Scientific Writing. Synthesis Document. Eleanor J. Sterling and Mary R. DeJong

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1 Scientific Writing Synthesis Document Eleanor J. Sterling and Mary R. DeJong Reproduction of this material is authorized by the recipient institution for non-profit/noncommercial educational use and distribution to students enrolled in course work at the institution. Distribution may be made by photocopying or via the institution's intranet restricted to enrolled students. Recipient agrees not to make commercial use, such as, without limitation, in publications distributed by a commercial publisher, without the prior express written consent of AMNH. All reproduction or distribution must provide full citation of the original work and provide a copyright notice as follows: "Copyright 2008, by the authors of the material, with license for use granted to the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation of the American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved." This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under the Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement program (NSF & ), and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Grant Agreement No G017). Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Museum of Natural History, the National Science Foundation, or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. 1

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS WHAT IS A SCIENTIFIC PAPER?... 3 PRIMARY LITERATURE... 3 SECONDARY LITERATURE... 4 TERTIARY LITERATURE... 4 GRAY LITERATURE... 5 STRUCTURE OF A SCIENTIFIC PAPER... 5 THE MAJOR PARTS... 6 THE TITLE... 6 THE BY-LINE... 7 RUNNING TITLES... 7 KEY WORDS... 8 ABSTRACT... 8 INTRODUCTION... 8 MATERIALS AND METHODS... 9 STUDY ORGANISMS:... 9 MATERIALS: METHODS: RESULTS FIGURES AND TABLES DISCUSSION LITERATURE CITED ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CHOOSING THE PUBLICATION LOCATION INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS WRITING STYLE SPECIFIC NOTES ABOUT REVIEW PAPERS REFERENCING LITERATURE SUBMITTING THE MANUSCRIPT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS REFERENCES CITED AND FURTHER READING

3 SCIENTIFIC WRITING Eleanor J. Sterling and Mary R. DeJong Science has a collective spirit; its growth, development, and review depend on the acceptance, discussion, or rejection by many individuals and are based on the free exchange of data and ideas (Moraes, 2005). Learning how to write clear, concise scientific papers is a critical step in your development as a conservation specialist. Most professionals are inundated with written information, so the better you write, the more likely you are to attract and keep a reader s attention. Quality writing also increases the chances that other scientists will cite your paper in their research. This module will help guide you through the process of producing a scientific paper. Several excellent books on scientific writing are also available, and some are cited in the references section (including Day and Gastel, 2006; Matthews et al., 2000; Montgomery, 2003). You can also find many useful websites about scientific writing on the Internet. WHAT IS A SCIENTIFIC PAPER? Three types of literature exist in science, separated into levels called primary, secondary, and tertiary. Designation into one of these levels depends on several factors, such as publication format, function, and intended audience, but the most important factor is the originality of the research presented. PRIMARY LITERATURE Primary literature is the first, formal publication of new scientific data or ideas based on the results of original research. Scientists publish their findings in the form of a scientific paper to share their data with others and advance their field (McMillan, 1997). A scientific paper also outlines research methods so that readers understand how the study was conducted; this makes it possible to replicate and verify results. Furthermore, the paper should be published in a peer-reviewed journal that is accessible to others in the scientific community (Matthews et al., 2000; Day and Gastel, 2006). In peerreviewed journals, submitted articles undergo review by a small selection of scientists, so the research presented in the paper will already have been rigorously examined prior to publication. This process of peer-review is integral to validation of scientific findings, and helps scientists to understand and interpret their results from a variety of perspectives and to produce refined products (McMillan, 1997). Examples of peer-reviewed journals that publish primary literature relevant to biodiversity conservation include: Conservation Biology Biological Conservation 3

