What does a ACS reference list entry look like?

A journal article formatted in ACS looks like this: (1) Rivera, M.; Chen, D. The Mapping of Meaning: A Study of Citation Practice. Journal of Scholarly Communication 2021, 12 (3), 145–162. https://doi.org/10.1000/jsc.2021.145.

How can I generate a ACS citation?

Use the free generator on this page: paste a DOI, URL (e.g. a news article), or BibTeX, or search for a book by title or author. Select ACS as the citation style and click Generate to get a formatted reference you can copy into your paper or bibliography.

ACS Citation Generator

Create accurate ACS citations for books, articles, and websites in one click.

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ACS citation examples

The same three sources formatted in ACS — a numeric style: sources are numbered in the order they are first cited, and in-text citations use those numbers:

Journal article: (1) Rivera, M.; Chen, D. The Mapping of Meaning: A Study of Citation Practice. Journal of Scholarly Communication 2021, 12 (3), 145–162. https://doi.org/10.1000/jsc.2021.145.
Book: (2) Okafor, A. The Craft of Research Writing, 2nd ed.; University Press: Cambridge, 2019.
Website: (3) Larsen, S. How peer review works. Open Science Digest. https://www.example.org/peer-review (accessed 2024-01-10).
In-text citation (for the journal article): 1

About ACS

ACS style uses numbers in superscript or parentheses. Used in chemistry and related fields.

When to use ACS: Chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical engineering journals. Common in: United States.

Subject areas: chemistry.

Formatting rules: ACS follows the formatting of ACS full, the parent style it is based on.

How to use this ACS generator

Paste a DOI, a URL to a news article or webpage, or raw BibTeX into the box above. You can also search for a book by title or author and cite it by ISBN. Choose "ACS" in the style dropdown (it's pre-selected on this page), then click "Generate citation." Copy the result into your reference list or bibliography. You can edit the generated entry (e.g. fix a title or add a date) before copying.

Frequently asked questions about ACS

What is American Chemical Society (ACS)?: ACS style uses numbers in superscript or parentheses. Used in chemistry and related fields.
When should I use ACS?: Chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical engineering journals.
What does an in-text citation look like in ACS?: ACS is a numeric style: sources are numbered in the order they are first cited, and in-text citations use those numbers. Citing our sample journal article in the text looks like: 1
What does a ACS reference list entry look like?: A journal article formatted in ACS looks like this: (1) Rivera, M.; Chen, D. The Mapping of Meaning: A Study of Citation Practice. Journal of Scholarly Communication 2021, 12 (3), 145–162. https://doi.org/10.1000/jsc.2021.145.
How can I generate a ACS citation?: Use the free generator on this page: paste a DOI, URL (e.g. a news article), or BibTeX, or search for a book by title or author. Select ACS as the citation style and click Generate to get a formatted reference you can copy into your paper or bibliography.

CitationEasy supports many citation styles from around the world. Our generator uses Citation Style Language (CSL) styles from the official CSL repository.