---
title: ACS Citation Generator — Free, From a DOI, PMID, or ISBN | Scholar Sidekick
description: Free ACS citation generator. Turn a DOI, PMID, or ISBN into an ACS-style reference — CASSI journal abbreviations, semicolon author lists. No signup.
doc_version: "1.0"
last_updated: "2026-08-19"
---

# ACS Citation Generator

> HTML version: https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/acs-citation-generator

Generate references in ACS style — the numbered format of the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication, used by the American Chemical Society journals — from any supported identifier: DOI, PMID, PMCID, ISBN, arXiv ID, ISSN, ADS bibcode, or scholarly URL. Output includes semicolon-separated author lists (Dempsey, J. L.), the CASSI journal abbreviation (J. Chem. Educ.), the year-volume-issue block, and the DOI as a full URL.

## What this tool does

Takes one identifier per line and returns one numbered ACS-style reference per line, rendered with the reference ACS CSL style (american-chemical-society) — the same definition Zotero and Mendeley use. Metadata is fetched live from the registry each identifier belongs to (Crossref, PubMed, arXiv, OpenLibrary, NASA ADS), so the reference matches what the publisher has on file.

## How to use

1. Open [the tool](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/acs-citation-generator).
2. Paste the identifiers into the input, one per line.
3. Copy the numbered references into your manuscript; ACS in-text citations are superscript numbers or italic numbers on the line, in order of first citation.

## Programmatic access

The same formatting is exposed via [`POST /api/format`](https://scholar-sidekick.com/docs) with `style: "acs"` (a shorthand for the full CSL id `american-chemical-society`, which also works). The builtins `vancouver`, `ama`, `ieee`, `apa`, and `cse` work the same way, and 10,000+ further styles are available by CSL id. Anonymous access is free with a published rate limit.

## Zotero and Word

For Zotero, install "American Chemical Society" from the [Zotero Style Repository](https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=American%20Chemical%20Society) — the same CSL definition this page uses. To move references into a manager, export RIS with the [DOI to RIS converter](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/doi-to-ris); for LaTeX, build the .bib file with the [DOI to BibTeX converter](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/doi-to-bibtex) and pair it with the achemso package.

## Related tools

- [IEEE Citation Generator](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/ieee-citation-generator) - the bracketed-number style of engineering and computer science
- [Vancouver Citation Generator](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/vancouver-citation-generator) - the numbered ICMJE style of biomedical journals
- [AMA Citation Generator](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/ama-citation-generator) - the numbered style of the JAMA journals
- [CSE Citation Generator](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/cse-citation-generator) - the name-year style of the life sciences
- [Citation Style Comparator](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/citation-style-comparator) - ACS next to IEEE, Vancouver and 10,000+ other styles
- [DOI to BibTeX Generator](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/doi-to-bibtex) - build the .bib file for achemso
- [Retraction Checker](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/retraction-checker) - check a paper for retractions before citing it
- [Citation Verifier](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools/citation-verifier) - check that a claimed citation matches the paper at its identifier
- [Free tools index](https://scholar-sidekick.com/tools) - all citation tools

## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://scholar-sidekick.com/sitemap.md) for all pages.