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What You Need to Know About ACS Citation with Examples

July 9, 2023

ACS format means a referencing style that was invented by the American Chemical Society. It was designed for use in the texts about chemical fields. This style specifies that it is, to all extend, suits the needs of academic writing in topics fir disciplines in chemistry. So it is convenient and practical for those who write in this field. There is a special guide for using ACS style. In this article, we will disclose the basics you need to know for your chemistry paper with ACS citation.

The Basics About an ACS Citation

As we said, ACS citation was created for all papers in chemistry to make it more convenient to publish them for the American Chemical Society. So all the papers have the same formatting, and it was easy to distinguish them from other works. This format consists of two parts: in-text quotes that mark sources of the information directly in the text, and a reference page where all sources are gathered in the one list. In the list of references, we should specify all the bibliography data about sources we mentioned in in-text references.

There are three options for marking in-text citations in the ACS style:

• Add an italicized number after the quote;
• Add a number in a superscript format;
• Specify the name of the author and the date of the publication of the source.

Also, there are two approaches to making these citations and references: adding them manually and collecting the list on your own or using special soft or services with machine generator of the citations and lists of references.

About ACS Citation Style

The most popular sources that are used for academic papers are online materials. So it is important to know how to cite them correctly. The most common aspects you need to specify in your reference are the name of the author, title of the article or a book, date of publication, a place of publication (if specified), and other publisher’s details. Here are some examples of how you can arrange the info about the cited sources:

• Web page: The title of the website. The title of the page. URL in https:// format. (date of publishing);
• Article in the online magazine: The author. The title of the article. The title of the magazine, date of publication, pages, and URL, other info.

More detailed examples you can find in ACS Style Guide.

You can collect this data by yourself or use the automated citation generator that will collect and arrange all the data about the sources you quote in your work.

How to Make ACS Citation + Examples

So, let’s take a closer look at how you can create a citation in your work following the requirements of the ACS citation style. Each quote consists of two elements: in-text citation that can be presented in three ways: with an italicized number after the quote, a number in a superscript format, or mentioning the name of the author and the date of the publication of the source in brackets after a quote. 

Here are some examples/templates

• “This is the statement that we quote from the respectable and relevant source1”;
• “This is the statement that we quote from the respectable and relevant source (1)”;
• “This is the statement that we quote from the respectable and relevant source (Last name of the author, year)”.

In your bibliography list it will look in the following way:

Last name, N(ame). The title of the book in italic. Publisher’s name: Place of publication, year.

The second element of the correct ACS citation is a list of references that are placed at the end of your paper, and it collects all the sources that are used for writing your work with all the bibliographic data about those sources.

However, there are some factors that you need to consider before completing the list of references. You need to know whether the book you cite is one or there is a series of them, whether you use the entire passage from it or cite it partially, whether the source has various editions or versions. But in most cases, you will need the name of the author, the title of the source, the publishing date, and the place where it was published and by what publisher.

Alternative Way of Making ACS Citation

There is also an option to use online citation generators. This is not the most guaranteed option, but it definitely can help you to save time. Using the ACS citation generator, you entrust the process to the machine that calculates the quotes and collects the data about every source. Then the received data is arranged in the proper wat according to the current requirements.

Here are some advantages that online generators can offer:

• it automatically manages the entire list of references and connects each source with a relevant part of the text in your paper. Taking into consideration the fact that the paper in Chemistry can contain a lot of references, this seems like a good option;
• the service also marks the in-text quotes according to the specified format in correspondence with the list of references;
• ACS citation generator also helps to synchronize the materials across other devices and make it easier to share your research with other authors.

It is more convenient to delegate the citation formatting to something or someone as students always experience a shortage of time. But consider all pros and cons of the automated and manual formatting first.

When We Can Use ACS Paper Format

We have already specified that ACS format refers to the works in Chemistry. However, students know that every discipline might have its format and requirements. So you might guess whether this format can be used for any discipline in chemistry. Our answer is yes, you can, and you should use this citation format for every paper that you write for any chemistry discipline.

ACS format is not so widespread, like APA, for example. However, you can find numerous recommendations and explanations, including the special Guide on how and where to use it. You can apply various options of the ACS formatting for your works in Chemistry like:

• essays;
• research papers;
• case studies;
• term papers;
• laboratory reports;
• dissertations.

Make sure you have enough information and understanding of how the ACS formatting works. If you have any doubts, you can address your help request to our team, and we will check your citation format or make it for you. This is the safe and guaranteed option that your citation will be done properly.