Guidlines for writing a scientific text 160410.docx

Guidlines for writing a scientific text 160410.docx

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Guidlinesforwritingascientifictext160410

Guidelineforwritingascientifictext

（CS,April,2010）

Usescientificpapersasanexampleandstructureyourtext

Readpapersandyougetanideawhatarecommonstandardsinwritingascientifictext.Ascientifictextisgenerallystructuredasfollows:

1.Abstract,2.Introduction,3.MaterialsandMethods,4.Results,5.Discussion,6.References（Citedliterature）.

Beconsistent

Youhavetofollowcertainrules.Forexample,thespellingofagivenwordshouldbeeverywherethesame.Ifyoudecidetouseanabbreviation,useitthroughoutthewholetextandprovidethefullnamewhenyoumentionitfirst!

Ifyoudecidetowritethetitlesinadifferentsizeorstyle,usethisstylethroughoutthetext.Ifyoucorrectorchangeaword,beconsistentforyourwholethesis.Usethe“Findandreplace”functionoftheWordprogram!

UseEnglishspellandgrammarcheck

Selecta“WesternStyle”（e.g.”TimesNewRoman”）intheWordprogram.Setspellcheckinorderwrong-spelledwordsareunderlined“red”aftertyping（andgrammarerrors“green”）.Therefore,itiseasytofindoutthat“numble”shouldbereplacedby“number”,that“resistent”shouldbereplacedby“resistant”,and“wasshacken”mustbewrittenas“wasshaken”.Notethattherearespellingmistakesthatcannotberecognizedsuchas“form”insteadof“form”（bothareEnglishwords）.

MostEnglishwordscanbealsocheckedbyothercorrectionprograms（namesandscientificexpressionsnot,however）.Forscientificexpressions,youmayuse“GoogleScholar”andcomparethenumberof“hits”ofagivenscientificexpression.Checkspaces.Example:

“Wuhan,China.”（not“Wuhan,China.”）,8Murea（not8Murea）,Fig.1（notFig.1）etc.

Numberthepagesofyourtext

Goto“View”andselect“HeaderandFooter”.Insert“Pagenumber”.

Writefullsentencesandavoid“labslang”

Don’tcopyguidelinesofkits,laboratoryprotocols（oftenwritteninimperativemode）etc.

Insteadmakesentenceswithaverb.Excepttitles（subtitles,footnotesintablesandspecificexplanationsandabbreviationsinfigurelegends（e.g.lanes,strains,tissueinSDS-PAGEgels）,allphrasesofascientifictextmusthaveaverb.Eachsentencehasapointintheend,followedbyaspace.Example:

5.6.Mediaandstrains

YPDmedium（seeTable1）wasusedinallexperimentswithyeaststrains.Whereindicated,cellswere…

Note:

5.6”Mediaandstrains”withoutverbasisthetitleand“wasused“istheverbofthesentenceinthetext.Ifyoudescribethecompositionofamedium,pleaseuseatable（seebelow）thatisclearlyseparatedfromthetext.Thecompositionofaverysimplemediumcanalsobeindicatedinbrackets.Example:

YPDmedium（20gL-1Difcopeptone,10gL-1yeastextract,20gL-1glucose）wasusedinallexperimentswithyeaststrains.

Don’twrite“labslang”likethis:

PrepareYPDmedium（1L）:

20gDifcopeptone,10gYE,20gglucose,thenaddddwaterto1L（pHshouldbeok）.Thenautoclave,addyeastcolony（sterile!

）totheYPD.…

Styleandspecialcharacters

Don’tuseanyChinesestyleifyouwriteanEnglishtext.SelectstylessuchasTimesNewRomanorArial（size:

12points）andusethisstylethroughoutthetext（Legendtofigurescanbeinanotherstyle）.

Forselectionofspecialcharacters（e.g.Greekletters）,don’tchangethetextstyle.Instead,goto“Insert”andselect“Symbol”.Selectthecorrespondingcharacterandcopyittoyourtext.

Ifyoucapitalizethetitles,doitcorrectly.Seeforexample:

http:

//www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipmar98.htm

Scientificnames

WhenfirstmentionedintheabstractinthetextandinMaterialsandMethodsinthechapterwhereyoudescribethesourceofthe“biologicalmaterial”,pleaseprovidefullspeciesnames,thatconsistofthenameofthegenus（capital）andthespeciesname,bothinitalics:

Forexample:

SinorhizobiummelilotistrainRm41

EscherichiacolistrainDH5

Albizialebbeck（L.）

Rhizobiumsp.strainNGR234（note:

“sp.”isnotwrittenin“italics”）

Laterinthetext,youshouldcontinuewithabbreviationssuchas:

“S.melilotistrainRm41”or“strainRm41”,orjust“Rm41”.Shortversionsofspeciesnames（abbreviationofthegenus:

firstletterincapital,point,space!

）areasfollows:

“A.lebbeck”orE.coli（notE.coli）.Pleasebeexactandconsistent!

Sourcesofchemicals

Company（city,country）,e.g.Boster（Wuhan,China）.

Laterinthetext:

Onlythecompany’snamewithoutfurtherindications.Forexample:

“…wasobtainedfromBoster”.

Namesofgenesandproteins

Todistinguishgenesfromproteins,allgenenamesmustbeinitalics.Thefirstletterofaproteinmustbecapitalized.Forexample:

thenodD1gene

theNodD1protein.

Pleasebeconsistent!

Numbers

Avoidnumbersinthebeginningofasentenceorwritenumbersasletters.Example:

Twodayslater,（not:

2dayslater）

Useahyphenifnumbersarepartofanadjectiveornoun.Example:

40-daysoldplants（not:

40daysoldplants）;1-mlsyringe（not:

1mlsyringe）.

