The document outlines the ACS style guide for writing and formatting documents in the field of chemistry, providing standards for citations, headings, abstracts, and various stylistic elements. It includes specific guidelines on title structure, in-text citations, figures, tables, units, numbers, mathematical notations, and the usage of hyphens and en dashes, among others. This guide is meant to ensure clarity and consistency in scholarly communication within the chemistry community.

1. 17 Things to remember while styling your paper as per (ACS) style guide
Most journals publishing works related to the field of Chemistry and related topics request authors to apply styles
recommended by the ACS style guide. The ACS style guide is a set of standards for writing documents relating to
chemistry, including a standard method of citation in academic publications, developed by the American Chemical
Society (ACS). Also, companies rendering ​research paper editing and manuscript proofreading services often
style paper for researchers if required as per style guide.
The goal of The ACS Style Guide is to help authors and editors achieve that ease and grace in all of their
communications. This guide is the definitive source for all information needed to write, review, submit, and edit
scholarly and scientific manuscripts. An established resource for the chemistry community, The ACS Style Guide is
not just a resource for ACS authors, but is referenced by other publishers, even beyond chemistry, within their
instructions to authors and is used as a resource in teaching students how to effectively communicate scientific
information.
Title
1. All titles should be between 3 and 14 words, and spell out all terms.
2. Avoid phrases such as “on the”, “a study of”, “research on”, “report on”, “regarding”, and “use of”. In
most cases, omit “the” at the beginning of the title. Avoid words that are non-quantitative and
meaningless (e.g., “rapid” and “new”).
3. Avoid symbols, formulas, abbreviations, expressions containing superscripts or subscripts, and the brand
names of chemicals, drugs, materials, or instruments.
Abstract
4. The length of the abstract depends on the subject matter and the length of the paper. Between 80 and
200 words is usually adequate.
5. Do not cite references, tables, figures, or sections of the paper in the abstract.
6. Define abbreviations and symbols for mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities at first
use in the abstract (and again at first use in the text). Do not define standard mathematical constants.
7. Use abbreviations only when it is necessary to prevent awkward construction or needless repetition.
Paper Headings and Titles
8. No specific title and heading structure is specified by ACS
9. Capitalize the main words (i.e., nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and subordinating
conjunctions, such as “because”, “although”, “if”, “whereas”), the “to” in infinitives, and the first and last
words of a title or heading. Do not capitalize coordinating conjunctions (“and”, “but”, “or”, “nor”, yet”,
and “so”), articles (“a”, “an”, and “the”), or prepositions. Finally, capitalize “as” when it is used as a
subordinating conjunction but not when it is used as a preposition.
10. Capitalize all main words in a unit modifier (e.g., “Base-Catalyzed Cyclization”), but do not capitalize
hyphenated suffixes (e.g., “Synthesis of Cuban-like Clusters”).
11. Capitalize small words that are parts of phrasal verbs (e.g., “Break Down”).
Introduction
12. It is acceptable if the introduction does not specifically apply the heading “Introduction.” No heading is
required for this section.
13. It can be one or two paragraphs long.
Body