4 Ecological Applications Journal of Wildlife Management Trends in Ecology and Evolution Nature Science (in sections such as Research Articles and Reports ) SECONDARY LITERATURE Secondary literature provides an overview, analysis, or interpretation and sometimes a simplification of the primary literature. Some secondary literature undergoes a peer review process, but some does not. Secondary literature is usually tailored for a particular purpose or audience that can consist either of readers with little knowledge of the sciences or of specialists in the field (McMillan, 1997). In general, publications that are directly derived from primary literature can be considered secondary literature. Monographs (books), textbooks, and review papers are good examples of secondary literature. Review papers are those in which scientists summarize the historic and current literature on a topic (review papers are discussed in greater detail later in this module). In addition to collating the literature, review articles may also provide new ideas, syntheses, or paradigms (Day and Gastel 2006). Examples of journals that publish review articles: Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics Conservation Biology Trends in Ecology and Evolution Science (in sections such as Reviews, Articles, and Perspectives ) TERTIARY LITERATURE Tertiary literature is even more derived or distilled, and usually consists of directories, manuals, literature guides, and certain kinds of bibliographies, as well as very simplified and condensed information such as you might find in a general encyclopedia. The distinctions between these types of literature are not always clear, and are defined differently for different disciplines. Encyclopedia entries, bibliographies, and factbooks can be considered either secondary or tertiary depending on how far removed and digested the information is from primary literature. Similarly, non-scholarly literature, such as a popular science article, may also be considered either secondary or tertiary, depending on how derived it is from original, primary sources. Examples of periodicals where popular science articles can be found are as follows: Discover Magazine Conservation Magazine Natural History Magazine Weekly news periodicals such as Time, Newsweek, etc. Newspapers 4

5 The most important point to take away from this discussion is that primary literature, in the form of scientific papers, is the initial and formal presentation of new scientific data, and all other types of literature are derived from this body of literature. Because your scientific research will build on or relate to research done by others, you will want to make yourself aware of related research, and it will be necessary to refer to some of that research when writing your own papers. As a general rule you should only cite other papers that qualify as primary literature, although citations from secondary literature are often appropriate as well, especially review papers. Referring to nonscholarly literature in a scientific paper is not appropriate. To keep yourself informed of scientific research that is related to yours, you will need to be able to conduct literature searches. Information about how to conduct a literature search is provided in a separate self-guided tutorial that is part of this module, titled Conducting a Literature Search, by Mary R. DeJong. It provides valuable advice for students and researchers on how to use indices and databases and select search terms, among other topics. GRAY LITERATURE You may also have heard about gray literature, a term used to describe government publications, publications by non-governmental organizations, conference proceedings, or other materials published outside of the traditional peer-reviewed scholarly journal. This literature may meet most or all of the criteria to qualify as primary literature that is, it may present the first dissemination of research results and it may be peer-reviewed for quality control with the only exception being that it is not published in a journal. However, much gray literature is less rigorous or is not intended to be the first dissemination of research results. You should exercise caution in referencing gray literature since quality standards are less clearly implemented, and it tends to be much less accessible to others. The Internet also represents an information resource for scientists. Some peer-reviewed primary literature as well as many types of secondary literature can be found on the Internet (usually as the electronic version of an article that also appears in a print journal, although there are also some electronic journals that have no print counterpart). Of course, the Internet consists of countless web sites, many of which are informative and accurate, while many others present poorly written, misleading, or wrong information. Authors should be very careful about using and citing information found on web sites. The remainder of this module will describe the proper elements to include when submitting a scientific paper to a peer-reviewed journal. STRUCTURE OF A SCIENTIFIC PAPER For over 300 years, scientists have been refining what constitutes a scientific paper and the trend has been towards standardization of content and style to promote conciseness, and to ensure that the appropriate information is delivered so that other scientists can reproduce results (Day and Gastel 2006). Most scientific papers start with 5

6 a description of a problem and present results that lead to a conclusion about that problem. They generally follow this format: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions. There are exceptions to this format depending upon the topic, where you want to publish, and your audience. However, although formats and conventions vary from journal to journal, you should always write clear, concise, and well-organized papers. Box 1. Structure of scientific articles in four different journals. Bolivian Ecology: Abstract in Spanish, abstract in English, introduction, area of study, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, and references. Biodiversity and Conservation: Abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references. Biotropica: Abstract in English, abstract in Spanish, (introduction), materials, methods, results, discussion, and cited literature. Journal of Ecology: Abstract, introduction (objectives), materials and methods (data gathering, data analysis), results, discussion, conclusion, and references. Forest Ecology and Management: Abstract, introduction, methods, results and discussion, recommendations, and references. THE MAJOR PARTS THE TITLE A good title is essential. While many will read the title, comparatively few will actually read the paper. The title is your opportunity to draw people in to read the paper. Some key pointers for good titles are as follows: Keep it a reasonable length (fewer than 15 words if possible), but make sure your title accurately represents the content of your paper Include the primary species or ecosystem covered, the geographic location, and the type of study To provide an example, for a paper on primate species found at different elevations in Marojejy, a montane reserve in eastern Madagascar, an inappropriately vague title would be: Primate Surveys in Madagascar. A more instructive title would be Madagascar primates demonstrate altitudinal niche separation. Your choice of title is also important for your paper s retrievability in indexes. You want other researchers with similar interests to be able to find your paper, so think about what terms someone might use to search for articles like yours, and try to incorporate some of those terms in your title. 6

