How to cite a preprint in ACS
A scientific manuscript posted before peer review (ArXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv). American Chemical Society. Standard across chemistry journals.
Quick answer
To cite a preprint in ACS, include the author(s), year, title, and container or publisher details. A concrete example is below.
Example
Chen, L., and Martinez, S. Large Language Models Meet Clinical Reasoning. arXiv **2024**. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.12345
This example is rendered with the official CSL definition for ACS. For the exact style required by your journal, paste your references into DEEPNOTIS and pick that style from the dropdown — the app covers 2,800+ variants.
What you need
For a preprint, ACS expects these fields at minimum:
- Author(s)
- Year
- Title
- Preprint server (arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN…)
- DOI or server ID
- Label: [Preprint]
Common mistakes
- Forgetting to mark the reference as [Preprint]. Every major style wants this flag.
- Citing the preprint after the peer-reviewed version has been published — cite the published version instead.
- Forgetting the DOI. When a DOI exists, most styles now require it (usually as a full https://doi.org/… URL).
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Last updated: 5 May 2026