2. 14. Active voice is preferred when it creates less wordy and more direct sentences.
15. Use simple past tense to state what was done, either by others or by you. Use present tense for
statements of fact. Present and simple past tenses are both correct for results, discussion, and
conclusions. However, be consistent.
16. ACS adopts gender-neutral language similar to AMA and CSE: Instead of “manpower”, use “workers”,
“staff”, “work force”, labor”, “employees”, or “personnel"; instead of “man-made”, use “synthetic”,
“artificial”, “constructed”, “manufactured”, or “factory-made”; instead of "man," use "people," "humans,"
human beings," or "human species" depending on your meaning.
17. Give the chemical names of all compounds and the chemical formulas of compounds that are new or
uncommon.
18. Avoid using trademarks and brand names of equipment and reagents; use only generic names.
In-text Citations
19. In ACS publications, you may cite references in text in three ways: (Note if you have given your paper for
research paper editing and manuscript proofreading services ​you need to specify to check your
references)
(i) By superscript numbers, which appear outside the punctuation if the citation applies to a whole sentence or
clause (“Pauling and co-workers​10,11​
”).
(ii) By italic numbers in parentheses on the line of text and inside the punctuation (“The mineralization of TCE
using a pure culture has been reported (6)”).
(iii) By author name and year of publication in parentheses inside the punctuation (known as author–date) (“The
structure of this enzyme has been determined (Finnegan et al., 2004)”).
20. Do not use parentheses when citing a reference number in narrative text. In such a case, the reference
number is the point of the sentence, not subsidiary information, and thus not parenthetical.
​Incorrect​: in ref (12); in (12) ​Correct​: in ref 12
Figures
21. Capitalize the word “Figure” when it is followed by the figure number and number figures sequentially
with Arabic numerals. “Fig.” is not used.
22. Designate parts of a figure using a combination of the Arabic numeral and a sequence of consistent labels
(e.g., Figure 1a, Figure 1b; Figure 1A, Figure 1B; and Figure 1-I, Figure 1-II).
23. Figure captions are preceded by “Figure X.” The caption is written in non-sentence format, and the
caption is concluded with a period. In figure captions, use colons to introduce explanations of symbols or
other aspects of the figure (e.g., “Figure 1. Variable-temperature H NMR spectra of compound 12: top,
403 K; middle, 353 K; bottom, 298 K.”).
Tables
24. Capitalize the word “Table” when it is followed by the table number in text, and number tables
sequentially with Arabic or roman numbers.
25. Give every formal table a brief, informative title that describes its contents in non-sentence format. The
title should be complete enough to be understood without referring to the text. Place details in table
footnotes, not in the title.
26. Table titles should begin with “Table X.” and should not end with a period.
Units
27. Use metric and SI units in all technical documents.

3. 28. Abbreviate units of measure when they accompany numbers, spell them out when they don’t; In column
headings and axis labels, abbreviate units of measure, even without numbers.
29. Use numerals with units of time or measure, and use a space between the numeral and the unit (6 min, 30
°C, and 50%), except %, $, ° (angular degrees), ' (angular minutes), and '' (angular seconds).
30. Do not use a slash in spelled-out units of measure. Use the word “per” (e.g. “Results are reported in
meters per second.”); use a slash, not the word “per”, before the abbreviation for a unit in complex
expressions (e.g., “25 mg of drug/kg of body weight”).
31. When the first part of a unit of measure is a word that is not itself a unit of measure, use a slash before
the final abbreviated unit (e.g., “10 counts/s” and “12 domains/cm​3​
”).
32. In ranges and series, retain only the final unit of measure (e.g. “10-12 mg” and “5, 10, and 20 kV”).
33. The terms “Celsius” and “Fahrenheit” are always capitalized.
Numbers
34. With items other than units of time or measure, use words for cardinal numbers less than 10; use
numerals for 10 and above. Spell out ordinals “first” through “ninth”; use numerals for 10th or greater.
35. Spell out and hyphenate fractions whose terms are both less than 10. If one of the terms is 10 or greater,
use a piece fraction (e.g. “one-quarter of the experiments” and “1/20 of the subjects”).
36. Use numerals for expressions used in a mathematical sense (e.g. “The incidence of disease increased by a
factor of 4” and “The efficiency of the reaction was increased 2-fold”); when the suffix “fold” or the word
“times” is used in a nonmathematical sense, spell out the accompanying number if it is less than 10 (e.g.,
“The purpose of this discussion is twofold” or “The beaker was rinsed four times”).
37. In four-digit numbers, use no commas or spaces. For numbers with five or more digits, the digits are
grouped with a thin space between groups of three numerals, counting both to the left and to the right of
the decimal point (e.g., “9319.4” and “74 183.293 810”) Exceptions: U.S. monetary values ($5,000) and
patent numbers (U.S. Patent 6,555,655) are always written with commas; page numbers are always
printed solid (p 11597).
38. Use all numerals in a series or range containing numbers 10 or greater (e.g., “2nd and 20th samples”).
Mathematical Notations
39. Leave a space before and after mathematical operators that function as verbs or conjunctions; that is,
they have numbers on both sides or a symbol for a variable on one side and a number on the other (e.g.,
“4 x 5 cm”, “ p < 0.01”, and “1 in. = 2.54 cm”); when mathematical symbols are used as adjectives, that is,
with one number that is not part of the mathematical operation, do not leave a space between the symbol
and the number (e.g., “a conversion of >50%” and “at 400x magnification”).
40. Leave no space on either side of a centered dot and slash.
Non-native speakers can seek help from companies providing ​research paper editing and manuscript
proofreading services ​for styling their manuscript as per ACS style guide.
En dash Usage
41. Use an en dash to mean that equivalent of “and”, “to”, or “versus” in multiword concepts where the
words carry equal weightage and to link the names of two or more persons of equal importance used as a
modifier (e.g., “acid–base titration”, “does–response relationship”, or “Beer–Lambert law”)
*Use a hyphen for color combinations such as blue-green
42. Use an en dash to mean “to” or “through” with a span of three or more numerals or other types of ranges
(e.g., “12–20 months” or “Figures 1–4”), except when either or both of the numbers are negative or
include a symbol that modifies the number (in these cases, use the word “to” or “through”) or when the
word “from” or “between” is used.

