ACS · Book chapter
How to cite a book chapter in ACS
A chapter citation is for a contribution inside an edited collection: the chapter has its own author and title, and the book has editors and a title of its own. The most common mistake is crediting the book editors with the chapter, which misattributes the actual argument you are citing.
Worked example · ACS
(1) Lovelace, A. Coding Qualitative Data. In Handbook of Example Methods; Hopper, G., Ed.; Example Press: London, 2021; pp 45–62.
Rendered with the official ACS style file from a placeholder source (reserved example DOI and domain), so the format is exactly what the style produces. In text: This generator renders the numeric variant, with references numbered in citation order.
What to collect before you cite a book chapter
- Chapter author or authors
- Chapter title
- Book editors
- Book title
- Publisher and year
- The chapter's page range
Have a DOI? Generate the reference instantly
Journal articles, many books and reports carry a DOI. Paste it and get the ACS entry from the same engine that produced the example above.
Citing a whole thesis, not one source?
CiteDash keeps your bibliography in ACS automatically, verifies every citation against a real paper, and compiles to DOCX, PDF or LaTeX.
Citing a book chapter in ACS: FAQ
When is it a chapter citation rather than a book citation?
Whenever the chapter has its own named author inside an edited collection. If one author wrote the whole book, cite the book and point to pages in text.
Do I need the page range even if I cite the whole chapter?
Yes, most styles print the chapter's full page range in the reference regardless of which pages you used in text.
The collection spans volumes. Where does the volume go?
With the book title, following the style's book-volume convention. The worked example on this page shows where the book-level details sit.
What does the in-text citation look like in ACS?
This generator renders the numeric variant, with references numbered in citation order.
Is the example on this page hand-written?
No. It is rendered by the same citation engine and official CSL style file CiteDash uses for full thesis bibliographies, from a clearly-marked placeholder source, and a test re-renders it on every release so the page can never drift from the engine.