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ACS (American Chemical Society) format

Contributed By: Najwa Jabir

This ACS Format pertains to formal reports for organic chemistry research publications, Chemistry 347, and Chemistry 348.

Header

The header should include

  • Title of the experiment
  • Name of the people who did the experiment
  • What department/company it was from
  • City, state, and zip code
  • Email
  • Date published or the due date

Example header

Title of Experiment

Your name and possibly the partner's name
Department, city, state, zip code
email@youremail.com
Month XX, 20XX

Abstract

Abstracts should include the overall figure of the reaction. Under it should be a brief summary of the experiment. The abstract should include how the reaction works, the method used, the percent yield, and possibly the Rf factor. See example below.

The body paragraphs (Explanation of the structure of overall paper)

Your instructor may have said to make your report have a story. Therefore, it should have a beginning, middle, and end.

Beginning

  • With these formal reports, the beginning should have the background/history of the experiment.

Middle

  • The middle should have aspects like how you conducted the experiment and explanations of the experimental and theoretical concepts.
  • This section contains additional explanations with figures of reactions, the NMR/IR sample, and RF figures.

End

  • The end should be the results that you have received, including but not limited to the look of the product, the yield, and maybe the NMR/IR result.
  • Label figures. When looking at the abstract (see example above), notice how the scheme is labeled, “(Scheme 1)”, so the reader knows which figure you are referring to. When talking about the figure in the text, simply mention the figure that you labeled.

Acknowledgment

Give special thanks to anyone who helped mentor you when you were conducting your experiment. This will most likely be the TA and the professor for your Chemistry 347/348 lab.

ACS (American Chemical Society) citation

This is how the sources should be cited in the references section when doing a formal report. It is found at the end of the paper.

Last name, First initial.; Last name, First initial.; Journal name. Year published, volume, page numbers.

Doe, J.; Smith, J.; Scientific American.2018, 27, 1890-1892.