ACS Citation Generator
ACS Style citations for chemistry papers, JACS, Org. Lett., and ACS Nano formatting with BibTeX export.
Input
Source Details
Fill what you have, leave blank what you don't
Separate authors with semicolons.
Output
ACS Citation
Copy-ready citation in your chosen style
Output
BibTeX Equivalent
LaTeX-ready, paste into your .bib file
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What is ACS?
ACS (American Chemical Society) style is the required citation format for all ACS journals, including the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Org. Lett., Chem. Rev., Anal. Chem., and ACS Nano. ACS style is unique in its compact bibliographic format, abbreviated journal titles, and the use of bold for year and italics for both journal name and volume number.
Who uses ACS?
Required by all ACS journals (50+ titles across chemistry, materials, biochemistry, and chemical engineering). Many independent chemistry journals, including some RSC and Wiley publications , accept ACS format as one of several allowed styles. Many graduate chemistry departments adopt ACS as their default for thesis and dissertation references.
For instructors & researchers
Chemistry faculty: ACS formatting is one of the most distinctive in academic publishing, bold years, italicized volumes, no "p." before page numbers, and abbreviated journal titles like J. Am. Chem. Soc. This generator handles all those conventions automatically. The BibTeX export pairs with the achemso LaTeX class, which is what most ACS templates require.
ACS examples by source type
Journal article
Bertrand, G.; Dyer, R. C. *J. Am. Chem. Soc.* **2024**, *146*, 12345-12360.
Book
Atkins, P.; de Paula, J. *Physical Chemistry*; Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2018.
Chapter in edited volume
Whitesides, G. M. In *Soft Matter Physics*; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2015; pp 234-289.
DOI-only article
Anslyn, E. V. *Chem. Sci.* **2023**. DOI: 10.1039/d3sc00001a.
ACS citation questions
Are journal titles abbreviated in ACS?
Yes. ACS uses the CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index) abbreviations. For example, Journal of the American Chemical Society becomes J. Am. Chem. Soc.
Why is the year bold and volume italic in ACS?
It's an ACS-specific convention to make the year visually distinguishable from the volume number, common in older chemistry literature and retained in modern style.
Which LaTeX class supports ACS style?
Use the achemso class (\documentclass{achemso}), it bundles the ACS-required formatting and citation styles. Pair it with the BibTeX output from this generator.
Can I use this for the supporting information document?
Yes. ACS supporting information files use the same citation format as the main manuscript.
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