Tuesday 29 January 2008

Citation format checker for ACS journals

Don't you love checking that every reference has its full-stops, commas and semicolons in the right place? I wrote a Javascript format checker some time ago for JCIM format references, but it turns out that this format is shared by several if not all of the ACS journals. Recently, I was reminded just how useful it is when submitting to an ACS journal and it found I had left out an author's initials.

All you need to do is cut and paste the references from the end of your paper into the textbox in the format checker. Then click Check. (Note: make sure you don't have any blank lines) It will find common errors in formatting such as leaving out an author's initials or the final full-stop on a line. Note that it does not check whether the references themselves are correct, although that would be possible with current APIs.

When your eyes are hurting from looking at one too many "et al."s, try the format checker - it's a cite for sore eyes.

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