Developed by the American Chemical Society, this style may be used for research papers in the field of chemistry.
ACS Style Guide: Effective communication of scientific information by Reference Book in the GTC Library
Write Like a Chemist by
Meant as a companion to The ACS Style Guide, not a competitor, this book is an extraordinary resource for upper-level chemistry majors as well as graduate students faced with writing a journal article, a conference abstract, or a thesis. Full of prepared research projects and exercises, WriteLike a Chemist provides expert instruction ideal for students from diverse backgrounds, including both native and nonnative speakers of English.It is specifically designed to help students transition from the writing skills required in undergraduate lecture and laboratory classes to writing skills required by career chemists: a journal article, a scientific poster, and a research proposal. Each of these types of writing is directed towarda different audience, and writing for a journal requires a different writing style than writing a research proposal for the National Science Foundation. Thus to write like a chemist requires that one learns to write for different audiences. This book assists young scientists in developing thatessential writing skill.
Tthe format for a JACS (Journal of the American Chemical Society) article citation:
Last name, Initials; Last name, Initials (etc. for all authors). Journal title abbreviation in italics, publication year in bold, volume number in italics, page numbers, first-last.
Example:
Tresca, B.; Higbee, M.; Mills, N.S. J. Org. Chem. 2011, 76, 5539-5546.
*Note - colors used to illustrate italics and bold. Citation is not in color.
One way to find some more relevant sources about your topic is to make use of the bibliography at the end of scholarly articles - especially review articles! In order to find the source listed in the biblioraphy, you mus first identify the type of source you are looking for. Given a citation, how can you tell what kind of source it is? Here are tips on what to look out for...
Book - includes publisher name
Journal article - includes volume/issue #
Conference proceeding - includes conference name, location
Patent - includes patent #, which typically begins with two letters
Web site - includes URL
Dissertation - includes university name
(courtesy of Rutgers University Libraries)
