A QUICK GUIDE TO

CITING USING THE ACS STYLE GUIDE, 3^RD ED.

Listing information sources at the end of a paper is an important part of professional scholarship and writing. Many disciplines have specific requirements for the layout of these references; in chemistry the standard is the ACS Style Guide, 3^rd ed., Chapter 14.

This quick guide is not a substitute for the ACS Style Guide, but it does include some commonly used formats with the relevant page numbers from the ACS Style Guide. If the ACS Style Guide didn’t have an exact example, one was created based on the most relevant examples available. Consult the ACS Style Guide for further examples and clarification of citing rules. If writing for publication also check the “guides for authors” for the journal in which you want to publish.

BookS

Whether or not the book is in a series, has an editor, is cited in its entirety or only in part, has different editions, etc. can all cause variations in the format.

Book with authors (pp 300-304)

Beall, H.; Trimbur, J. A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry, 2^nd ed.; Longman: New York, 2001; pp 17-32.

Book with editors (citing entire book; pp 300-304)

Grignard Reagents: New Developments; Richey, H.G., Ed.; John Wiley & Sons: Chicester, U.K., 2000.

Book in a series (p 306)

Books in a series may be cited using either the book format (first example) or the journal format (second example). If the latter is used, then the CASSI abbreviation for the series title should also be used.

Seeber, G.; Tiedemann, B.E.F.; Raymond, K.N. In Supramolecular Chirality; Crego-Calama, M.; Reinhoudt, D.N., Eds.; Topics in Current Chemistry 265; Springer: Berlin, Germany, 2006; pp 147-183.

Seeber, G.; Tiedemann, B.E.F.; Raymond, K.N. Top. Curr. Chem., 2006, 265, 147-183.

Organic Syntheses and Inorganic Syntheses (p 305)

Cumulative volumes of Organic Syntheses are cited as books (first example); annual volumes of Organic Syntheses and Inorganic Syntheses are often cited as journals (second example).

Organic Syntheses; Wiley & Sons: New York, 2004; Collect. Vol. No. X, pp 437-441.

Yamamoto, T. Inorg. Synth. 1989, 26, 204-207.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Print full paper (pp 307-308)

Lindén, M.; Schunk, S.; Schüth, F. In Mesoporous Molecular Sieves 1998, Proceedings of the 1^st International Symposium, Baltimore, MD, July 10-12, 1998; Bonneviot, L.; Béland, F.; Danumah, C.; Giasson, S.; Kaliaguine, S., Eds.; Elsevier: Amsterdam, 1998; pp 45-52 (Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, v 117).

Print abstracts of papers (p 308)

Pere, J.J. Abstracts of Papers, Part 1, 223^rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Orlando, FL, Apr 7-11, 2002; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2002; CELL 30.

Electronic conference abstracts (p 323)

Costello, C.E. Development of “Biomolecule-Friendly” MS Methods. In PITTCON 2006, Orlando, FL, March 12-17, 2006 [CD-ROM]; Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy: Pittsburgh, PA, 2007; Session 10, Paper 1.

Data sets

Print (pp 314-315)

TRC Spectral Data – Ultraviolet; Texas A&M University: College Station, TX, Apr 30, 1966; no. 969 (4-Methyl-1-phenyl-3-tiapentane).

Electronic (based on pp 314-315, 320-321)

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. SDBSWeb. http://www.aist.go.jp/RIODB/SDBS, no. 2185 (1,2-ethanediol) (accessed March 19, 2007).

Dissertations and theses

Print (pp 309-310)

King, K.J. Development of a Pressurized System for Oxidation Studies of Volatile Fluids. M.S. Thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, March 1983.

Electronic (p 321)

Abrams, N.M. Efficiency Enhancement in Dye-sensitized Solar Cells through Light Manipulation. Ph.D. Dissertation [Online], The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, December 2005. http://etda.libraries.psu.edu/theses/approved/WorldWideIndex/ETD-1061/index.html (accessed Apr 2, 2007).

Encyclopedias

Print (pp 305-306)

Diagnostic Reagents. Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 5^th ed; VCH: Weinheim, Germany, 1985; Vol. A8, pp 455-491.

Electronic (p 320)

Chelating Agents. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology [Online]; Wiley & Sons, Posted July 18, 2003. http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/emrw/9780471238966/kirk/article/chelhowa.a01/current/html (accessed Mar 19, 2007).

Journals

Article titles from print journals are usually not included in the citation. Journal titles use CASSI abbreviations. See also examples for early publication articles in the “Preprints” section.

Print (pp 291-296)

Labaree, D.C.; Reynolds, T.Y.; Hochberg, R.B. Estradiol-16a-carboxylic Acid Esters as Locally Active Estrogens. J. Med. Chem. 2001, 44, 1802-1814.

Labaree, D.C.; Reynolds, T.Y.; Hochberg, R.B. J. Med. Chem. 2001, 44, 1802-1814.

Electronic (p 317-319)

Note that the format for citing e-articles does include the article title.

Vandenabeele, P.; Edwards, H.G.M.; Moens, L. A Decade of Raman Spectroscopy in Art and Archaeology. Chem. Rev. [Online] 2007, 107, 675-686 http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/article.cgi/chreay/2007/107/i03/html/cr068036i.html (accessed Mar 19, 2007).

MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEETS (p 315)

International Chemical Safety Cards can also fit in this format (see second example).

Ethylene Glycol; MSDS No. E5125 [Online]; Mallenckrodt Baker: Phillipsburg, NJ, Feb. 25, 1999. http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/e5125.htm (accessed July 23, 2001).

