Chemistry

How to Cite in ACS (American Chemical Society) Style

Online guide to chemistry citation: ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication

Journal articles:

Author one surname, first and middle initials; author 2 name, initials. title of article. Standard Abbreviation for Journal Title in Italics. Year in bold, Volume number in italics, first page-last page. DOI (if available)

• List all authors using last names and initials.

• Do NOT make up or guess journal abbreviations! Look them up using the CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool.

Examples:

1) online journal article (the S after the page numbers is because this specific article was in a supplement to the main journal)

Pegorier, J.; Le May, C.; Girard, J. J. Nutr. [online] 2004, 134, 2444S-2449S.

2) print journal article

Foster, J.C.; Varlas, S.; Couturaud, B.; Cow, J.; O'Reilly, R. K. Getting into Shape: Reflections on a New Generation of Cylindrical Nanostructures' Self-Assembly Using Polymer Building Block. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141 (7), 2742-2753.

Books:

Author (or editor). book title; publisher, date of publication. 

Examples:

1) Book with two authors

Beall, H.; Trimbur, J. A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry, 2nd ed.; Longman, 2001. 

2) Chapter in an edited book (italicize the title of the edited volume, not the chapter title, and include page numbers for the chapter being cited)

McBrien, M. Selecting the Correct pH Value for HPLC. In HPLC Made to Measure: A Practical Handbook for Optimization; Kromidas, S., Ed.; Wiley-VCH; 2006; pp 89-103.

Websites:

Author (if known). title of the website. URL (date of access). 

Examples:

1) Website with no listed author:

Penn State Department of Chemistry. http://www.chem.psu.edu/ (accessed June 7, 2010).

2) Website with author:

Freudenrich, C. How Lead Works. http://science.howstuffworks.com/lead.htm (accessed 2020-05-21).

In-Text Citation:

When a quotation or idea needs to be cited within the text of the paper, use a number corresponding to the appropriate source in your number works cited list. Place the number in paranethesis and italicize:

"...quotation in your paper" (2).