4. 43. Use an en dash between components of a mixed solvent (e.g., “The melting point was unchanged after
four crystallizations from hexane–benzene.”)
Hyphen Usage
44. Do not hyphenate multiplying prefixes (e.g., “hemi”, “mono”, “tetra”, “penta”, and “hepta”).
45. Do not hyphenate a number and a unit of time or measure used as a unit modifier (e.g., “10 mg sample”
or “20 mL aliquot”).
46. Hyphenate prefixes to chemical terms (e.g., “non-alkane” and “non-phenyl atoms”).
47. Hyphenate unit modifiers that contain spelled-out numbers (e.g., “five-coordinate complex”).
48. Hyphenate combinations of color terms used as unit modifiers (blue-green solution).
49. Hyphenate the suffix “like” in two-word compounds used as unit modifiers (e.g., “first-order-like” or
“rare-earth-like”).
50. Hyphenate a numeral and a suffix (e.g. “10-fold” and “25-fold”).
51. Hyphenate phrases also containing en dashes when they are used as unit modifiers (e.g.,
“Beer–Lambert-like kinetics”).
52. Hyphenate unit modifiers containing three words when similar two-word modifiers are hyphenated (e.g.,
“acid-catalyzed reaction”--> “general-acid-catalyzed reaction”) *Do not follow this rule when doing so
would break other rules (acid-catalyzed reactions, but Lewis acid catalyzed reactions).
Capitalization
53. Do not capitalize lowercase chemical descriptors hyphenated to chemical names when they are at the
beginning of a sentence (e.g. “cis-4-Chloro-3-buten-2-one was obtained in 74% yield”).
54. Do not capitalize the word “model” with a number or code (e.g., “Beckman model 5500B”).
55. When a sentence begins with a symbol that is not hyphenated to the following word, the word is not
capitalized (e.g. “π-Electron contributions are evident.” or “π electrons make significant contributions”).
56. Capitalize adjectives formed from proper names (e.g., “Boolean” and “Einsteinian”); capitalize only the
name of an eponym, not the accompanying noun (Avogadro's number; Exceptions: Nobel Peace Prize,
Nobel Prize).
Italicization
57. Use italic type sparingly to emphasize a word or phrase; do not use italics for long passages; use italic type
for a word being defined or for a newly introduced term the first time it appears in text.
58. Even when you use mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities in adjective combinations,
retain the italic type (e.g., “In eq 4, ​n is the number of extractions and ​M is the mass remaining after the
n​th extraction”).
59. Do not use italic type for common Latin terms and abbreviations.
Abbreviations
60. Define abbreviations and symbols for mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities at first
use in the text.
61. Form the plurals of multiletter, all-capital abbreviations, and abbreviations ending in a capital letter by
adding a lowercase “s” only (e.g., “HOMOs” and “pHs”); add an apostrophe and a lowercase “s” to form
the plurals of lowercase abbreviations, single-capital-letter abbreviations, abbreviations ending in a
subscript or superscript, and abbreviations ending in an italic letter (e.g., “cmc’s”, “pK’s” and “pKa’s”).
62. Use "e.g.", "i.e.", "vs", and "etc." only in figure captions, tables, and in parenthesis in text. Elsewhere, spell
out these.
Boldface

5. 63. Use boldface type for the following expressions: vectors, tensors, matrices, and multidimensional physical
quantities: ​H​(magnetic field strength).