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Citation and Style Guides

A guide to citation, including style guides, writing tools, plagiarism, and copyright.

ACS (American Chemical Society) Style is used for research papers in the field of chemistry. It uses superscript numbers for in-text notation in printed versions of ACS publications and parenthetical numbering for digital versions. You can check with your instructor if you are unsure which type of in-text citation to use; the most important thing is that you use the same in-text reference format throughout your paper. 

For the reference page, list your citations in the numerical order that they appear in your paper. 

Online Style and Citation Guides

Contact a librarian if you need help using this or any citation style.

Frequently Cited Formats

Below are some basic examples of commonly cited material types. Note that formatting can differ even within these categories based on things like the number of authors, missing date information, and more. Refer to a citation guide when you encounter missing information or a unique format like a social media post or online video.

Print Books and Ebooks

Citation in reference list

Author 1; Author 2; etc. Title of Book, Edition Number; Series Information If Applicable; Publisher, Year. (Add URL if ebook). 

In-text citation

sample text from book using superscript1 

sample text from book using parenthetical (1)

Example

1. Le Couteur, P.; Burreson, J. Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History; Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2003.

 

Journal Article

The following format can be used for electronic articles. For articles found through an online database, include the name of the database in the citation. Replace the article's URL with the database URL.

Citation in reference list

Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Title of Article. Journal Abbreviation [Online] Year, Issue, Page numbers. Complete URL (accessed Date).

In-text citation

sample text from book using superscript2

sample text from article using parenthetical (2)

Example

2. Peacock-Lopez, E. Exact Solutions of the Quantum Double Square-Well Potential. Chem. Ed. [Online] 2007, 11, 383-393. http://chemeducator.org/bibs/0011006/11060383ep.htm (accessed Dec 6, 2018).

Patents

Citation in reference list

Patent Owner 1; Patent Owner 2; etc. Title of Patent. Patent Number, Full Date.

In-text citation

patent information using superscript3 

patent information using parenthetical (3)

Example

Diamond, G.; Murphy, V.; Leclerc, M.; Goh, C.; Hall, K.; LaPointe, A. M.; Boussie, T.; Lund, C. Coordination catalysts. US 20020002257 A1, January 3, 2002.

For more types of sources (webpages, data sets, conference presentations, etc.), check out the Online Citation Guides in the previous section!

Style Guide