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.
In-Text Citations
The ACS guide includes three in-text citation styles:
- Superscript number outside punctuation.1
- Italicized number in parentheses inside punctuation (1).
- 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
See the ACS Style Quick Guide (2020) for Referencing for common types of sources.
Updated November 2022