Cunningham Memorial Library: Chemistry: Writing

Style Guides

The ACS Style Guide by Anne M. Coghill (Editor); Lorrin R. Garson (Editor) In the time since the second edition of The ACS Style Guide was published, the rapid growth of electronic communication has dramatically changed the scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publication world. This dynamic mode of dissemination is enabling scientists, engineers, and medicalpractitioners all over the world to obtain and transmit information quickly and easily. An essential constant in this changing environment is the requirement that information remain accurate, clear, unambiguous, and ethically sound.This extensive revision of The ACS Style Guide thoroughly examines electronic tools now available to assist STM writers in preparing manuscripts and communicating with publishers. Valuable updates include discussions of markup languages, citation of electronic sources, online submission ofmanuscripts, and preparation of figures, tables, and structures. In keeping current with the changing environment, this edition also contains references to many resources on the internet.With this wealth of new information, The ACS Style Guide's Third Edition continues its long tradition of providing invaluable insight on ethics in scientific communication, the editorial process, copyright, conventions in chemistry, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and writing style for any STMauthor, reviewer, or editor. The Third Edition is the definitive source for all information needed to write, review, submit, and edit scholarly and scientific manuscripts.
Call Number: Reference Collection QD8.5 .A25 2006
ISBN: 0841239991
Publication Date: 2006-07-20

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4.3.3 ACS Style Quick Guide

Hill Notation or Hill System

The Hill System (or Hill notation) is a method of writing empirical chemical formulas, molecular chemical formulas and components. It is used in command language search interfaces such as the STN database in order to enter a molecular formula into a text box.

"Reject the water of crystallization, and rewrite the empirical formula in the alphabetical order of the chemical symbols, except that in carbon compounds write C first and H second; follow this rewritten formula with the constitutional formula, when given, adding the water of crystallization, if any, but arrange the titles alphabetically by the rewritten formula." (p. 480)