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ACS Style Guide - References

In most cases, if the book you are citing has one or more authors who wrote all of the chapters, then you are citing the book. 

The general format for citing a book:

Author 1; Author 2; …; Author 10; et al. Book Title; Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. DOI: DOI number

Considerations when citing a book:

  • Is it a print book or ebook?  Ebooks should include a DOI or URL, just like journal articles that are accessed online.
    • Is the online book/chapter at the publisher's website, or did you access it through another site (EBSCO, ProQuest, JSTOR, HathiTrust, etc.)?
  • Is there an edition number, like 2nd edition, 3rd edition, etc.?
  • Is it part of a series, with a volume number?
  • Is the publisher well-known?  If so, you don't need the place of publication.

There are some odd differences between citing books vs. journal articles. These are holdovers from the previous edition of the ACS Style Guide.

  • Publication year is not in bold.
  • Page numbers are preceded by p. or pp.
  • Some elements within the citation are divided by semicolons rather than periods.

 

1. Palsson, B. Ø. Systems Biology: Constraint-based Reconstruction and Analysis; Cambridge University Press, 2015.

2. Verstynen, T.; Voytek, B. Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain. Princeton University Press, 2014.

1. Ha, S.; Kim, C.; Mercier, P. P.; Cauwenburghs, G. High-Density Integrated Electrocortical Neural Interfaces; Elsevier, 2020. DOI: 10.1016/C2017-0-01956-0

2. Sailor, M. J. Porous Silicon in Practice: Preparation, Characterization and Applications; Wiley-VCH, 2012. DOI: 10.1002/9783527641901

1. Scerri, E. R. The Periodic Table: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd ed.; Oxford University Press, 2019. DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198842323.001.0001

2. Vollhardt, K. P. C.; Schore, N. E. Organic Chemistry: Structure and Function, 8th ed.; Macmillan Learning, 2018.

 

First editions are usually not identified as such.

It may not be obvious that a book is part of series, particularly if the volumes do not have a common title or even volume numbers. 

1. Stavrov, I. Curvature of Space and Time, with an Introduction to Geometric Analysis; Student Mathematical Library, IAS/Park City Mathematical Subseries, Vol. 93; American Mathematical Society, 2020. DOI: 10.1090/stml/093

2. Dean, William M. Introduction to Chemical Engineering Fluid Mechanics; Cambridge Series in Chemical Engineering; Cambridge University Press, 2016.

3. Chen, C. J. Introduction to Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, 3rd ed.; Monographs on the Physics and Chemistry of Materials, No. 63; Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198856559.001.0001

4. Jessop, P. G.; Cunningham, M. F. CO2-switchable Materials: Solvents, Surfactants, Solutes and Solids; Green Chemistry Series, No. 67; Royal Society of Chemistry, 2020. DOI: 10.1039/9781788012850

If you access the ebook from a site other than the original publisher, please include that information as well. If the URL for the ebook

1. Kyte, J. Structure in Protein Chemistry, 2nd ed. Garland Science, 2007. Retrieved from eScholarship, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4kv007vf (accessed 2021-05-22).

2. Verstynen, T.; Voytek, B. Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain. Princeton University Press, 2014. Retrieved from JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wq0w3 (accessed 2021-05-22).

3. Hill, R. H., Jr.; Finster, D. C. Laboratory Safety for Chemistry Students, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, 2016. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central (accessed 2021-05-21).

4. Lewis, G. N.; Randall, M. Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances; McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1923. Retrieved from Hathitrust, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015064498077 (accessed 2021-05-20).

5. Reddy, J. N. Introduction to the Finite Element Method, 4th ed.; McGraw-Hill Education, 2019. Retrieved from AccessEngineering, https://www.accessengineeringlibrary.com/content/book/9781259861901 (accessed 2022-02-06)

6. Rogers, D. R. Engine Combustion: Pressure Measurement and Analysis, 2nd ed. SAE International: Warrendale, PA, 2021. Retrieved from Knovel, https://app.knovel.com/hotlink/toc/id:kpECPMAE08/engine-combustion-pressure/engine-combustion-pressure (accessed 2022-03-31)

If you want to cite a chapter in a book where all of the chapters are written by the same author(s), cite the author, chapter title, and book title. Since there's no editor, just skip that.  

1. Wang, J. Externally Powered Nanomotors - Fuel-Free Nanoswimmers. In Nanomachines: Fundamentals and Applications; Wiley, 2013; pp 101-118.

2. Meyers, M. A.; Chen, P.-Y. Silicate- and Calcium-Carbonate-Based Compounds. In Biological Materials Science: Biological Materials, Bioinspired Materials, and Biomaterials; Cambridge, 2014, pp 157-222. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511862397.009