Citing Sources in Chemistry

Introduction 
What are citations? 
Why are citations used? 
What is plagiarism? 
Where do citations go in a paper?
Parenthetical Citations
Reference Lists
Basic Citation Elements
Citing a Journal Article | Book | Book Chapter | Web Site
Important Things to Note about Citations

Introduction
The use of proper and complete citations is required for Chemistry projects.  The citation style for this course is the same style used by the American Chemical Society.  The ACS Style Guide: A Maunual for Authors and Editors, 2nd ed., published by the American Chemical Society, fully describes how to prepare citations and reference lists.  Examples and references for citations to typical works are given in this guide. 
 

Available at:      Science Reference      QD 8.5 .A25 1997

Citations and references for Chem360 projects should be given as if they are intended for publication in an ACS journal, such as The Journal of American Chemical Society.                                  back

What are citations?
Scholarship builds on the work of others.  Citations give credit where credit is due. Citations, whether in-line in the text of a work or found in a reference list or bibliography, note the source of the work, words, ideas, or facts that you use in your writing or presentation. 

Why are citations used?

To give credit to the work of others 

To add authority and credibility to your claims 

To be honest about the extent of your original contribution 

To avoid plagiarism 

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What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is when you use someone else’s ideas, work, or words as if they were your own.  Plagiarism occurs anytime you do not give credit where credit is due.  Plagiarism is an ethical and legal issue.  Ohio Wesleyan University addresses plagiarism in the Academic Honesty Policy.
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Where do citations go in a paper?
Citations are made in the body of the text (parenthetical citation) and grouped together at the end of a work (reference list).        back

Parenthetical citations, or in-line citations are made in the text at the point where the material is used.  Journal articles in analytical chemistry use a superscript number at the point cited.

Example:
The reaction was carried out using a standard Lever apparatus ⁵ with modifcations as described by Grunkemeyer et al. ^6-7

Numerical reference citations are numbered consecutively from the beginning of a paper.  When, occasionally, a reference is repeated in the text, the original number is used, a new number is not given.

Use last names to identify authors in parenthetical citations.  If a work has two authors, use both last names linked together with the word "and".

If a referenced work has more than two authors, use only the first author followed by the phrase "et al.:

Examples:
Fike and Lance ¹² determined that....
Vogt et al. ²⁴ found ....

Sometimes the same first author publishes different papers on similar topics with different co-authors.  To reference multiple works by the same principle author use a phrase such as "and colleagues" or "and co-workers".

Example:
Brugh and co-workers ^{17, 23-25} established ....

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A References List is given at the conclusion of a work.  This list contains only the sources actually referenced or cited in the work.  If a source is consulted but not used or cited in a work, it is not listed in the References Cited section. 

Basic Citation Elements

Journals	Books
author names	author names
article title (if used)	editor name (if any)
abbreviated journal title	book title
year of publication	publisher
volume number (if any)	city of publication
pagination of cited article	year of publication

The Reference List is numbered, in order,  with reference numbers corrosponding to their appearance in the text.  Some journals use a very brief format for the reference list where the title of journal articles or chapters in edited volumes are omitted.  For Chem360, please include the title of all articles, books, and chapters in edited volumes.  Use the following examples as a guide:
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Journal Article
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3.  Title of Article.  Journal Abbreviation Year, 

Volume, Inclusive Pagination.

Ehara, Y.; Sakamoto, K.; Marumo, Y.  A method for forensic identification
          of vegetable oil stains: Rapid analysis of carboxylic acids with with 
          methyl esterfication using purge-and-trap gas chromatography/mass
          spectrometry. J. Foren. Sci.  2001, 46,  1462-1469.

Book
Author 1; Author 2; etc.  Book Title; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year;
          Inclusive Pagination.

Dodd, J.S.  The ACS Style Guide, 2nd. ed.; ACS: Washington, D.C., 1997, 

173-229.

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Edited Volume
Author 1; Author 2; etc.  Chapter Title. In Book Title; Editor 1, 
          Editor 2, etc., Eds.; Series Information (if any);Publisher: Place 
          of Publication, Year; Inclusive Pagination.

Adams, M.R; Garton, A., Eds;  Far-Ultraviolet Degredation of Selected 
          Polymers.  In Polymer Durability: Degredation, Stabilizatioon, 
          and Lifetime Prediction; Clough, R.L., Billingham, N.C., 
          Gillen, K.T., Rds.;  Advances in Chemistry Series 249; 
          ACS: Washington, DC. 1996, 139-158.

Web Site
Author (if any).  Title of Site. URL (accessed date), 

Peoples, D.C.  Resources for Chemistry 360 Instrumental Analysis.
http://library.owu.edu/science/c360main.html (September 2, 2002).
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Important Things to Note about Citations

journal titles are usually capitilized sentence-style

book titles are usually capitalized book-title style

journal names are always abbreviated

authors are generally identified by last name and first initials

pay attention to punctuation placement - periods, commas, semi-colons

pay attention to italics and bolding

reference lists usually have the second line of entry indented, though this can vary with publication

URLs can be cumbersome, it is not necessary to indent the second line of these entries

Article titles are often omitted from reference list entries - this varies by publication

the rule of thumb is to give only enough information that the reference may be easily located - and to be consistent in style.

Dodd, J.S. Ed. The ACS Style Guide, 2nd. ed.; ACS: Washington, D.C., 1997.
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This page was prepared by 
Deborah Carter Peoples 
Ohio Wesleyan University Libraries 
Last updated May 25, 2005