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Council of Biology Editors (CBE) Style
Overview: CBE Style is used primarily by writers in the natural sciences, the physical sciences, and mathematics.  This style emphasizes brevity and simplicity to allow for the large number of citations that can frequently accompany scientific writing.
 
   

Citations:

 

 

 

 There are two major types of in-text citations in CBE: citation-sequence and name-year.  For citation-sequence, a superscript number, like this1, or a number in parentheses, like this (2), is placed after the referring text.  This type of citation is the least intrusive on the flow of the text.  For name-year, the last name of the author and the year of publication are placed in parentheses following the text, like this (Connors 1998).
   
References List: Again, there are two distinct types of lists within CBE, but both are simply called References.  If your in-text citations follow the citation-sequence format, your References page should contain numbered entries in their order of appearance within your text:  Note that the entries are not in alphabetical order, nor is any marking (underlining or quotation marks) used for article titles. For example:

1 Stalberg E, Trontelj JV. Single fiber electromyography: studies in healthy and diseased muscle. New York: Raven. 291 p.

2 Freidson E. Profession of medicine. New York: Dodd-Mead; 1972. 802 p.

If your citations are in the name-year format, don’t number the list, and arrange the entries in alphabetical order.  For example:

Freidson E. 1972. Profession of medicine. New York: Dodd-Mead. 802 p.

Stalberg E, Trontelj JV. Single fiber electromyography: studies in healthy and diseased muscle. New York: Raven. 291 p.

Additional examples can be found in The Everyday Writer (New York: St. Martin’s, 1998) starting on page 361.  The material presented above should be enough to get you going.

You only capitalize the first word of a title.  No underlining, italicizing, or quotation marks are needed.  There are two main styles of CBE citations—be careful not to get them confused!
 
   
Source: Much of the material on this handout was taken from Robert Connors and Andrea Lunsford’s The Everyday Writer, pages 360 to 366.