Chemistry

The chemistry department uses The ACS Style Guide, which is produced by the American Chemical Society (ACS). The Journal of the American Chemistry Society (JACS) uses a specific referencing format detailed within the ACS guide.

Please find detailed referencing information in the referencing section of the ACS Style Guide. Table 14.2 provides examples of common reference types.

In-Text Citations

The ACS guide includes three in-text citation styles:

1. Superscript number outside punctuation.1
2. Italicized number in parentheses inside punctuation (1).
3. Name-year in parentheses inside punctuation (Sposito 2009).

The Journal of the American Chemistry Scociety (JACS) uses the first option.

References Page

General Guidelines

• Use the title "References"
• List references in numerical or alphabetical order as dictated by the chosen in-text citation style (numerical or author-date)
• Abbreviate journal titles as per the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI)

Formatting Guidelines

Authors

• General format: surname-comma-space-initials (followed by periods with no space between initials)
• Multiple author names are separated by semicolons
• For more than ten authors, list the first ten followed by a semi-colon and et al. (JACS style; others differ)

Titles

• Italicize titles of books and use regular capitalization rules
• Do not italicize titles of chapters, articles, theses, dissertations, or patents

Journals

• Abbreviate (see above) and italicize title
• Bold the journal year and the subsequent comma
• Italicize the journal volume number and subsequent comma
• Include the issue number in parentheses, if applicable (no italics)
• If accessed online, include the DOI number and URL and indicate that it was accessed online by adding [Online] after the journal title

Table 14.2 of the referencing section of the ACS Style Guide provides examples of common reference types.  Other types are detailed throughout the guide.

Updated November 2013

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