Klute - 3-6-2008 at 16:57
I have a doubt concerning the way of writing a reference to an article: is it the issue or the volume that is conventionally placed between brakets?
For example:
Blabla bla
M.Whatchacallit
Journal Amongst Others Issue 12, vol. 3 pages 1234-1239 september 1997
should be written (in brief form) like this:
M. Whatchacallit, J. Am. Others; (3)12; 1234-1239 (1997)
or like this:
M. Whatchacallit, J. Am. Others; (12)3; 1234-1239 (1997)
Is there a conventional nomenclatura for this, or is it subject to change from editor to editor or from decade to decade, or completly random?
I know this is just a detail, but i can't recall which way it's placed generally and would like to settle on a agreement as I often swap according to
my beleifs at the moment of writing a reference 
Any help would appreciated!
[Edited on 4-6-2008 by Klute]
Sauron - 3-6-2008 at 17:15
Formally, the volume number comes first, in bold.
Then the ussue number or month.
hen the page numbers.
Lastly the year in parentheses.
[Edited on 4-6-2008 by Sauron]
chemrox - 3-6-2008 at 17:51
also at the acs web page there's a guidance doc for authors.. might have the conventions outlined in that if you want to go into the more obscure
citations..
Klute - 3-6-2008 at 18:16
Thank you very much for your guidance, both of you.
Sauron - 3-6-2008 at 22:29
Note that on this forum we rarely if ever bother making the volume number bold.
[Edited on 4-6-2008 by Sauron]
Nicodem - 4-6-2008 at 00:41
Actually the volume number just like the journal title is italic. The issue is in (parenthesis) but this is commonly omitted since
superfluous. The year is often bold or somewhere in (parenthesis), but all this irrelevant since every publisher, and often even
every journal has his own rules for citing so you simply have to check the author guidelines. The are no completely general rules applicable to all
journals.
Sauron - 4-6-2008 at 07:29
True. Anyway whatever the formal rules are for a particular journal, they are generally designed to easily distinguish between volume number, page
number and year without having to explicityly state Vol. so and so, pages thus and so, etc.
And by and large - this works. Very rarely do these get transposed. It is unfortunately much more common to find erroneous citations, particularly in
the secondary and tertiary literature, but that is a function of proofreading.
leu - 4-6-2008 at 15:59
As mentioned, the ACS style guide provides some guidance as to the preferred forms of writing citations 
Each author ultimately must choose how to write the citations referred to which means there will probably never be a
uniform system since it takes all kinds to make a world 
Attachment: acsstyleguide6.djvu (205kB)
This file has been downloaded 532 times
jokull - 5-6-2008 at 12:42
Most softwares for citing include a huge list of citing styles for almost any journal.
Examples: Chemsketch, ChemDraw, Endnotes, etc. Even the Office 2008 (mac) includes a short selection of citing styles.
BromicAcid - 6-6-2008 at 13:04
Mind you the above only holds for the bulk of books in the last 50 years or so. Much older references... well, anything goes. Some I have asked for
help on this forum for before and no one has been able to decipher them adequately.