In-text citations are a crucial part of any research paper, as they allow you to properly acknowledge the work of other authors that you have referred to in your writing. In the computer science field, the most common citation style used is the Council of Science Editors (CSE) style, also known as the Name-Year system.
According to the CSE style, in-text citations should include the author's last name and the year of publication, with the specific page number(s) included if you are directly quoting from the source. For example, if you were citing a quote from a paper by Smith (2020), your in-text citation would look like this: "According to Smith (2020), 'this is a quote from the paper'" (p. 10).
If you are citing multiple sources within the same paragraph, you should list them in chronological order, separated by a semicolon. For example: "As noted by Smith (2020) and Jones (2019), this is an important concept in the field" (Smith, p. 10; Jones, p. 5).
If you are citing multiple works by the same author that were published in the same year, you should distinguish between them by adding a letter after the year. For example: "Smith (2020a) found that this was the case, while Smith (2020b) found the opposite" (Smith, 2020a, p. 10; Smith, 2020b, p. 15).
It is important to be consistent with your in-text citations throughout your paper, as this helps to clearly identify the sources of your information and allows your readers to easily locate the full citations in your reference list. The CSE style is widely used in the computer science field, but it is always important to check the specific guidelines of the journal or conference you are submitting to, as they may have their own preferred citation style.
