Citing and referencing: CSIRO

CSIRO style is an author-date citation style. The examples in this guide are based on the Australian Journal of Botany referencing style, published by the CSIRO. It does not represent a definitive guide to referencing using the CSIRO style.

There are two major components to the CSIRO style - the author-date citation within the text of the document, e.g. (Smith 2020), and the detailed reference list at the end of the document.

• Important: Check your assignment instructions, or with your lecturer, for any specific referencing requirements.
• Each reference should have a hanging indent. See example reference list for spacing.
• All of the references in the reference list must be cited in the text. All references cited in text must be included in the reference list.
• List the references in alphabetical order by author surname/family name according to the first listed author. (Note: the order of the authors on a document is important, do not rearrange them.)
• Where there are two articles with the same authors and date, order the references alphabetically by article title and add a letter suffix to the year of publication (e.g. 2023a, 2023b...). This should also be reflected in the in text citations.
• Provide organisation names in full, unless they are recognisable as abbreviations (e.g. CSIRO for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).
• In an article, chapter or book title, capitalise only the first word of the title and of the subtitle, if any, and any proper nouns.
• Species names should be italicised (e.g. E. coli ).
• Check the reference details against the actual source - you are indicating that you have read that source when you cite it.