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ACS - Referencing Guide

Books

Information

  See Book Chapters guidance page to reference book chapters, as this page has guidance for referencing whole books.


  Only the author's initials are included regardless of the presentation of the author's name in the source document.

  If there is no author and the author is not an organisation (such as with most dictionaries and encyclopedias), the reference begins with the title element.

  All authors are listed (up to and including 10) unless the source document lists only primary authors followed by et al.

  Titles and subtitles of books are given maximal capitalisation (title case).

  Capitalise the "V" in Volume for a book title.

  Information about places of publication should follow the guidelines for Place Names.

  Include the DOI for e-books in your reference, if given.

•  Do not include the protocol in the DOI (http:// or https://)

Format

Standard format for citation

e-book:

Author 1; Author 2; …; Author 10; et al. Title of E-book, edition number as x ed. (unless first edition); Series Title, Vol. number (if applicable); Publisher: Place of Publication, Year. DOI or URL (accessed YYYY-MM-DD).

 

e-book accessed via a Full-text Database:

Author 1; Author 2; …; Author 10; et al. Title of E-book, edition number as x ed. (unless first edition); Series Title, Vol. number (if applicable); Publisher: Place of Publication, Year. Retrieved from Database name, URL (accessed YYYY-MM-DD).

 

Print book:

Author 1; Author 2; …; Author 10; et al. Book Title, edition number as x ed. (unless first edition); Series Title, Vol. number (if any); Publisher: Place of Publication, Year.

 

Book with Editor/s

Note: This is to reference a whole book, not a chapter in an edited book.

Book Title: Subtitle, edition number as x ed. (unless first edition); Editor 1, Editor 2, [continue until all editors are listed], Eds.; Series Title, Vol. number (if any); Publisher: Place of Publication, Year. DOI or URL (accessed YYYY-MM-DD) if applicable.

 

Government Publications and other Publications with Organisation as Author

Note: The author may be an organisation name. Do not repeat this name in the publisher field if the work has been compiled and published by the same organisation.

Organisation or author name. Document Title, edition number; Series Information (if any); Publisher: Place of Publication, year; volume number, pagination.

 

Examples

Single author e-book

1. Byrnes, M. E. Field Sampling Methods for Remedial Investigations, 3rd ed.; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2023. DOI: 10.1201/9781003284000

Single author print books

2. Schmidt, L. D. The Engineering of Chemical Reactions, 2nd ed.; Oxford University Press, 2005.

3. Hoppert, M. Microscopic Techniques in Biotechnology; Wiley-VCH, 2003.

Two to ten authors e-books

Note: If more than 10 authors list the first 10 followed by et al. See standard format above.

4. Singh, Y.; Strezov, V.; Negi, P. Biowaste and Biomass in Biofuel Applications; Taylor & Francis, 2023. DOI: 10.1201/9781003265597

5. Mikkelsen, S. R.; Cortón, E. Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2nd ed.; Wiley, 2016. Retrieved from Proquest, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/murdoch/detail.action?docID=7104389 (accessed 2019-10-08)

Two to ten authors print books

Note: If more than 10 authors list the first 10 followed by et al. See standard format above.

6. Metzler, D. E.; Metzler, C. M. Biochemistry: The Chemical Reactions of Living Cells, 2nd ed.; Harcourt/Academic Press: Cambridge, MA, 2003.

7. Sutton, R.S.; Rockett, B.; Swindells, P. G. Chemistry for the Life Sciences, 2nd ed.; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2009.

No author

8. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Chemistry, 2nd ed.; McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Multivolume work

9. Carey, F. A.; Sundberg, R. J. Advanced Organic Chemistry, Vol 2; Springer, 2007.

Book that is part of a Series

10. Hammond, C. The Basics of Crystallography and Diffraction, 4th ed; International Union of Crystallography Texts on Crystallography, Vol. 21; Oxford University Press, 2015. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198738671.001.0001

Books with Editor/s

11. Gaede, H. C. Professional Development for REU Students. In Best Practices for Chemistry REU Programs; Griep, M. A., Watkins, L., Eds.; ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 1295; American Chemical Society, 2018; pp 33−44. DOI: 10.1021/bk-2018-1295.ch003

12. Mom the Chemistry Professor: Personal Accounts and Advice from Chemistry Professors Who Are Mothers, 2nd ed.; Woznack, K., Charlebois, A., Cole, R. S., Marzabadi, C. H., Webster, G., Eds.; Springer, 2018. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-78972-9

Organisation as Author

13. American Chemical Society, Committee on Analytical Reagents. Reagent Chemicals: Specifications and Procedures, 10th ed.; 2006.

Government publications

14. Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Heritage. Personal Monitoring of Selected Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): The Contribution of Woodsmoke to Exposure; Technical report no. 8; Canberra, Australia, 2004.

15. Department of Consumer and Employment Protection. Hydrochloric Acid Bath Chemical Reaction; Safety and Health Alert 25/95; Perth, Australia, 1995.

16. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Environment Protection Mining and Manufacturing Industries, Australia, 2000–2001; ABS publication 4603.0; Canberra, Australia, 2002.

NoteIt is not necessary to repeat the publisher's name for a work compiled by the organisation that published it. Include only the location of the publishing organisation in the publisher space.

When including government entities in a citation, whether as the authoring organization or the publisher, begin with the highest level agency or department, then the next level organization, and so forth (e.g., U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service).

 

 

See the All Examples page for examples of in-text and reference list entries for specific resources such as articles, books and web pages.