Citation Styles
This page includes guidelines for two common citation styles, APA and ACS. If you are using another style and have questions, feel free to email the Science Librarian, Tessa Withorn (tessa.withorn@louisville.edu).
Ask your professor which style they would like you to use for your assignment
About ACS
This guide is a quick introduction to the American Chemical Society (ACS) Style for in-text citations and references. Be sure to consult chapter 4.3 of The ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication for full details on citing sources in ACS Style.
ACS In-text Citations
There are three ways to cite a reference in-text, in the body of your paper. Check with your professor to see which style is preferred.
Superscript numbers
Include a superscript number for each sequential reference where you cited the information at the end of the sentence, or next to the authors' last name.
Methods to control key interfacial chemistry include chemical functionalization and physical interactions for high-energy-density active materials in robust composite electrodes.1
Gueon and colleagues1 outline methods for controlling key interfacial chemistry such as chemical functionalization and physical interactions for high-energy-density active materials in robust composite electrodes.
To add a superscript in Word, highlight the number, then click on the superscript option in the Font settings.
Italic numbers
Include the number in parenthesis and italics for for each sequential reference where you cited the information at the end of the sentence, or next to the authors' last name.
Methods to control key interfacial chemistry include chemical functionalization and physical interactions for high-energy-density active materials in robust composite electrodes (1).
Gueon and colleagues (1) outline methods for controlling key interfacial chemistry such as chemical functionalization and physical interactions for high-energy-density active materials in robust composite electrodes.
Author name and year of publication
Include the last name of the author(s) in parenthesis followed by a comma and the year. Or, include the author(s) names narratively in the sentence and conclude with the year in parentheses. If there are two authors, use the word and. If there are three or more authors, use the abbreviation et al., which stands for "and others."
Methods to control key interfacial chemistry include chemical functionalization and physical interactions for high-energy-density active materials in robust composite electrodes (Gueon et al., 2023).
Gueon et al. (2023) outline methods for controlling key interfacial chemistry such as chemical functionalization and physical interactions for high-energy-density active materials in robust composite electrodes.
ACS References
Include the complete citation at the end of your paper in a references section including the author(s), publication date, and publication information.
If you used numerical superscript or italic numbers, list your references in numerical order at the end of your paper. If you used the author-date system, list your references in alphabetical order by the first author's last name.
Use the following directions and examples to format these common types of sources. You can find more reference examples on ACS's website.
Journal article
1. Author(s). List each author's last name and initials as Author, A. A.; Author, B. B.; Author, C. C. with a semi colon between each author's last name.
2. Title of the Article. Use headline style capitalization, meaning the first word and all main words are capitalized besides "less important" words like a, an, and, the, etc.
3. Abbreviated Journal Title Include the abbreviation of the journal title in italics. Some journal abbreviations will be included with the article information, otherwise look up the abbreviation in a search engine or the CAS Source Index (CASSI) database.
4. Year, Include the year of publication in bold.
5. Volume number Include the volume number in italics.
6. (Issue number), Include the issue number in parenthesis. If there is no issue number, include a comma after the volume number.
7. Page range. Include the page range or article number.
8. DOI: Include only the digital object identifier (DOI) string (not the https://) after DOI:.
Gueon, D.; Gonzalez, M. A.; Takeuchi, K. J.; Takeuchi, E. S.; Marschilok, A. C.; Reichmanis, E. Understanding Interfacial Chemistry Interactions in Energy-Dense Lithium-Ion Electrodes. Acc. Mater. Res 2023, 4 (2), 156-167. DOI: 10.1021/accountsmr.2c00198
Book
1. Author(s). List each author's last name and initials as Author, A. A.; Author, B. B.; Author, C. C. with a semi colon between each author's last name.
2. Title of Book, Use italics and headline style capitalization, meaning the first word and all main words are capitalized besides "less important" words like a, an, and, the, etc.
3. Edition; Use the abbreviated ed.
4. Series, If any.
5. Volume; If there are multiple volumes in the series, use Vol.
6. Publisher,
7. Year.
8. DOI: If an ebook with a digital object identifier (DOI). Include only the DOI string (not the https://) after DOI:.
Hammond, C. The Basics of Crystallography and Diffraction, 4th ed.; International Union of Crystallography Texts on Crystallography, Vol. 21; Oxford University Press, 2015. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198738671.001.0001
Book chapter with editors
1. Author(s). List each author's last name and initials as Author, A. A.; Author, B. B.; Author, C. C. with a semi colon between each author's last name.
2. Title of Chapter. Use headline-style capitalization, meaning the first word and all main words are capitalized besides "less important" words like a, an, and, the, etc.
3. In Title of Book; Use italics and headline style capitalization.
4. Editors Eds.; List each editors last name and initials as Author, A. A.; Author, B. B.; Author, C. C. with a comma between each author's last name and Eds. at the end.
5. Publisher,
6. Year;
7. pp page range.
8. DOI: DOI: If an ebook with a digital object identifier (DOI). Include only the DOI string (not the https://) after DOI:.
Kulkarni, Y.; Kamerlin, S. C. L. Computational Physical Organic Chemistry Using the Empirical Valence Bond Approach. In Advances in Physical Organic Chemistry; Williams, I. H.; Williams, N. H. Eds.; Academic Press, 2019; pp 69-104. DOI: 10.1016/bs.apoc.2019.07.001
Website
1. Name of the web page. In italics and headline style capitalization, meaning all main words are capitalized besides "less important" words like a, an, and, the, etc.
2. URL
3. (accessed year-month-day).
ACS Publications Home Page. https://pubs.acs.org/ (accessed 2023-03-08).