How to format your references using the ACS Nano citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for ACS Nano. 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	Download the output style file
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)

Hvidberg, C. S. When Greenland Ice Melts. Nature 2000, 404 (6778), 551–552.

A journal article with 2 authors

(1)

Foulger, G. R.; Natland, J. H. Geology. Is “Hotspot” Volcanism a Consequence of Plate Tectonics? Science 2003, 300 (5621), 921–922.

A journal article with 3 authors

(1)

White, N.; Thompson, M.; Barwise, T. Understanding the Thermal Evolution of Deep-Water Continental Margins. Nature 2003, 426 (6964), 334–343.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

(1)

Ruckh, T. T.; Mehta, A. A.; Dubach, J. M.; Clark, H. A. Polymer-Free Optode Nanosensors for Dynamic, Reversible, and Ratiometric Sodium Imaging in the Physiological Range. Sci. Rep. 2013, 3, 3366.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

(1)

Mesterton-Gibbons, M. A Concrete Approach to Mathematical Modelling; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2007.

An edited book

(1)

Morphogenesis and Individuation; Sarti, A., Montanari, F., Galofaro, F., Eds.; Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis; Springer International Publishing: Cham, 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

(1)

Jacobs, K.; Spierings, N. Interparty Relations: David versus Goliath. In Social Media, Parties, and Political Inequalities; Spierings, N., Ed.; Palgrave Macmillan US: New York, NY, 2016; pp 77–101.

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 Nano.

Blog post

(1)

Carpineti, A. Earth Was Mostly Vaporized By The Collision That Formed The Moon, Claims New Study. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/earth-was-mostly-vaporized-by-the-collision-that-formed-the-moon-claims-new-study/ (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. School Meal Programs: More Systematic Development of Specifications Could Improve the Safety of Foods Purchased through USDA’s Commodity Program; GAO-11-376; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2011.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

(1)

Saperstein, A. M. Susceptibility to Smoking and Nicotine Dependence in Schizophrenia. Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, 2009.

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)

Grynbaum, M. M. For de Blasio, So Many Jobs to Fill, So Little Time. New York Times. December 31, 2013, p A1.

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 Nano
Abbreviation	ACS Nano
ISSN (print)	1936-0851
ISSN (online)	1936-086X
Scope	General Engineering General Materials Science General Physics and Astronomy