As scientists, we are trained to focus on content, to the extent that we sometimes forget the importance of style. Style , in the sense used here, refers to the appearance or arrangement of information. This sort of style is ever-present in science, from the readouts of instruments to the order of topics in a research paper. It contains all the information you need to get to a web page, but it is in an unfamiliar order. What we are doing is using style to facilitate communication, so that anyone familiar with the style will be able to quickly see the important information.
Style is important for bibliographic citation for the same reason.
Because of the way in which libraries, universities, and scholarly societies developed, there are a number of different styles for bibliographic citation. Unfortunately, styles for biology are not as well standardized. There are also no comprehensive on-line guides to the CBE styles. Fortunately, the APA style is similar in many respects to one of the common CBE styles. For the purposes of this course, you will use the general guidelines below, and look to the APA style for additional guidance.