How to format your references using the ACS Combinatorial Science citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for ACS Combinatorial Science. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

(1)

Smaglik, P. Job Insecurity. Nature 2002, 419 (6910), 3.

A journal article with 2 authors

(1)

Towbin, J. A.; Bowles, N. E. The Failing Heart. Nature 2002, 415 (6868), 227–233.

A journal article with 3 authors

(1)

McNamara, J. M.; Fawcett, T. W.; Houston, A. I. An Adaptive Response to Uncertainty Generates Positive and Negative Contrast Effects. Science 2013, 340 (6136), 1084–1086.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

(1)

Fong, D. D.; Stephenson, G. B.; Streiffer, S. K.; Eastman, J. A.; Auciello, O.; Fuoss, P. H.; Thompson, C. Ferroelectricity in Ultrathin Perovskite Films. Science 2004, 304 (5677), 1650–1653.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

(1)

Colloms, M.; Darlington, P. High Performance Loudspeakers; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,.: West Sussex, England, 2005.

An edited book

(1)

Protection of Built Environment Against Earthquakes; Dolšek, M., Ed.; Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht, 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

(1)

Wang, D.; Yu, M.; Low, C. B.; Arogeti, S. Fault Identification Techniques. In Model-based Health Monitoring of Hybrid Systems; Yu, M., Low, C. B., Arogeti, S., Eds.; Springer: New York, NY, 2013; pp 147–189.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for ACS Combinatorial Science.

Blog post

(1)

Hale, T. Edward Snowden Designs Phone Case That Shows When It Is Being Spied On. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/edward-snowden-designs-phone-case-that-shows-when-it-is-being-spied-on/ (accessed 2018-10-30).

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

(1)

Government Accountability Office. Natural Gas Regulation: Pipeline Transportation Under FERC Order 436; RCED-87-133BR; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1987.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

(1)

Metcalfe, A. C. Using Evolution as a Context for Teaching the Nature of Science to Diverse Student Populations: A High School Unit of Curriculum. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, 2017.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

(1)

Saslow, L. Amid Concerns, Counties Move to Limit Taxes. New York Times. September 23, 2006, p LI2.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

This sentence cites one reference ¹.
This sentence cites two references ^1,2.
This sentence cites four references ^1–4.

About the journal

Full journal title	ACS Combinatorial Science
Abbreviation	ACS Comb. Sci.
ISSN (print)	2156-8952
ISSN (online)	2156-8944
Scope	General Chemistry General Medicine