7 THE BY-LINE The by-line provides the author and the institution where the author was when the paper was written, and/or when the investigation was conducted. If an author changes institutions between the time that the investigation was conducted and when the paper was written or published, then the institution that funded and/or initiated the research is listed first, and the current institution is listed second, or in a footnote or acknowledgement. The by-line should always include current postal and addresses, where readers can contact the author to request a reprint of the article. Example by-line: Eleanor J. Sterling, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park 79 th Street, New York, New York biodiversity@amnh.org When more than one person contributes to a paper, the question arises, who should be listed as authors and in what order? There is often no easy answer to this question. In terms of who should be listed, you do not want to leave out someone who made a substantial contribution. Similarly, you should not list people who did not actively participate in the paper. In general, to be considered an author, a researcher s contribution to the paper should be substantial, including participating in one or more of the following: developing the idea, planning the project, conducting the research, analyzing and interpreting the data, or contributing to the preparation of the article through drafting or revising the text. Use your judgment based on the nature of the project, the contributor, and their contribution. The relative contribution of each author to the manuscript should determine the sequence of authors. In general, the first author is the one who contributed the most. Sometimes the lab director is included as the last author regardless of whether or not they contributed to the paper in any substantial way (they have contributed insofar as they have earned the prestige and funding to run the lab and provide facilities for the research). Alphabetical order is occasionally used in cases when participants do not want to indicate relative contributions perhaps because participation in the project was fairly equal. Try to make decisions about author inclusion and sequence early on in the project, and keep in mind that as long as you are the first author, you can afford to be generous with offers to include others as authors. When in doubt, be inclusive, and if you feel you need more information, there are numerous articles and websites that discuss author inclusion and order (such as Menezes et al., 2006; Newman and Jones, 2006) RUNNING TITLES Often journals ask you to select a short title to head the top of each page in the article. The key is to choose something that identifies your article right away and differentiates it from other articles in the journal. A sample running title might be: Niche separation in Madagascar primates. 7

8 KEY WORDS When submitting a manuscript, many journals require you to select five to eight key words that describe the main topics covered in your article. These key words should be terms that are commonly used in the literature and should be chosen with the objective that other researchers would think to search an index for those terms if they were looking for articles like yours. To pick appropriate key words, look at other articles that address similar topics to see what key words were chosen and/or look through the controlled vocabulary of an index (for more about indexes, please refer to M. J. DeJong s self-guided tutorial Conducting a Literature Research, which is included as part of this module). Sample key words for our example might be: rapid assessment, lemur distribution, primate surveys, Madagascar. Scientific name should always be included for a target species unless it is a new species name that you want to avoid because it has not yet been validly described. ABSTRACT An effective abstract encapsulates all the most important points of an article. It is short, generally 250 words or less, but sometimes as few as 100 or as many as 400 words, depending on the length and complexity of the paper. An abstract encompasses the paper s objectives and scope (why the study is important), results (what were the major findings), and main conclusions (what do the findings really mean). It is a good idea to have a strong statement about the justification for the research and also to emphasize major findings versus those that were statistically significant. A brief overview of the methods is usually included, although some journals discourage this. The abstract comes first in a paper, but most authors write the abstract last, to best summarize the final draft of the paper. It might help to think of the abstract as a miniature version of the main paper (with the four major parts of the main paper introduction, methods, results, and discussion reduced to one to three sentences). Try to use the key terms that might be the basis for a literature search since many search engines scan abstracts as well as titles and key words. Often abstracts are more widely distributed or available than the paper in order to entice readers to obtain and read the paper, so writing a good abstract is very important. Novice writers often neglect to include information about their results and conclusion in the abstract. This is a mistake readers should be able to grasp the main issues of the paper just by reading the abstract alone. All information contained in the abstract should also be in the body of the paper. Abstracts should not have cited references, so be sure to write in a way that no references are required. INTRODUCTION Before starting to write the main sections, you should consider where you want to submit your paper for publication; as you write, you should keep in mind the typical audience for that publication. Knowing the audience can help you prepare an outline of the major points you want the reader to take away, and it helps you identify the appropriate level of detail or explanation to provide. Take a look at other papers in the proposed target publication to see how detailed they are, how much background information is provided, the balance between main sections of the papers, overall 8