But:

50mlofTYmedium（not:

50-mlofTYmedium）.

Plasmidandstrainnames

Allplasmidnamesstartwith“p”.Genenamesinplasmidsareusuallyin“italics”.Fordeletions,use“Δ”andforomegainterposons,use“Ω’.Plasmidandstrainnamesshouldbeasshortaspossible.Example:

pBSnopP,pBSnopPΔ2-50,pJQΩnopP,Rhizobiumsp.NGRΔnopT,Rhizobiumsp.NGRΩnopT

Pleasebeconsistent!

Buffersandsolutions

Examples:

10gNaCl,（notNaCl,10g）

25mMNaCl（not25mMNaCl）

1.5%（w/v）agar（not1.5%agar）

AlwaysindicatepH（not“PH”）andhowtheywereprepared.Forexample:

100mMTris-HCl（pH8.1）.

6mMK2HPO4adjustedwithKOHtopH7.

Centrifugations

“Ifpossible,convertrpmtog（italics!

）.Otherwise,youhavetoindicatetherotorandthecompany（city,country）.Indicatetimeandtemperature（ifnotroomtemperature）.Forexample:

“Thesamplewascentrifuged（13000gat4oCfor20min）andthesupernatant…

Don’tusethe“labslang”word“spindown”!

Solutions

IndicateconcentrationsinM,mM,μM,nM.UsetheGreek“μ”,not“u”Forexample:

150μMNaCl（not150μMNaCl）

Alternativelyexpressas“weightpervolume”.Forexample:

50gL-1

2mgmL-1

（Don’twritethingslikethis:

2mgL-1,2mg/L）

Ifyouuse%,alwaysprovidecompleteinformation.Forexample:

50%（v/v）glycerol

1.5%（w/v）wateragar

Chemicalsandabbreviations

Providefullnames.Ifyouuseabbreviations,writethefullnameonce（wherethewordappearsinthetextforthefirsttimeexceptforunitssuchasM,mm,kDa,bpetc）.Providealistofabbreviationsasappendix（orderedalphabetically）.Forexample:

“1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylicacid（ACC）…”

“…Nodfactors（NFs）.Flavonoidsfromthehostplant,inconjugationwiththerhizobialactivatorproteinNodD,inducerhizobialnodulationgenes（nod,nol,andnoe）thatarerequiredforNFsynthesis.”

Abbreviations:

ACC,1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylicacid;NFs,Nodfactors.

MentionallabbreviationsinanAPPENDIX,exceptthosethatareonlyusedinaspecificFigureorTable.Inthiscase,writeabbreviationsintheendoftheFigurelegendorasfootnoteofaTable.Forexample:

…Dataindicatemeans±SE.Abbreviations:

L1,transgenicline1;L2,transgenicline2;Wt,M.truncatula（cv.Jester）wild-typeplants.

WordsderivedfromLatinorGreek

TherearemanywordsthatderivefromLatinorGreek:

Forexample:

invitro

invivo

insilico

insitu

sensustricto

species（sp.）

mitochondrium

Forfurtherexamples,seehttp:

//www.ee.unsw.edu.au/~timm/GreekLatin.html

IfyouuseLatinwords,youshouldcheckcarefullytheirpluralforms:

Forexample:

Onepilus,severalpili

Onenucleus,twonuclei

Oneantiserum,severalantisera

Onemedium,twomedia

Onebacterium,twobacteria

Oneflagellum,twoflagella

Onemitochondrium,twomitochondria

Onemassspectrum,twomassspectra

OneN-terminus,theN-terminiofallproteins…

Oneappendix,severalappendices

Onebacterium,severalbacteria

Use“i.e.”tomean“thatis”or“inotherwords”.Theabbreviation“i.e.”standsfor“idest”,whichmeans“itis”or“thatis”.Use“e.g.”whenyouwanttomean'”forexample”or“suchas”.Theabbreviation“e.g.”standsfor'”exemplumgratia”（orexamplegiven）.Use“etal.”whenyouwanttomean“andothers”.Thisisanabbreviationfor“etalii/alia”,whichliterallymeans“andothers”.Thisabbreviationisusedmostoftenwhenyouciteliterature.Theabbreviation“etc.”isnotoftenusedinformalwriting.“etc.”standsfor'”etcetera'”,literally“andtherest”;figuratively“andsoon”.Lazywritersoftenmakethemistakeofusing“etc.”whentheycan'tthinkofathirditemtoputinaseries.Alwaysuseacommaafter“i.e.”and“e.g.”whenusedinasentence.Youcanitalicize“i.e.”,“e.g.”,and“etal.”,butnot“etc”.Thisrulemayvarybasedonthechosenstyle.Beconsistent!

Originofmaterial

Chemicals:

Providecompany（city,country）forallspecialchemicals（forverycommonsaltsandbuffersnotrequired）.

Biologicalmaterial:

Indicatesource（literaturereference）,company（city,country）,orperson（name,institution,city,country）.

Units

Use（ifpossible）SIunitsexceptgenerallyacceptedunits,suchasmin（minute）,h（hour）,d（day）,L（liter）,etc.Useabbreviationsconsistently.Don’timportunitsinanotherstyle.Write“degreeCelsius”asfollowso+C=oC!

Beconsistent（forexample:

Lorlorliter）

Notespacebetweennumbersandunit:

Example

5MNaCl（not5M）

2hlater（not2h）

Citationsinthetext

Includetheauthor’snames（s）andtheyearofpublicationinparentheses（ingeneralintheendofthesentence）:

Ifmorethan2authors:

…（Wuetal.,2007）.

Iftwoauthors:

…（LiandZhang,2007）.

Ifoneauthor:

…（Wang,2007）.

Alternatively,youmi