jacs-writing-style

ACS House Style and Claim Discipline (jacs-writing-style)

When to trigger

• The data and figures are solid and the manuscript needs language polish
• Prose is wordy, over-claimed, or uses vague boosters ("novel", "very important")
• Nomenclature, units, or abbreviations are inconsistent
• Citation style is not ACS-numbered

ACS prose conventions

• Concise and declarative. State what was done and found; avoid padding and throat-clearing.
• Tense/voice. Past tense for what you did and observed; present for established facts. Active voice is acceptable and encouraged in ACS writing where it improves clarity.
• Compound numbering. Bold numerals (e.g., 3a); the same number always means the same structure across text, schemes, and SI.
• Nomenclature. Correct IUPAC/ACS names or clearly defined trivial names; consistent throughout.
• Units and symbols. SI units, italic variables (e.g., J, T, k), roman unit symbols; spaces between number and unit (5 mol %, 80 °C).
• Abbreviations. Define at first use; use standard ACS abbreviations for reagents/solvents.
• Citations. ACS numbered style (superscript), references in citation order; abbreviated journal titles.

Section discipline

Section	Job	Common failure
Abstract	Problem → advance → key numbers → significance	Vague, no quantitative result
Introduction	Frame the problem and the gap; end with what this paper shows	Mini-review with no clear thesis
Results & Discussion	Evidence in logical order; interpret as you go	Data dump without interpretation
Conclusion	What is now established and enabled	Repeats the abstract verbatim

Claim discipline (what JACS referees punish)

• Match every adjective to evidence: "general" needs scope; "efficient" needs numbers; "mechanism" needs probes.
• Replace boosters with facts: not "dramatically improved", but "increased yield from 42% to 91%".
• Hedge appropriately where evidence is suggestive ("consistent with", "we propose") vs proven ("we show").
• State the closest prior art and the specific delta; do not imply more novelty than the search supports.

Booster blacklist (replace with a number or a fact)

novel · very important · dramatically · unprecedented (unless defensible) · a variety of (say how many) · excellent yield (give the %) · mild conditions (state T/time) · clean reaction (give purity evidence).

Checklist

• Abstract has problem → advance → number → significance
• Every "general/efficient/selective/mild" is backed by a number or condition
• Compound numbering and nomenclature consistent text/scheme/SI
• Units, italics, and spacing follow ACS conventions
• Citations are ACS-numbered, in order, with abbreviated titles
• No booster from the blacklist survives unreplaced
• Conclusion adds the "now enabled", not a copy of the abstract

Anti-patterns

• Significance asserted by adjective rather than shown by data
• Inconsistent compound numbers or names across the paper
• Introduction that reviews the field but never states the paper's thesis
• Mixed citation styles; non-ACS reference formatting
• "Mild/clean/efficient" with no supporting numbers

Output format

【Abstract structure】OK / fix: [...]
【Booster hits】N — replaced: [...]
【Numbering/nomenclature consistent】Y/N
【Units/ACS conventions】OK / fix: [...]
【Citations ACS-numbered】Y/N
【Next】jacs-length-management → jacs-cover-letter

Related resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — ACS citation styles for Zotero/EndNote, ACS Style Guide