Research Guides: Chemistry: Write and Cite in the Sciences

Writing in the sciences

Writing and presenting in STEM has a few significant differences from other disciplines. Below are some resources that may be helpful.

ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication

ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication
Covers everything from journal authoring topics such as Organization of Your Article and Peer Review, to styling conventions needed for all scholarly communication, such as Chemical Nomenclature and Effective Writing and Word Usage, to emerging areas of interest in scholarly communication, including Open Access & Open Science, Sharing Data, Communicating Safety Information, and Preprints.
ACS Style Quick Guide
Example ACS style citations for a variety of source types. This section of the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communications is openly accessible.

Print and e-books on Research and Writing in Science

Below are a selection of books at the Claremont Colleges Library about research and writing in the sciences. This is not our whole collection - to find more, search for "writing" or "research" and "science" "chemistry" or "STEM" to find more.

Write Like a Chemist by Marin S. Robinson
ISBN: 9780199710171
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Write Like a Chemist is a unique guide to chemistry-specific writing. Written with National Science Foundation support and extensively piloted in chemistry courses nationwide, it offers a structured approach to writing that targets four important chemistry genres: the journal article, conference abstract, scientific poster, and research proposal.
Scientific Writing by Lebrun
ISBN: 9789812770424
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
This work walks through the parts of a scientific paper and how to avoid pitfalls of weak papers.
Research Ethics for Scientists by C. Neal Stewart
ISBN: 9781119978862
Publication Date: 2011-09-15
This item covers ethical parts of researching and writing, from plagiarism, research misconduct, peer review, authorship, and data management.
Your chemical science thesis an introductory guide to writing up your research project by Natalie Mansfield
ISBN: 1849730687
Publication Date: 2008
Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, this is a very short work that is a good introduction to starting a research thesis. It is a series of short pdfs.
Research Projects and Research Proposals: a Guide for Scientists Seeking Funding by Paul G. Chapin
ISBN: 9781280541070
Publication Date: 2007-01-09
This book is a guide to writing scientific research proposals for submission to funding agencies. It approaches the topic by placing it in the larger context of planning and carrying out a research project, offering guidance on selecting a suitable research topic, organizing and planning the project, identifying a funding agency, writing the proposal, and managing the funded project.

Organizing Your Research

Citation Managers are tools to help you keep track of your citations as you research and to create/format your citations and bibliography. For example, Zotero allows you to keep citations, full text articles, and other research resources organized in one place. You can also use these tools to format your bibliographies and the notes/citations in your papers according to the appropriate style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

Watch this video to learn more about Zotero

Download Zotero
Zotero is a free open source application that works with Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, you can also download a client to your computer. It is a good choice if you use just one computer when researching. You can access citation information when online or offline.
Zotero How-to Guide
This will take you to The Claremont Colleges website which will answer frequently asked questions.

Zotero Short Guide (PDF)
Download this guide to walk you through how to download Zotero on your computer.