Resources for an ACS research paper


A great first place to start when putting together a research paper is a book called the ACS style guide. Check out this chapter for a good overview.

Important requirements

Your end of semester research paper will be double-spaced with a 1” margin excluding tables and figures, and a bibliography.



Be aware of university policy on plagiarism: click here to learn about university policy

Outline of paper with details for each section

Below are the section I expect in a research paper:

For coding projects:


Depending on the purpose and functions of the code, there is hardly a universal way for writting papers on these. While on one hand, it is still possible to fit into the Introductoin-Methods-Results-Conclusions structure, especially if your code is used for processing data. On the other hand, code that provides utilities can be introduced in a number of ways. See the following paper for example: Tinker 8: Software Tools for Molecular Design and PES-Learn: An Open-Source Software Package for the Automated Generation of Machine Learning Models of Molecular Potential Energy Surfaces.

Other useful Handouts

  • Research Paper Rubric
    Coding Projects Paper Rubric
  • ACS Style Guide
  • How to avoid wordiness
  • Research Oral Presentation Rubric