9 length, etc. For more information about this, see the section below on choosing the publication location. The introduction should provide readers with a broad research context that sets the stage for justification of your study, and explains why they should be interested. It is critical that readers are convinced that the study was worth doing. State the problem/question clearly at the outset so the reader wants to read further to find what you discovered. Then, summarize the most relevant literature so the reader understands how your research relates to earlier research. This will put your research in context and help you more clearly articulate the problem you are solving. Usually authors end the introduction with a single sentence stating the purpose of the study. To sum up: start broad, set the context and justification, and then narrow in on the focus of your study. Introductions are generally not long just long enough to draw the readers in and provide a context for the results and discussion. MATERIALS AND METHODS 1 In this section, you should explain to the reader the process you used to obtain evidence to answer your central question. This will allow the reader to evaluate whether your methods were well designed that is, whether your methods provide an effective means for obtaining evidence. Ideally, you should present enough information that if readers wanted to, they could replicate your study. An essential characteristic of a good scientific study is that the results should be reproducible if another researcher employed similar methods and materials. For field-oriented research you should provide a good description of the study area. Stick to characteristics that are important to the question, rather than describing every detail about an area. Some of the following topics might be useful to cite: geographic location (latitude and longitude or UTM), altitude, general climate data, geology, soils, historical background, and general information on vegetation and or characteristic fauna. Also of interest are details that might influence the data, such as the time of study and seasonal factors. Study organisms: Give complete taxonomic information about the organism you are studying to the most precise level possible genus, species, and subspecies. Authors should also provide the family or order in parentheses, particularly when the study organism is not well known. There has been much debate over the use of common names compared to scientific names in publications. Generally, one should avoid using common names for species because these names are often used inconsistently from one region to another. Therefore, it is better to use scientific names. A common name may also be provided in parentheses after the first use of the species name, if this is deemed useful, but from thereon the scientific name should be used consistently through the manuscript. Some 1 Note: Many scientists use the term methodology inaccurately. Methodology is the study of methods. Most of the time when that term is used, the word methods is more accurate. It is also shorter. Generally, you should use the simplest form of a term when you have a choice. 9

10 publications (especially those aimed at a broader, non-scientific audience) may have a policy where common names are preferred; this may be more typical for well-known groups of species such as some species of birds or mammals. Nevertheless, in these cases, it is still important to include the scientific names when the species is first mentioned. Be consistent with your usage of names throughout your paper, whether you are referring to species, study areas, equipment, geographic features, etc. For example, if you are referring to a cottontail rabbit, always call it that rather than shortening it to rabbit or cottontail. Materials: The materials section should also describe instruments/tools, sampling devices, or other equipment. Some authors use brand names while others avoid them, although some journals will require this information. In general, where brands matter (in terms of equipment specifications relevant to repeating the work), brands should be given by name. If you are using molecular methods in your study, you should provide brand names for important reagents or kits used. Methods: Describe your procedures accurately and in detail. Always include the dates (duration and sampling dates), location (if possible, provide latitude and longitude coordinates), as well as the time when the research was undertaken, be it a field or a laboratory study. Other details may be critical, such as temperature or weather. To keep this section concise, where possible you should cite another paper (in a widely distributed journal) that used the same materials and/or methods. If the paper you would like to cite is in a journal that is hard to obtain, or if you modified the procedures, it is best to provide detailed information on your methods. If you need to describe your methods in depth, you might want to use subheadings to help with organization, or report details about your methods in an appendix. When writing the methods section, be sure to eliminate any extraneous details; do not provide information (no matter how interesting!) that is not relevant to the study. Often novice researchers reporting on a small section of a larger study will include methods relevant to the larger study. This will only confuse the reader. When determining what to include, ask yourself if the reader really needs the information you plan on giving in order to assess your results and/or replicate the study. If not, it is better to leave it out. In instances where you are using software to run statistical tests or other types of analyses, be specific about the software used, the release (or version), and the tests that were run using that software. RESULTS The results summarize your findings, drawing the reader s attention to especially important results, typically using tables and figures that present the data in more detail 10

