The ACS style is used by students and researchers in the field of chemistry.
The ACS Style Guide by Use to find abbreviations for major chemisty journals.
ACS requires that you document sources with in-text/parenthetical references and a comprehensive list of references at the end of your paper. The ACS style requires that you use abbreviated titles for journals. Use the CASSI search tool to find abbreviations for major chemistry journals.
There are three ways to cite in-text references in ACS:
1. Superscript1; 2. Italic numbers in parentheses (1); 3. By author name and year.
The examples below follow the more common (author, year) style. Refer to the ACS Style Guide for additional examples of author, year and discussion of the other methods.
| Single author | Note |
| (Beeston, 2003) | Author's last name and date of publication appear in parentheses (separated by a comma). |
| 2+ authors | Note |
| (Striplin and Nutt, 2011) | For sources with 2 authors, give both names with an "and" in between, then the publication year. |
| 3 or more authors | Note |
| (Blauch et al., 2009) | For sources with 3 or more authors, use only the 1st author followed by "et al." in-text. Name all authors in bibliography. |
| Multiple references in same sentence | Note |
| (Blauch et al., 2009; Nutt, 2009; Striplin and Carroll, 2001) | If you are citing multiple references, separate each with a semicolon and alphabetize by author name. |
| Corporate/organization as author | |
| (American Chemical Society, 2010) | |
| Multiple references, same year & author | Note |
| (Stevens, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c) | Add letters 'a', 'b', etc. to distinguish multiple sources published in the same year. |
| Author's name mentioned in text | Note |
| Stevens (2009) reports that the syntheses of... | If the author is mentioned in the sentence, you do not need to repeat his/her name in the parenthetical reference. |
Core elements: Author/editor name, Book Title (in italics), publisher, publisher location, date, pages, database, doi/url, & access date (if online). Books are not heavily used in the physical sciences, so only basic examples are provided here. Note: Include the page numbers referenced in the book. For online resources, include the name of the database (ex. Ebrary), the doi or URL, and the access date. For additional information, see the ACS Style Guide.
| Book with single author |
| Online |
| Swallow, J. Exploratory Galois Theory [Online]; Cambridge University Press: |
| Cambridge, UK, 2004; pp 149-150. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10150209 (May 11, 2011). |
| Carroll, F. A. Perspectives on Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry, 2nd |
| ed.; John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ, 2010; pp 121-124. |
| Book with editor/s |
| Online |
| Anion Recognition in Supramolecular Chemistry [Online]; Gale, P.A., Dehaen, W., |
| Maes, B.U.W., Eds.; Topics in Heterocyclic Chemistry Series 24; Springer-Verlag: Berlin, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15444-7 (June 21, 2011). |
| Anion Recognition in Supramolecular Chemistry; Gale, P.A., Dehaen, W., Maes, |
| B.U.W., Eds. Topics in Heterocyclic Chemistry Series 24; Springer-Verlag: Berlin, 2010. |
| Chapter in book |
| Online |
| Myers, J. K. The Origin and Measurement of Protein Conformational Stability. |
| In Methods in Protein Structure and Stability Analysis, Part C [Online]; Uversky, V. N., Permyakov, E. A., Eds.; Nova Science Publishers: Hauppage, NY, 2006; pp 25-35. http://site.ebrary.com/id/12345657 (Jan 3, 2009). |
| Myers, J. K. The Origin and Measurement of Protein Conformational Stability. |
| In Methods in Protein Structure and Stability Analysis, Part C; Uversky, V. N., Permyakov, E. A., Eds.; Nova Science Publishers: Hauppage, NY, 2006; pp 25-35. |
Core elements: Author's names, article title, Periodical Title (in italics), year (in bold), volume (in italics), pages, and database, doi or URL (if online).
Note: In the ACS style journal titles are abbreviated according to the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI). Refer to the CASSI Search Tool to find journal abbreviations.
| Journal article |
| Online, from a database |
| Blauch, D. N.; Schuh, M. D.; Carroll, F. A. Determination of the Natural |
| Abundances of Krypton and Xenon Isotopes Using Mass Spectrometry: A Demonstration of Isotopes and the Basis of Atomic Mass. J. Chem. Educ. |
| [Online] 2002, 79, 584-587. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed079p584 (Oct 8, 2009). |
| Striplin, D. R.; Crosby, G. A. Assignment of the Luminescing States of |
| [Au(I)Rh(I)(tBuNC)2(m-dppm)2][PF6]2. J. Phys. Chem. 1995, 99, 11041-11045. |
| Non-scientific article (newspaper, magazine) |
| Online |
| Angier, N. Moonlighting as a Conjurer of Chemicals. The New York |
| Times [Online], Oct 12, 2010, p D1. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/science/12newton.html (Jun 6, 2011). |
| Angier, N. Moonlighting as a Conjurer of Chemicals. The New York |
| Times, Oct 12, 2010, p D1. |
| Article in a reference source |
| Online, from a database |
| Dunn, B.M. Aspartic Proteases. In Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry |
| [Online]; Lennarz, W.J., Lane, M.D., Eds.; Elsevier: Amsterdam, 2004; Volume 1, pp 123-127. |
| http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/referenceworks/01244 ( May 23, 2009). |
| Dunn, B.M. Aspartic Proteases. In Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry; |
| Lennarz, W.J., Lane, M.D., Eds.; Elsevier: Amsterdam, 2004; Volume 1, pp 123-127. |
Note: For online resources, you will need to include: the designation [Online] for books and articles, a doi (digital object identifier) or URL, and the date you accessed the source online. If the item is retrieved from a database provider (ex. ACS Publications Online, Ebrary), then you will also include the name of the database. See the ACS Style Guide for additional examples of citing online sources.
| Webpage |
| United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image |
| Database. http://patft.uspto.gov/ (April 2, 2009). |
| Journal article online |
| Nutt, W.R.; McKee, M. L. Theoretical Study of Reaction Pathways to Borazine. Inorg. |
| Chem. [Online] 2007, 46, 7633. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ic070193s (Nov 11, 2009). |
| ebook |
| Swallow, J. Exploratory Galois Theory [Online]; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, |
| UK, 2004; pp 149-150. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10150209 (May 11, 2011). |
| Chapter in an ebook |
| Beeston, R.F.; Palatinus, J.; Beck, C.W. Organic Residue Analysis: Chrysokamino. |
| In Archaeology Meets Science: Biomolecular Investigations in Bronze Age Greece [Online]; Tzedakis, Y., Martlew, H., Jones, M.K., Eds.; Oxbow Books: Oxford, UK, 2008; pp 87-107. http://netlibrary.com/1234567890 (Oct 12,2010). |
You may need to refer to Chapter 14 of the ACS Style Guide for guidelines on citing unusual sources.
| Patents |
| Carroll, F.A. (Davidson College). Synthetic Fly Attractants. U.S. Patent 4,410,509, |
| October 18, 1983. |
| Government info & technical reports |
| Refer to pages 311-314 of the ACS Style Guide. |
| Conference presentation |
| Stevens, E.P. Designing a Medicinal Chemistry Course for Instruction by Organic |
| Faculty. Presented at the 225th National Meeting of American Chemical Society, New Orleans, LA, November 16-19, 2003. |
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