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)

Holmes, D. The Cancer That Rises with the Sun. Nature 2014, 515 (7527), S110-1.

A journal article with 2 authors

(1)

Benilova, I.; De Strooper, B. Neuroscience. Promiscuous Alzheimer’s Amyloid: Yet Another Partner. Science 2013, 341 (6152), 1354–1355.

A journal article with 3 authors

(1)

Vance, D.; Teagle, D. A. H.; Foster, G. L. Variable Quaternary Chemical Weathering Fluxes and Imbalances in Marine Geochemical Budgets. Nature 2009, 458 (7237), 493–496.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

(1)

Merckx, T.; Souffreau, C.; Kaiser, A.; Baardsen, L. F.; Backeljau, T.; Bonte, D.; Brans, K. I.; Cours, M.; Dahirel, M.; Debortoli, N.; De Wolf, K.; Engelen, J. M. T.; Fontaneto, D.; Gianuca, A. T.; Govaert, L.; Hendrickx, F.; Higuti, J.; Lens, L.; Martens, K.; Matheve, H.; Matthysen, E.; Piano, E.; Sablon, R.; Schön, I.; Van Doninck, K.; De Meester, L.; Van Dyck, H. Body-Size Shifts in Aquatic and Terrestrial Urban Communities. Nature 2018, 558 (7708), 113–116.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

(1)

Maidl, B.; Herrenknecht, M.; Maidl, U.; Wehrmeyer, G. Maschineller Tunnelbau Im Schildvortrieb; Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA: Weinheim, Germany, 2011.

An edited book

(1)

Respiratory Regulation - Clinical Advances; Pokorski, M., Ed.; Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology; Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht, 2013; Vol. 755.

A chapter in an edited book

(1)

Alitappeh, R. J.; Pimenta, L. C. A. Distributed Safe Deployment of Networked Robots. In Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems: The 12th International Symposium; Chong, N.-Y., Cho, Y.-J., Eds.; Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics; Springer Japan: Tokyo, 2016; pp 65–77.

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)

Andrew, E. FDA Approves Double Chin Shrinking Drug https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/fda-approves-double-chin-shrinking-drug/ (accessed Oct 30, 2018).

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. Surface Transportation: Prospects for Innovation Through Research, Intelligent Transportation Systems, State Infrastructure Banks, and Design-Build Contracting; T-RCED-97-83; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

(1)

Lansdon, J. A Policy Analysis of California’s Three Strikes Law of 1994. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, 2010.

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)

Sisario, B. McCartney Sues to Get Back His Songs. New York Times. January 19, 2017, p B2.

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

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