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
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Concise and declarative. State what was done and found; avoid padding and throat-clearing.
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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.
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Compound numbering. Bold numerals (e.g., 3a); the same number always means the same structure across text, schemes, and SI.
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Nomenclature. Correct IUPAC/ACS names or clearly defined trivial names; consistent throughout.
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Units and symbols. SI units, italic variables (e.g., J, T, k), roman unit symbols; spaces between number and unit (5 mol %, 80 °C).
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Abbreviations. Define at first use; use standard ACS abbreviations for reagents/solvents.
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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)
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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."
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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)."
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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."
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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
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
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