11 (Matthews et al., 2000). The point is not to provide a long, boring list of information, nor is it to interpret what the findings mean. For example, when presenting statistics, reference them in support of your findings, but not as findings. You should focus on reporting major findings (versus statistically significant findings) that are directly relevant to the justification and objectives outlined in your introduction, and avoid including unnecessary details. Leave other data for another paper and only include information that is central to the paper s main theme. It is easy to confuse a reader by providing irrelevant information. On the other hand, it is sometimes good to include in your results what you did not find, as this can help the reader to better understand the problem. For instance, Species richness did not differ between high and low elevations, 7.2 and 6.8 species respectively. You should also note any anomalous results you obtained and discuss them further in the discussion section. Discussion of anomalous results in the results section should be limited to those stemming from methodological issues. Figures and Tables Tables, graphics, and statistics should not be used to present your results, but to provide supporting data for your results. They should be used when visual aids can more quickly and effectively convey key points or results, and they should make it easier for the reader to see important trends or comparisons that you extracted from your data to support your arguments and conclusions. The type of visual that is used, whether it is a table, graph, illustration, flow chart, etc. should be carefully chosen to appropriately and effectively convey the ideas or trends that you wish to highlight. Box 2. Methods for presenting different kinds of data (extracted from Matthews et al., 2000). Types of data Exact values or totals Complex relations between groups of data Differences and comparisons Tendencies and interactions among variables Vertical and horizontal hierarchies Presentation methods tables, lists diagrams bar graphics line graphics block diagrams When referring to tables and figures in your text, do not write sentences such as: Table 1 shows the number of primate species found per elevation. It is much better to highlight a pertinent finding and reference the Table: Primate species richness peaked at 17 species at mid-elevations in this study (Table 1). You want to avoid forcing the reader to move from text to table in order to understand your results; this slows reading and impairs comprehension. All figures and tables should be numbered and called out (referred to) somewhere in the text. They should also have clear titles/captions. Tables and figures must stand alone, meaning the readers should be able to understand and interpret them and their captions without referring to the text. For instance, a table entitled Mean and standard deviations of group sizes is not sufficient for the reader to know what exactly the table addresses. A more effective table 11

12 caption would be: Mean and standard deviations of group sizes for primate species detected in northeastern Madagascar. Any non-standard abbreviations should be fully explained in a footnote to the table or figure. Take note of the Instructions to Authors for the journal to which you are submitting your manuscript, as there may be specific file formats stipulated for submitting tables, figures, and images. (You will learn more about instructions to authors later in this module.) If you are reproducing illustrations, photographs, or other types of images that come from other publications or the Web, then you will likely need to secure permission from the copyright owner to use the image this is in addition to referencing the source of the image. Note that materials published before 1923 are in the public domain and no longer protected by copyright so you do not need to seek permission to use them. If you need more help on use and preparation figures and tables, there are several publications that provide useful advice, including Matthews et al. (2000), Rubens (2001), and Gustavii (2003). DISCUSSION The discussion is where you interpret results, setting them in the context presented in your introduction. In fact, what you write in this section should validate the choice you make for your paper s title. What do your findings mean? Why did you get the results you found? Many papers that have high-quality data are rejected because the discussion is incomplete, poorly focused, or otherwise disorganized and unclear. Keep in mind that if your introduction is not well constructed, it will be difficult in this section to convince readers that your results provided you with relevant and applicable information about the problem to be solved. Below are some guidelines to follow: The discussion should lead off with the most significant result, and its importance; do not start by explaining exceptions or negative results. The idea is to present generalizations or trends that are supported by the results and reference key figures and tables where necessary. Do not repeat what you have already said in the results section. You should compare your results with those of other studies, noting how it extends or clarifies other research. Emphasize similarities or differences between your findings and other research and discuss the reasons for these findings. Do not provide in the discussion section data that were not presented in the results. If you think that your results tell you something that is not currently supported by the data, you can speculate on possibilities, but do not let speculation overtake your other conclusions. This is very important many papers are rejected because they include too much conjecture. State your conclusions clearly and make sure that they are fully supported by the data that you presented. It is tempting to overstate the scope or accuracy of your results. Provide alternative hypotheses where relevant. Scientists often summarize their findings and provide suggestions for future research and for application for managers at the end of the discussion section. 12

