CSE Format in Google Docs: Complete 2026 Guide

CSE (Council of Science Editors) format is the standard citation style for biology, ecology, genetics, and many other natural science disciplines. It trips up students for one specific reason: unlike MLA or APA, CSE offers three citation systems, and your instructor may not have told you which one to use. Choose the wrong system and even a perfectly formatted reference list will cost you marks.

This guide covers everything you need to format a CSE paper in Google Docs from scratch — from font and margins to reference list entries for journals, books, and websites. Each section explains not just the rule but why it exists, so you can make the right call when a source doesn't fit a template.

1. Understanding the Three CSE Systems

Before you format a single citation, you need to know which CSE system your course requires. The three options are:

If your syllabus is silent on the system, ask before you start writing. Switching systems mid-draft means renumbering every citation, which is tedious at best and prone to errors at worst. Most biology and ecology courses use Name-Year. Medical and clinical science courses often prefer Citation-Sequence. Citation-Name is less common but appears in some genetics and biochemistry journals.

The rest of this guide covers all three, clearly marked so you can skip to whichever applies to you.

2. The Foundation: Font, Margins, and Spacing

CSE's style manual does not mandate a single font the way MLA does. However, it requires a clear, legible typeface. In practice, most instructors and journal submission portals expect Times New Roman 12 pt or Arial 11 pt. When in doubt, use Times New Roman 12 pt — it signals you know what you're doing and it's readable in print.

Set up a blank Google Doc

1. Open a blank Google Doc (never start from a template — templates bring hidden formatting that breaks things later).
2. Press Ctrl+A / Cmd+A to select all, then set the font to Times New Roman, 12 pt.
3. Go to File > Page setup and set all four margins to 1 inch.
4. Go to Format > Line & paragraph spacing > Double.
5. From the same menu, select Remove space after paragraph.

That last step is easy to miss. Google Docs adds 10–12 pt of extra space after every paragraph by default. Leave it in and your paper will look padded, with uneven gaps between sections. Removing it gives you consistent double-spacing throughout.

3. Page Numbers and the Title Page

CSE requires page numbers. Place them in the header, right-aligned, starting from page one. Unlike MLA, CSE does not require your name next to the page number — just the number is fine unless your instructor specifies otherwise.

Add automatic page numbers

1. Go to Insert > Headers & footers > Header.
2. Click the right-align button (Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R).
3. Go to Insert > Page numbers and select the top-right option.
4. Close the header by clicking in the document body.

Never type page numbers manually. They don't update when your content shifts, and re-numbering a 15-page paper after a last-minute edit is not a good use of your time the night before a deadline.

Title page

Many CSE assignments require a separate title page. Check your syllabus. If required, the title page should include:

• Paper title, centered, roughly one-third of the way down the page
• Your full name, centered, below the title
• Course name and number
• Instructor's name
• Institution
• Date (written out: 26 June 2026)

Use a page break (Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter) after the title page, not a series of blank lines. Blank lines shift when text is added elsewhere; a real page break stays put.

4. In-Text Citations: Name-Year System

In the Name-Year system, you cite sources in the body of your paper using the author's last name and the publication year, enclosed in parentheses. The reference list at the end is sorted alphabetically by first author's last name.

Basic patterns

• One author: (Garcia 2024) — or “Garcia (2024) found that…”
• Two authors: (Garcia and Kim 2024) — write both names, no “et al.”
• Three or more authors: (Garcia and others 2024) — never list all names in-text for three-plus-author sources
• Two sources, same author, same year: (Garcia 2024a) and (Garcia 2024b) — add a lowercase letter after the year, and repeat it in the reference list
• Multiple sources in one citation: (Garcia 2024; Kim 2023) — separate with a semicolon, list in chronological order

Direct quotations

CSE discourages direct quotation in scientific writing — paraphrase instead. When a direct quote is unavoidable, add the page number: (Garcia 2024, p. 42). Keep quotes short and make sure they're genuinely necessary; most instructors will mark down a science paper that leans on quotes the way a humanities essay might.

5. In-Text Citations: Citation-Sequence and Citation-Name Systems

Both Citation-Sequence and Citation-Name use superscript numbers in the text instead of author-year parenthetical notes. The difference is how the reference list is ordered.

How superscript numbers work in Google Docs

1. Place your cursor immediately after the word or sentence you are citing, before the period.
2. Go to Format > Text > Superscript (or press Ctrl+. / Cmd+.).
3. Type the citation number.
4. Press Ctrl+. / Cmd+. again to return to normal text.

In Citation-Sequence, sources are numbered in the order you first cite them. Source 1 is the first source you mention; source 2 is the next new source, and so on. If you cite source 1 again later, you reuse the number 1, not a new number. The reference list is ordered by those assigned numbers.

In Citation-Name, sources are first sorted alphabetically by author, and then numbered. So the first source alphabetically is number 1 regardless of when it appears in your paper. The in-text superscript still refers to that number.

