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How to Cite Sources

ACS Style Guide

ASC (American Chemical Society) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources in Chemistry.

In addition to the examples to the left, see these sections of the ACS Style Guide for how to cite other sources in ACS style:

  • Meetings and Conferences (pg. 307)
  • Government Publications (pg.311-314)
  • Technical Reports & Bulletins (pg.314)
  • Data Sets (pg. 314)
  • Material Safety Data Sheets (pg. 315)

For a more detailed explanation of how to use ACS style, see the ACS Style Guide.

Works Cited Examples

Based on The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information, 3rd Edition, 2006

Journal Article: Print (see pg. 291)

Klingler, J. Influence of Pretreatment on Sodium Powder. chem. Mater.
      2005, 17, 2755-2768.
Nonscientific Magazines and newspapers: Print (see pg. 299)

Squires, S. Falling Short on Nutrients. The Washington Post, Oct 4, 2005, p
     H1.
Books: Print (see pg. 300)

Without Editors:

Le Couteur, P.; Burreson, J. Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules
     Changed History; Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam: New York, 2003; pp 32-47.

With Editors:

Almlof, J.; Gropen, O. Relativistic Effects in Chemistry. In Reviews in
     Computational Chemistry; Lipkowitz, K. B., Boyd, D. B., Eds.; VCH: New
     York, 1996; Vol. 8, pp 206-210.
Journal Article from a Database (see pg. 318)

Hallet, V. Scanning the Globe for Organic Chemistry. U.S. News and World
     Report [Online], April 19, 2004, p 59. Business Source Premier.
     http://www.epnet.com/academic/bussourceprem.asp (accessed April
     24, 2005).
Articles published only electronically (see pg. 319)

Zloh, M.; Esposito, D.; Gibbons, W. A. Helical Net Plots and Lipid
     Favourable Surface Mapping of Transmembrane Helices of Integral
     Membrane Proteins: Aids to Structure Determination of Integral
     Membrane Proteins. Internet J. Chem. [Online] 2003, 6, Article 2.
     http://www.ijc.com/articles/2003v6/2/ (accessed Oct 13, 2004).
Books: Online (see pg. 319-20)

Without Editors:

Tour, J. M. Molecular Electronics: Commercial Insights, Chemistry, Devices,
     Architecture and Programming [Online]; World Scientific: River Edge, NJ,
     2003; pp 117-180. http://legacy.netlibrary.com/ebook_info.asp?product
     _id=91422&piclist=19799,20141,20153 (accessed Nov 7, 2004).

With Editors:

Oleksyn, B. J.; Stadnicka, K.; Sliwinski, J. Structural Chemistry of Enamines:
     A Statistical Approach. In The Chemistry of Enamines [Online];
     Rappoport, Z., Ed.; The Chemistry of Functional Groups; Patai, S.,
     Rappoport, Z., Series Eds.; Wiley & Sons: New York, 1994; Chapter 2,
     pp 87-218. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/summary
     /109560980/SUMMARY (accessed April 25, 2005).
Encyclopedia: Online (see pg. 320)

Alkanolamines from Nitro Alcohols. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical
     Technology [Online]; Wiley & Sons, Posted March 14, 2003. http://www.
     mrw.interscience.wiley.com/kirk/articles/alkaboll.a01/frame.html
     (accessed Nov 7, 2004).
Website (see pg. 320-1)

ACS Publications Division Home Page. http://pubs.acs.org (accessed Nov
     7, 2004).