13 One of the more important skills in writing papers is to know when to stop collecting and compiling research, analyzing results, and editing and refining your manuscript (Matthews et al., 2000). As you gain experience in undertaking research, you will get a better feel for when to stop refining your study and go ahead and prepare and submit your manuscript for publication. LITERATURE CITED The last section of your paper will be a list of the literature that you referenced throughout your paper. Note that cited references and literature cited are used interchangeably to denote the references (also called citations) that appear at the end of an article or book. Usually this list is presented in alphabetical order by author. Prior to submitting your manuscript, double check that all of the references you cite in the paper are in the literature cited section. Conversely, be sure that you only provide references that are cited in the paper. Sometimes you are asked to provide further readings in addition to the literature cited if so, then you do not need to cite these in your paper; rather, this is meant to be a list of references related to the topic of your study where a reader could find additional information. There are numerous bibliographic styles for presenting cited references, and each journal or book will stipulate a specific style for the citation format, both within the text and in this last section of your paper. Pay attention to commas between names, and whether, in the case of multiple authors, the author s initials are before or after their surname. Also pay attention to whether journal titles are abbreviated or not; if they are, follow a standard abbreviation rules, such as those found on the Web of Science website ( Additional links to resources for finding standard journal abbreviations are listed here: It might be worth investing in some bibliographic software (such as EndNote, ProCite, or RefWorks) so that you can manage your references more easily. These products also offer the option of outputting your references in a wide variety of bibliographic styles. This is especially useful if your paper is rejected from one journal and you need to reformat your literature-cited section for a different journal. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS You may also have a section to thank all the individuals who helped you formulate your ideas, those who read the paper and provided comments, your advisors, and/or officials who helped with permits or other logistics. It might also be appropriate to thank research assistants. It is critical to acknowledge any financial support you received for a project. For government/state grants there are often official regulations for citing the granting agency in a publication, sometimes including the number of the grant. CHOOSING THE PUBLICATION LOCATION 13

14 One of the first things you should do when you decide to write a paper is to determine where to publish it. As a researcher, you may well already have a good sense of possible venues where your article could be published. Consulting colleagues for advice is another useful strategy. If you need more help, you might start by searching relevant bibliographic indexes to see which journals are publishing articles on the topic you intend to write about. Then check the scope notes of these journals to see if your article fits (scope notes can usually be found on the website for the journal, or on the inside cover of print issues). You might also glance over the table of contents of candidate journals to see what sorts of articles are published there. Matthews et al. (2000) provides a list of issues worth considering when searching for the appropriate publication venue, such as the audience for the journal, the journal s rejection rate, the length of time it takes the journal to publish papers, and the quality of the photographs. Some libraries provide access to a service called Journal Citation Reports where you can find the impact factor of a journal. The impact factor is a measure and ranking of journals according to the number of times papers in a given journal are cited in other papers. So, the impact factor is an attempt to measure the visibility and, to some extent, the prestige of a journal. The visibility and accessibility of a journal should be an important consideration. The more indexes that index a journal, the more avenues other researchers will have to find, use, and cite your article. Sometimes the website for the journal provides information about where it is indexed. Your library might have a subscription to a print or online directory of serials, such as Ulrich s International Periodicals Directory, where you can find information about where journals are indexed. Another consideration is the number of libraries that subscribe to your journal, the more that do, the more exposure your article will have. If you have access to WorldCat (another subscription-based resource) you can check candidate journals to see how many libraries are subscribers. INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS Mainstream scholarly journals all provide instructions about how to submit articles for publication. These author instructions also include details about formatting and bibliographic style. Once you have chosen the journal where you plan to submit your article, you should carefully read the instructions to authors. Instructions are usually found on the inside front or back cover of the print publication, or online on the publisher s website. Read these instructions very carefully; you must follow them exactly. If you carefully comply with all instructions, you can significantly speed up the time it takes to get your manuscript reviewed, accepted, and published. You should also take some time to carefully look at examples of papers published in the journal to observe content, style, length, and balance of sections. If you need assistance with grammar, word usage, punctuation, citing references, etc. then consult the latest edition of commonly used style manuals such as the Chicago Manual of Style or Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. Only use these books to address style questions not already addressed by the journal s instructions to authors. 14

