Tip
Citation managers are useful for citing and organizing your references.
At Rutgers, we have RefWorks available to all students and faculty. Others are available online, such as EndNote (fee based) http://endnote.com/ or Zotero (free) http://www.zotero.org/
For information on how to use RefWorks, take a look at these resources:
- Connect to RefWorks
- Quick Start Guide
- Importing from Online Data Vendors - See this page for instructions on importing into RefWorks from SciFinder, Reaxys, Web of Science, PubMed, and more!
Scholarly articles
Do you know the difference between a scholarly article and one from a popular or news source?
A scholarly article is written by researchers who are experts in their field. Researchers submit articles to the editors of the journals, who have them reviewed by several experts in the field, before deciding whether or not to publish the article. This is referred to as a scholarly, peer reviewed or refereed article.
Newspapers, news magazines, and popular magazines are not scholarly. Trade journals often provide information about current developments in a field, but they are not peer reviewed, so they are not scholarly. Generally, scholarly articles are 10 to 25 pages, have a list of references at the end, and note the institution affiliation of the author.
Caution- just because something is in a refereed journal, doesn't mean it is scholarly. Book reviews, editiorials, letters to the editor, and short news pieces are not scholarly.
Source: Introduction to the Libraries by Mei Ling Lo and Jill Nathanson
ACS Style Guide
The ACS style guide : effective communication of scientific information (3rd edition)
located in the reference section on the first floor of the Library of Science and Medicine. The latest edition from 2006 is available online.
Here is a nice summary from Penn State Libraries: Quick Guide to ACS Style
Parts of a Citation
Here are the parts of a citation in ACS style. Note that the journal name is abbreviated. These abbreviations can be found in the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index or CASSI, which is available in the library. A search tool is also available online. For a core list of journal abbreviations, see this link from CAS.
The following examples of citations for journal articles are taken from the ACS Style Guide, Chapter 14, References
For an article taken from SciFinder: (from Quick Guide- a combination of print and database formats)
“When citing indexes like SciFinder Scholar or PubMed, the citation to the original publication follows the format for that type of publication (journal articles, patents, books, etc.) and is followed by the citation to the abstract.”(Quick Guide to ACS Style, Penn State)
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Title of Article. Journal Abbreviation [Online] Year, Volume (issue), pagination; Database Provider and Article Number or other identifying information. URL of top page or DOI if available (accessed Month Day, Year).
Babu, V. R.; Sarath, P. S.; Karanth, N. G.; Kumar, M. A.; Thakur, M. S. Development of a biosensor for caffeine. Anal. Chim. Acta [Online] 2007, 582 (2), 329-334; SciFinder Scholar AN=2006:1359559 (accessed Apr 2, 2007).
For a print article:
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Title of Article. Journal Abbreviation. Year, Volume, Inclusive Pagination.
Caruso, R. A.; Susha, A.; Caruso, F. Multilayered Titania, Silica, and Laponite Nanoparticle Coatings on Polystyrene Colloidal Templates and Resulting Inorganic Hollow Spheres. Chem. Mater. 2001, 13, 400–409.
Some publications list the first 10 authors followed by a semi-colon and et. al.; check the guidelines. (from the ACS Style Guide)
The journal Biochemistry is an exception. Consult this journal’s instructions to authors for the correct format. Refer to the style guide for differences between online and print sources.
*Note: The second and all subsequent lines of the citation are indented. This may not be shown when retrieving articles from online sources.