Ethylene Glycol; ICSC No. 0270 (U.S. National Version) [Online]; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta, GA, 2001. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng0270.html (accessed July 23, 2001).

PATENTS

Print (pp 310-311)

Sarubbi, D.J.; Leone-Bay, A.; Paton, D.R. Oral Drug Delivery Compositions Comprising Modified Amino Acids and Bioactive Peptides. U.S. Patent 5,792,451, August 11, 1998.

Electronic (based on pp 310-311, 320-321)

Sarubbi, D.J.; Leone-Bay, A.; Paton, D.R. Oral Drug Delivery Compositions Comprising Modified Amino Acids and Bioactive Peptides [Online]. U.S. Patent 5,792,451, August 11, 1998. United States Patent and Trademark Office Web site. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,958,879.PN.&OS=PN/5,958,879&RS=PN/5,958,879 (accessed Mar 23, 2007).

PREPRINTS

Early access (pp 318-319)

Padwa, A.; Bur, S.K. The Domino Way to Heterocycles. Tetrahedron [Online early access]. DOI: 10.1016/j.tet.2007.03.158. Published Online: Apr 3, 2007. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PublicationURL&_tockey=%23TOC%235289%239999%23999999999%2399999%23FLA%23&_cdi=5289&_pubType=J&view=c&_auth=y&_acct=C000014439&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=209810&md5=5c2e57fa33f1d0d201397bdd0dd2a3c4 (accessed Apr 3, 2007) (Accepted manuscript, has not undergone final copyediting, typesetting, or proof review).

Preprint servers (p 319)

Ranguelov, B.; Stoyanov, S. Evaporation and Growth of Crystals – Propagation of Step Density Compression Waves at Vicinal Surfaces. 2007, arXiv:physics/0703265. arXiv.org e-Print archive. http://www.arxiv.org/abs/physics/0703267 (accessed Apr 3, 2007).

SCIFINDER SCHOLAR AND OTHER INDEXES

When citing abstracts from an indexing and abstracting source such as SciFinder Scholar or PubMed, the citation to the original publication follows the format for that type of publication (for example, journal articles, patents, conference proceedings, etc.)

Abstract from a print index (citation format for the reference and pp 298-299)

Ferch, H. Plastics, Paint Rubber 1966, 10, 85-86; Chem. Abstr., 1966, 17198g.

Abstract from electronic indexes (based on citation format for the reference and pp 298-299, 318-319)

Beharry, S.; Bragg, P.D. J. Bioenerg. Biomembr. 2001, 33, 35-42; PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/, PMID=11460924 (accessed July 16, 2006).

Babu, V.R.; Sarath, P.S.; Karanth, N.G.; Kumar, M.A.; Thakur, M.S. Anal. Chim. Acta 2007, 582 (2), 329-334; SciFinder Scholar [Online] AN=2006:1359559 (accessed Apr 2, 2007).

Calculated properties data (p 324)

SciFinder Scholar, version 2006; Chemical Abstracts Service: Columbus, OH, 2006; RN 50-78-2 (accessed Apr 2, 2007); calculated using ACD/Labs software, version 8.14; ACD/Labs 1994-2006.

Experimental properties data (based on p 324 and citation format for reference listed)

SciFinder Scholar, version 2006; Chemical Abstracts Service: Columbus, OH, 2006; RN 50-78-2 (accessed Apr 2, 2007); experimental result from Xu, F. J. Therm. Anal. Calorim. 2004, 76 (2), 481-489.

Spectral data (based on calculated and experimental properties examples shown above)

SciFinder Scholar, version 2006; Chemical Abstracts Service: Columbus, OH, 2006; RN 271-95-4 (accessed Apr 5, 2007); spectral data from Wiley Subscription Services 2007.

Web sites (pp 320-321)

Mallet Chemistry Library, University of Texas Libraries. ThermoDex Home Page: An Index of Selected Thermodynamic and Physical Property Resources. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/thermodex/ (accessed Mar 19, 2007).

NOTE: JOURNAL (CASSI) ABBREVIATIONS

Chemists use a set of standard abbreviations for journal titles and the names of conference proceedings. These are published in CASSI, the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index. The ACS Style Guide describes a sample CASSI record on p 340-341 and lists abbreviations for over 1000 heavily used chemistry journal abbreviations on pp 328-339.

NOTE: PERSONAL NAMES

Personal names often cause difficulties when preparing bibliographies or reference lists. Western European names generally are arranged with the given name first and the family name last. That means that when you are creating a bibliography, you would reverse the order, so that the family name would come first, followed by a comma and then the given name (or initial).

Not all Western European names follow this pattern exactly, however; and names of authors from other parts of the world certainly don’t! All the possible permutations of personal names are too numerous to list here. However, the Chicago Manual of Style has done an excellent job of providing rules for personal names (sections 8.5-8.20) and alphabetizing (sections 18.69-18.87).

RESOURCE LIST

The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information, 3^rd ed. Coghill, A.M.; Garson, L.R., Eds. American Chemical Society: Washington, DC; Oxford University Press: Oxford, U.K., New York, 2006.

CASSI—Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index: 1907-1999 Cumulative. Chemical Abstracts Service: Columbus, OH, 2000 (and supplements).

The Chicago Manual of Style, 15^th ed.; University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, 2003.

This publication is available in alternative media on request.

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ACS Style/rev. Apr. 2007/njb2