Formatting Guidelines for Submission

All manuscripts submitted should be doubled space with 12 point, preferably in Times New Roman, font. While we do not have a page limit, we hope that all the paper submitted should consist several sections.

Title Page

A title page should include:

A title which succinctly describes the content of the manuscript
The name of the author(s) with the teacher or mentor’s name listed last (if they are involved)
Each author’s institution or school affiliations

Summary/Abstract

An abstract should be a short summary (no longer than a page) before the introduction section. It should include:

The problem that prompted the study or why is the object worth studying
The research question or purpose of the study
The main hypothesis
A brief summary of the results
Conclusions and implications of the findings

Introduction

The article must provide an appropriate and sufficient background on the subject matter and must include references. The introduction provides context for the manuscript. The introduction should:

Briefly describe the overarching scientific topic of the paper
Provide background information on that scientific question (including references) such that the audience understands the question being asked and why this question is of interest
Contain a clearly-stated purpose/hypothesis related to a scientific question
Briefly summarize the conclusions drawn from previous authors’ research

Material and Methods (if applicable, required for all scientific paper)

The authors should describe the methods in enough detail such that a different scientist could perform the same experiments and obtain the same results. Materials should not be listed out but should be mentioned within the context of the respective experiment that the materials were used. For example, when explaining a method within this section, the author could state the materials used: “bacteria were grown in standard LB media (FisherSci) for 24 hours at 37°C while shaking.”

Results

The authors must describe in paragraph format how they test the scientific question with well-designed scientific experiments. It is important to discuss experimental controls and statistical analysis when appropriate and to draw appropriate and reasonable conclusions from experimental data. For each experiment, the authors must:

Describe the rationale for the experiment
Interpret the scientific data, referencing the figures that contain the results (graphs, charts, tables, equations, etc).

Discussion/Conclusion

In the discussion section, the authors should discuss the results and their interpretation of the results. It is important that the authors draw appropriate and reasonable conclusions from their scientific data. The authors should:

Summarize the experimental results and draw conclusions from the experimental data.
Discuss factors or limitations that could have influenced the results, such as sources of error or bias in interpretation.
- Human error is assumed and does not need to be the primary focus of the discussion of limitations. It is important to point out if a particular type of error was more likely than others and why.
Address the significance of the results
Discuss remaining scientific questions and/or potential future experiments. Have fun with this! Future directions is where you can propose essentially limitless experiments. It is also important to address what further studies would be needed in order to apply the findings from the current study. For example, studies testing novel pharmaceutical drugs as treatment for a disease should describe what would need to be done to get such a drug into clinical trials (in vitro studies demonstrating mechanism of action, in vivo studies demonstrating safety and efficacy in animal models, etc).

Figures, Tables, and Captions (if applicable)

Data figures/tables and statistical analysis are important for making the argument for the conclusions of a manuscript. Through these things, the reader can see the data and information that led to the conclusions, and they can make decisions about whether they believe the conclusions the authors make. First-time authors often make mistakes in how they present this information in the results section by putting too much focus on the figure or statistic itself and not putting the result in the context of the study. Instead, we recommend that authors reference their figures and statistics similar to citing literature in the introduction to support the claims or conclusions drawn from the data.

Examples:

On average, plants grown in X-containing soil grew to be 10 ± 2 inches tall compared to 5 ± 1 inches for control plants (Figure 1).

Seeds planted in soil containing X grew significantly taller than plants in regular potting soil (p = 0.01).

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