Chemistry

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Sample Scientific Lab Reports

Why Cite?

You need to cite your sources - whether it be an idea, figure, picture, data, or whatever, that comes from someone else's work. Citing infromation allows the reader to trace the evolution of the work back to its orginal source.

Ciitng your work is not only the right thing to do, it is an accepted scientific practice.

Citation Styles

There are many styles of citation, the important point is to pick one and be consistent. In the Sciences, citation styles are usually associated with a particualr scientific journal or professional organization, such as the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Chapter 14 of the ACS Style Guide
See Appendix 14-1 for CASSI Abbreviations for the 1000+ Most Commonly Cited Journals

Citation formats for different types of sources

All sources, whether it be a book, journal article, website, patent, or whatever, has its own citation format in the citation style you choose.

From Chapter 14 of the ACS Style Guide:

Journal Article
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Title of Article. Journal Abbreviation Year, Volume, Inclusive Pagination.

Books without editors
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Chapter Title. Book Title, Edition Number; Series Information (if any); Publisher: Place of Publication, Year; Volume Number, Pagination.

Books with editors
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Chapter Title. In Book Title, Edition Number; Editor 1, Editor 2, etc., Eds.; Series Information (if any); Publisher: Place of
Publication, Year; Volume Number, Pagination.

Series Publications
Publications such as book series that are periodical in nature but are not journals may be styled as either books or journals. Key words to look for with these types of publications include “Advances”, “Methods”, “Progress”, and “Series”.
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. In Title; Editor 1, Editor 2, Eds.; Series Title and Number; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year; Pagination.

General web sites
Author (if any). Title of Site. URL (accessed Month Day, Year), other identifying information (if any).

Citing Sources Within a Text (from Chapter 14 of the ACS Style Guide)

In ACS publications, you may cite references in text in three ways:

  1. By superscript numbers, which appear outside the punctuation if the citation applies to a whole sentence or clause.
  2. By italic numbers in parentheses on the line of text and inside the punctuation.
  3. By author name and year of publication in parentheses inside the punctuation (known as author–date).

Other Helpful Guides

Purdue University Guide on Writing Lab Reports - Here you can find tips about organizing your lab notebook, how to effectively create graphs and table for lab reports, places to locate protocols and property information, and how to properly cite resources.