15 WRITING STYLE Always keep your language simple. Again, there are many excellent books that can help you understand what a dangling participle is and how to avoid it, among other important writing skills (Zinsser, 1985; Day and Gastel 2006; Rubens, 2001; Shaw, 1993). Different journals vary in their embrace of the first person (which is the use of personal pronouns like I, me, mine, our, and ours ). You might also keep in mind that some scientists think that using the passive voice allows the reader to focus on what happened, not on who did it; others find the passive voice boring. Either way, you should avoid excessive use of the passive voice. For instance, instead of saying: Two eggs are laid in a bed of twigs, you should identify the actor (in bird species, the female is the only possible actor: The female lays two eggs in a bed of twigs. ). Be careful to use the correct tense. Many people use past tense incorrectly, especially in the Results section. Consider whether you are referring to observations of conditions that only existed in the past, or whether you are referring to conditions that continue to exist in the present. For example, if you are presenting a study of migration behavior of Selasphorus rufus (the rufous hummingbird) you can say: "The largest bird caught during the northern migration in 2005 had a body mass of 4.5 g, whereas the largest bird caught on the southern migration in the same year weighed 5.3 g." In this instance you are referring to specific events in the past. Contrast this with the wording you would use about an observation that took place in the past, but refers to conditions that are still present: "An unusual specimen examined in this study appeared to be a hybrid between Selasphorus sasin (Allen's hummingbird) and S. rufus on the basis of characteristics of the flight feathers that intermediate between these two species." It would be incorrect to say that the bird "appeared" to be a hybrid or has characters that "were intermediate, since those features still exist in the present. Although this point may seem trivial, it can be important; incorrect use of tense results in text that does not read well and may even be misleading. Sometimes it may be necessary to write parts of the manuscript (e.g. the Abstract) or the whole manuscript in a language that is not the first language of the author. If you are unfamiliar with the language, it is always a good idea to have someone who is fluent in that language check through the manuscript before you submit it. Otherwise you run the risk of having your manuscript rejected because it is too difficult to follow. There are presubmission editorial services that will check the language of your text (but not the content or ideas). However, you will be charged for this service. If you have colleagues who are familiar with the subject of your paper, they can give advice on content and technical issues. Indeed, it is always a good idea to have two or three colleagues informally review your paper before you submit it, since a fresh pair of eyes can often help clarify points that seem obvious to you but may be less clear to another reader. SPECIFIC NOTES ABOUT REVIEW PAPERS 15

16 The objective of a review paper is assemble information on a topic in one place and, if possible, show how this literature, when gathered together, offers new insights or patterns, or shows gaps where more research is needed. A good review paper should stimulate further research and discussion. In the introduction of a review paper, you need to frame the problem or question and explain its importance. You do not need a methods section, but you should give some indication of how you conducted your search of the literature. For instance, you might want to say that your analysis covers all papers published in three conservation biology journals (Conservation Biology, Biodiversity Conservation, Biodiversity Letters) from Another criteria might be that you searched one or more specified indexes (Biological Abstracts, Zoological Record, and Web of Science, for example) using specified key words (which you should also provide). If you have a cut-off date for the start of the research, you may want to specify why you chose that date (e.g. the first year of publication for those journals; or the first published study that employed radio telemetry). The bulk of your review should focus on what you found in your literature search, and provide supporting evidence for your conclusions. REFERENCING LITERATURE Many people fail to understand the importance of citing literature appropriately. You must give credit to the original authors for any quotations, ideas, images, or data that are not your own. Often papers contain too few references; at its worst, this can lead to allegations of plagiarism. Paraphrasing by taking someone s sentences and changing a word here or there qualifies as plagiarism, as does not indicating a quotation by using quotation marks, or not crediting the sources of a quote. Do not forget that web sites are considered to be published and protected by copyright, just like print publications. Plagiarizing information from a web site is just as egregious as plagiarizing from materials published in print. Furthermore, figures, illustrations, and tables often draw from other s work and these sources should also be referenced. Indeed, all facts, ideas, and data taken from other sources need to be appropriately cited in your work. The only exception is when you present information that is common knowledge for example, the size or location of a country qualifies as common knowledge so these data do not need to be credited to a source. If you have any doubt about whether or not something should be cited, err on the side of caution and cite the source. Papers can also have too many references, which can be distracting and difficult for the reader to follow. Also note that it is best to construct sentences with a reference at the end of the sentence (the beginning of a sentence is also acceptable), as any other practice is impedes the ease of reading the text. As you read various articles, pay attention to when and where others cite, and use this as a guide for your work. Generally, the procedure for citing a work in the body of the text is to place the author s last name and the date of the publication in parentheses just after the idea or quotation you would like to attribute to that author, for example: (Ginsberg, 1998) or at the end of a longer synopsis of the author s ideas. Some journals use commas to separate the authors and the date, others do not. In the case of two authors, usually you cite them both (Woodroffe and Ginsberg, 1999); some journals use and to separate the authors, others use &. Make sure you follow the format used by the journal, and be consistent! 16

