Council of Science Editors: Writing

The instructions below are largely based on the "Author Instructions" on the American Journal of Botany Web site, reproduced here with permission. The American Journal of Botany utilizes a modified version of the citation style recommended by the Council of Science Editors (formerly, the Council of Biology Editors), which in turn, follows the recommendations by the National Library of Medicine. When an example was not provided by the American Journal of Botany, we followed recommendations by the Council of Science Editors or the National Library of Medicine.

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Manuscript preparation

Double-space and left justify the margin of the entire manuscript, including Literature Cited, Tables, Appendices, and Figure Legends, using continuous pagination. Leave at least a 1-inch margin on all sides. Place a header with last name(s) of author(s) and page number in upper right corner. 

In general, research papers should have an Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion section, followed by Literature Cited. Instructors may require students to follow the instructions for a particular journal, but the Council of Science Editors states that "this will usually be some variation on the IMRAD form (introduction, methods, results, and discussion)" (Scientific Style and Format, p. 4). For students who are not conducting their own original research, the paper will contain an Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review (more extensive than a research paper), Discussion, and Literature Cited section.

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Verification of citations

Verify all entries against original sources. Cross-check all entries against the citations in the text for their presence in both text and list and for their agreement in spelling and year.
 
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Literature citations in text

Cite references in chronological order (oldest first); within a given year, order them alphabetically (e.g., Jones and Gil, 1999, 2006; Ashton et al., 2007' Brown, 2007' Jackson, 2005, 2008).

Single author: Jones (2008) or (Jones, 2008). Two authors: Jones and Gil (2008) or (Jones and Gil, 2008). More than two authors: Jones et al. (2008) or (Jones et al., 2008).

Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published: Jones (in press) or (Jones, in press). Include "In press" citations in Literature Cited (shown below).

Unpublished data and manuscripts (e.g., submitted, in prep.) and personal communication: (F. Jones, Institution, unpublished data [or unpublished manuscript or personal observation]). These are not included in Literature Cited.

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References listed in Literature Cited

List citations in alphabetical order by author. Single-author titles precede multi-authored titles by the same senior author, regardless of date.

List works by the same author(s) chronologically, beginning with earliest date of publication. Spell out all author(s) names. Use "a," "b" (determined alphabetically) for works with the same author(s) and year citation. 

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