6. The Reference List

The reference list in CSE is titled References (not “Works Cited” or “Bibliography”). Start it on a new page with a real page break, center the heading in plain text, then return to left-alignment before the entries.

Key formatting rules that apply to all three systems:

• Double-space all entries (same as the body)
• Use a hanging indent: first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5"
• Author names use initials instead of full first names: Garcia MA, not Maria Garcia
• Journal titles are abbreviated (or written in full — check your instructor's preference)
• No URLs unless the source is only available online; always add the access date for web sources

Set up hanging indents in Google Docs

1. Type or paste all your reference entries, each as a separate paragraph.
2. Highlight all entries.
3. Go to Format > Align & indent > Indentation options.
4. Under Special indent, choose Hanging and set it to 0.5".
5. Click Apply.

7. Reference List Formats for Common Source Types

CSE reference entries look different from APA or MLA. The biggest differences are the use of author initials, the placement of the year, and the abbreviated journal names. Here are the patterns for the sources you'll encounter most often.

Journal article (Name-Year)

Author last name first, then initials with no periods between them. Year immediately after the author block. Journal title abbreviated (or in full — be consistent). Volume, issue in parentheses, page range.

Journal article (Citation-Sequence / Citation-Name)

The number goes first. The year moves to after the journal volume data (a subtle but important difference from Name-Year). Volume and issue use a semicolon between them, not a comma.

Book

Edition (abbreviated “ed.”) goes after the title if not the first edition. Place of publication includes the country in parentheses if the city is not widely known. Total page count is included (“480 p.”).

Book chapter

The chapter author comes first. The book editor is introduced with “In:” followed by their name and the word “editor.” The page range of the chapter appears at the end.

Website

Government agencies and organizations use brackets around the abbreviation before the full name. The word “[Internet]” follows the title. Access date is required in CSE for web sources, written as year followed by abbreviated month and day. The URL appears last after “Available from:”.

8. Section Headings

Most CSE papers in science courses follow the IMRaD structure: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each section gets a heading. CSE does not mandate a specific heading style, but most papers use the following levels:

Whatever style you pick, apply it consistently. An inconsistent heading hierarchy reads as careless, and it makes it harder for readers to navigate a long paper.

9. Figures and Tables

CSE papers in the natural sciences almost always include figures or tables. The rules here are clear:

• Tables are numbered sequentially as Table 1, Table 2, etc. The table title appears above the table, left-aligned or centered, in bold. Any notes appear below the table.
• Figures (graphs, photographs, diagrams) are numbered sequentially as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. (sometimes abbreviated Fig. 1). The figure caption appears below the figure.
• In-text reference: mention every figure and table in the body before it appears: “(Table 1)” or “as shown in Figure 2.”

In Google Docs, insert figures with Insert > Image. For captions, click below the image and type the caption text in regular 10 or 12 pt font — do not use the built-in Google Docs caption tool, which can behave unpredictably with positioning.

10. Common CSE Mistakes to Avoid

11. Final Submission Checklist

• System confirmed with your instructor (N-Y, C-S, or C-N)
• Times New Roman 12 pt throughout
• 1-inch margins on all sides
• Double-spaced, no extra space between paragraphs
• Automatic page numbers top-right
• Title page (if required) ends with a real page break
• In-text citations match the chosen system
• Reference list titled “References,” starts on a new page
• 0.5" hanging indent applied to all reference entries
• Authors use initials only; year position matches the system
• Journal abbreviations consistent throughout
• All web sources include access dates
• Every in-text citation has a matching reference entry, and vice versa
• All figures and tables numbered, titled, and referenced in the body text

Export to PDF before submitting

Use File > Download > PDF Document (.pdf) unless your instructor requires a .docx file. Open the PDF and scroll through it — check that the superscript numbers (if using C-S or C-N) didn't revert to regular size, that the reference list starts on its own page, and that the hanging indents are intact. What you see in the editor and what you see in the exported PDF are occasionally different, especially around page breaks.

One More Thing: Make the Science Writing Sound Like You

If you used AI to help draft any part of your paper — the literature review, the discussion section, or the abstract — clean formatting alone won't mask the writing style. Many universities now scan science papers for AI-generated text, and a flagged submission faces additional review regardless of how polished the citations look.

AuraWrite AI rewrites AI-drafted text so it reads with the voice and cadence of natural scientific writing — preserving your argument, your data references, and your citation markers — while reducing the AI detection score back to human range. Run your draft through the humanizer before applying your final CSE formatting pass in Google Docs. The reference list setup is exactly the same; the prose underneath just sounds like you wrote it.

Conclusion

CSE formatting in Google Docs is straightforward once you lock in two things: the citation system your course requires, and the correct structure for each reference entry type. Set up the foundations first — font, margins, spacing, automatic page numbers. Then confirm the system, write the body using the right in-text citation pattern, and build the reference list at the end with hanging indents and consistent abbreviations.

The checklist above covers every element. Work through it in order before you export, and your formatting will be solid enough to let the actual science do the talking.

Last updated: June 26, 2026