17 When citing a reference that has more than two authors, use the first author s name followed by et al. (short for et alia, thus the period after al.). List multiple citations in alphabetical or chronological order, using the first author s last name, for example: (Ginsberg, 1998; Woodroffe and Ginsberg, 1999; Ginsberg et al., 2000). If you use the author s name as part of a sentence, the appropriate format is as follows: Ginsberg et al. (1999) show that carnivores like to eat meat. When citing more than one reference for the same author in the same year, you should differentiate the citations in both the text and references cited section by appending a, b, c, etc., for example: (Bynum and Gibbs 2006a, 2006b). For further discussion (and examples) of citation styles for journal articles, books, and websites, see the NCEP Instructions to Authors, Section D: Guidelines for Citation Style ( If you provide a quote from a paper, set the quote off with quotation marks. For short quotes of a few lines or less, you can keep the quote as part of the normal structure of a paragraph. For longer extracts, you should use a block quote style, where the quote is indented from the rest of the regular text. Finish a quote with the source paper and the page on which you found the quote, for example: (Rasoampianina 2005, p ). In general, quotations should be used to augment and support ideas that you have developed in your paper, not as a way to present ideas in your paper. Quotations should be carefully integrated with the points you are making and not dropped in to your paper without context. They should be used sparingly, and only when the material being quoted has wording that is particularly effective at supporting your arguments and is worth presenting as is. If you overuse quotes it makes text choppy, distracting, and hard to read. Ideas or quotes can come from a variety of sources, including journal articles and books, conversations (generally cited as pers. comm., short for personal communication), written correspondence (generally cited as in litt.), and web sites. Research papers usually reference only published articles and books. Occasionally, when information is just about to be published or is otherwise very trustworthy, authors can cite letters from colleagues (Rob Timmins, in litt. 2005) or conversations with colleagues (Vanessa Rasoamampianina, pers. comm.,). These should be very cautiously used and manuscripts that rely too heavily on them may be rejected. Check to see if the journal provides specific instructions for referencing websites, and if not, look through the journal to see how other authors have handled this, or check a style manual, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, or search for websites on this topic, as there are many that show how to cite web resources, such as this one: SUBMITTING THE MANUSCRIPT We cannot stress enough that it takes time to write a good scientific paper; a rushed manuscript will invariably be a bad manuscript. You will need to re-read the manuscript several times while preparing it, as well as at its completion, in order to comb for mistakes or weak points in the text. This is especially true as the manuscript reaches completion and the author(s) have become too close to the subject. It may be helpful to set the manuscript aside for a few days and then read it again. As we noted above, is 17

18 also very helpful to have a colleague who is familiar with the subject give an informal review. Once you have finished preparing the manuscript, you should run a spell check on it, review it one more time for typographic errors (sometimes it helps to find typos by reading the text aloud), and check the numbering of figures and tables. Also check the literature cited section to ensure you have not forgotten references cited in the text or inadvertently left in references that are not cited in the text. You should then prepare a letter to the editor of the journal to submit along with your manuscript. This letter should contain some highlights of your research and provide assurance to the editor that your research has not been submitted or published elsewhere. It may also be appropriate (or required) for you to suggest reviewers for your manuscript. If you know of appropriate reviewers then provide names, addresses, and s, and explain that they have appropriate expertise to review your paper if the editor should choose to use them. Check the Instructions to Authors for the journal to find out whether you need to submit the manuscript electronically via the Internet, or whether you need to send multiple print copies through the mail. If submission is through the Internet, you may also be able to check the website where you submitted your manuscript and monitor the progress of it after it has been submitted. The editor of the journal will scan your document to decide if it is appropriate to the journal and if the work is sufficiently developed to merit review. If the manuscript passes this stage, the editor will send it out for external review by professionals in your field. The reviewers will write comments about the manuscript and provide a recommendation to the editor about its quality. Generally, a reviewer has several categories to choose from, including accept with minor revisions, accept with major revisions, reject. The latter two categories are by far the more frequent responses; only 10% of manuscripts submitted are accepted with minor revisions upon first submittal (Matthews et al., 2000). The editor will send you the reviews with a recommendation based on the opinions of the reviewers and conclusion of the editor. If you are given the opportunity to resubmit the manuscript and believe that you can address all the referees major criticisms then you should revise the manuscript and resubmit it with a letter to the editor explaining in detail how you responded to the individual comments by reviewers and justifying the (few!) cases in which you did not follow the suggestions. If the journal rejects your article, you join an august club! Authors often try to rework the manuscript and resubmit it to a different journal. Box 3. Pre-submission manuscript checklist (modified from McMillan, 1997) Is the title specific and informative? Does the abstract include all the main concepts presented in the manuscript? Does the introduction state the objectives and hypothesis? Are the methods explained in a way that allows their replication? Are all relevant results presented and are the findings consistent? Are illustrations and figures sequentially numbered? Have the results been synthesized in an appropriate manner to present the conclusions of the work? Does the discussion provide context regarding the findings? Are all the bibliographic sources appropriately referenced in the text? 18