Chemistry

Two Options for In-Text Citations

Superscripts

Fluoridated water as well as various fluoride products such as toothpaste provide fluoride ions necessary for remineralization.¹

Rakita¹ states that fluoridated water as well as various fluoride products such as toothpaste provide fluoride ions necessary for remineralization.

Italics & Parenthesis

Fluoridated water as well as various fluoride products such as toothpaste provide fluoride ions necessary for remineralization (1).

Rakita (1) states that fluoridated water as well as various fluoride products such as toothpaste provide fluoride ions necessary for remineralization

Find more examples in section 4.3.2 of the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication.

General Format for References

ACS references generally start with the author(s), followed by the title, the publication information (including year), and end with page numbers, DOIs, and web addresses if applicable.

Some particular quirks of ACS include:

• Author names use initials for first and middle names
• Titles of books and webpages are italicized, but journal and news articles are not
• The year of publication is bolded for journal articles, but not for other sources
• Journal tiles are italicized and are shortened using abbreviations found in CASSI

Selected Examples

Article in a scientific journal:   

Foster, J. C.; Varlas, S.; Couturaud, B.; Coe, J.; O’Reilly, R. K. Getting into Shape: Reflections on a New Generation of Cylindrical Nanostructures’ Self-Assembly Using Polymer Building Block. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141 (7), 2742−2753. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b08648

Print book:

Frankel, F. Picturing Science and Engineering; MIT Press, 2018.

News article:

Beauge, J. School District Sued Over Burns Girl Suffered During Chemistry Class Demonstration. PennLive (Harrisburg, PA), November 17, 2018, updated November 17, 2018. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/11/school_district_sued_over_burn.html (accessed 2019-02-22).

Website:

ACS Publications Home Page. https://pubs.acs.org/ (accessed 2019-02-21).

Citation examples taken from the ACS Style Quick Guide.