brycewang-stanford 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).
Worked micro-edits (before → after, JACS register)
- Booster → number. Before: "The novel catalyst showed excellent activity under mild conditions." After: "Catalyst 1 (2 mol %) delivered 3a in 94% yield at 25 °C in 2 h."
- Hedge calibrated to evidence. Before: "These results prove that a Pd(0)/Pd(II) cycle is operative." After: "A first-order dependence on [1] and a KIE of 4.2 are consistent with turnover-limiting C–H cleavage at Pd(0)."
- Thesis sentence closing the Introduction. Before: "C–H activation has attracted much attention in recent years." After: "Here we show that a confined anionic ligand overrides innate site selectivity, fluorinating the distal methylene of unactivated alkanes with 95:5 er."
- Delta vs prior art stated, not implied. Before: "Unlike all previous work, our system is truly general." After: "Whereas prior amidation catalysts required directing groups, 1 functionalizes 24 of 27 undirected substrates, including three drug scaffolds."
Chemistry typography that referees notice
- Bonds and ranges take an en dash: C–H, Pd–O, 25–40 °C; hyphens only in names (tert-butyl).
- Isotope and decoupling notation set correctly: ¹³C{¹H}, ²H-labeled, d₆-DMSO (or DMSO-d₆ — pick one and hold it).
- Locants and descriptors italic: o-, m-, p-, cis/trans, E/Z, R/S, syn/anti, N-methyl.
- Greek letters roman when structural (α,β-unsaturated), italic when variables (λ, δ used as symbols follow ACS conventions).
- "ee" and "er" defined once; report er where the measurement is chromatographic, and be consistent.
- Reaction arrows in prose spelled out ("gave", "afforded", "underwent") — no "→" in running text.
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