
In the reference list
1. Haasnoot M, Lawrence J, Magnan AK. Pathways to coastal retreat. Science. 2021;372(6548):1287–1290. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi6594
The reference list is put in alphabetical order first, then numbered. In-text numbers point to that alphabetical list.
In the text
Coastal retreat is now unavoidable in places².
In the reference list
2. Haasnoot M, Lawrence J, Magnan AK. Pathways to coastal retreat. Science. 2021;372(6548):1287–1290. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi6594
The author surname(s) and year go in the text. The unnumbered list is alphabetical by author, then by year.
In the text
Coastal retreat is now unavoidable in places (Haasnoot et al 2021).
In the reference list
Haasnoot M, Lawrence J, Magnan AK. 2021. Pathways to coastal retreat. Science. 372(6548):1287–1290. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi6594
Two authors? Name–year uses “and”: (Fauci and Lane 2020). Read the full in-text citation guide.
How it works
No accounts and no copying between tabs. Your list stays in this browser until you export it.
Pick citation–sequence, citation–name, or name–year, and the 9th or 8th edition. You can change this later; your list updates instantly.
Use a DOI, PMID, ISBN, arXiv ID, URL, or the article PDF. For anything else, choose the source type and fill in the fields. The preview updates as you type.
Missing pages, dates, or publishers are flagged. Fix them, then add the reference to your bibliography.
Copy the whole list with formatting, download a Word file, or export to your reference manager.
CSE 9th edition
If your references were made with an older tool, check these four rules. The generator applies them automatically.
Compare 8th vs 9th editionList up to 5 authors. With 6 or more, give the first author + “et al”.
Write DOIs as full links: https://doi.org/10.…
Give the publisher’s name only; the city is no longer needed.
Include “[accessed …]” only when an online source has no date.
13 source types
Each source type has its own CSE format. See the rules and examples, or open the generator with that form ready.
Peer-reviewed articles, reviews, and letters in journals.
Whole books, e-books, edited volumes, and handbooks.
A chapter or contribution in an edited book.
Web pages, online articles, and blog posts.
Print or online newspaper and magazine articles.
Technical reports, government and agency publications.
Doctoral dissertations and master's theses.
Papers in proceedings, and posters or talks presented at meetings.
bioRxiv, medRxiv, arXiv, SSRN, and other preprint servers.
Research data in repositories such as Dryad, Zenodo, or GenBank.
Online videos, recorded lectures, and films.
Software packages, apps, and code repositories.
Granted patents and published applications.
A CSE citation is a reference to a source written in the style of the Council of Science Editors, as set out in The CSE Manual: Scientific Style and Format for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. It has two parts that work together: a short in-text citation where you use the source, and a full entry in the reference list at the end of your paper. CSE style is used widely in biology, life sciences, medicine and environmental science, and the current edition is the 9th edition, published in 2024.
First, choose one of the three CSE systems (citation–sequence, citation–name, or name–year) and use it for the whole paper. Next, cite each source in the text, either with a number or with the author surname and year. Then list every source under "References" at the end. A journal article entry gives the authors (surname, then initials without periods), the article title in sentence case, the abbreviated journal name, the year, volume, issue and pages, and the DOI. The easiest way is to paste a DOI, PubMed ID, ISBN, or URL into the generator above, which builds the reference and its in-text citation for you, e.g. Haasnoot M, Lawrence J, Magnan AK. 2021. Pathways to coastal retreat. Science. 372(6548):1287–1290. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi6594
Use whichever your instructor or journal specifies. Citation–sequence numbers references in the order you first cite them. Citation–name sorts the list alphabetically and then numbers it. Name–year puts the author surname and year in the text, e.g. (Fauci and Lane 2020). If you have no instructions, name–year is the most common choice for student papers in biology.
Yes. By default it follows the 9th edition (2024): up to five authors are listed before "et al", DOIs are written as https://doi.org/ links, publisher locations are omitted, and access dates are only included when a web source has no date. You can switch to the 8th edition (2014) if your instructor still requires it.
In the 9th edition, list the first author followed by "et al" (e.g. "Ashraf M et al."). If there are five or fewer authors, list them all. In name–year in-text citations, use "et al" for three or more authors, e.g. (Haasnoot et al 2021). The 8th edition listed up to ten authors.
Yes. CSE uses the ISO 4 abbreviation of the journal title, without periods, e.g. "J Food Sci" for Journal of Food Science. One-word titles such as Science or Nature are not abbreviated. Lookups by DOI or PubMed ID fill in the official abbreviation automatically, and our Journal Abbreviation Finder searches the NLM Catalog.
No. Article, book and journal titles are not italicized or put in quotation marks, and titles use sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized). Scientific names of genera and species, such as Escherichia coli, are italicized wherever they appear.
Yes. Choose “Cite a PDF” or drop the file onto the generator. It finds the DOI, arXiv ID, PubMed ID, or ISBN inside the PDF and builds the reference from the official record. If there is no identifier, it matches the title against Crossref or fills in what it can for you to finish. The PDF is read in your browser and never uploaded. You can also import several PDFs at once with Import, below your bibliography.
Your references are saved in your browser on this device, with no account. You can keep several lists, and export them to Word, PDF, plain text, RIS, BibTeX, or CSL-JSON at any time. Clearing your browser data removes them, so export anything you want to keep.
Yes. It is completely free, with no sign-up, no ads, and no paywalled features.