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Using and citing scientific sources
When you cite a reference, list the author(s) and year of publication in parentheses at the end of the sentence (Smith 2001). If there are two authors, list them both (Smith and Jones 1999), but for more than two, use “et al.”, which means “and others” (Ferdinand et al. 2000). Only the articles that are actually cited in the paper should be included in the literature cited section. NEVER directly quote a source without quotations marks, and avoid direct quotations at all; put the information in your own words so that it is clear you understand what you read.
List your references in alphabetic order using a standard scientific journal format, such as the examples below.
Journal articles:
Danehy, R. J., N. H. Ringler, and J. E. Gannon. 1991. Influence of nearshore structure on growth and diets of yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and white perch (Morone americana) in Mexico Bay, Lake Ontario. J. Great Lakes Res. 17:183-193.
Chapter in a book:
Leach, J. H. 1993. Impacts of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) on water quality and fish spawning reefs in western Lake Erie. In: T. F. Nalepa and D. Schloesser, eds. Zebra mussels: biology, impacts, and control. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL.
Book:
Strunk, W. Jr., and E. B. White. 1979. The Elements of Style. MacMillan Publishing Co, New York, NY.
Web site:
Provide the URL, and any title, author, and publication date information that is available.
If you are citing a source that was cited in a paper you read, but you have not read the original source, then the correct citation is “the world is round (Columbus 1492, cited by Jones 2002)”; you do not list, in this example, Columbus in your literature cited section. This usage avoids propagation of error in the scientific literature; after all, Jones may have misunderstood Columbus’ paper in 1492, and you have not read Columbus to make sure that Jones was correct.
Grammar, word use, and punctuation
The following is a list of a few items of grammar or word use that I see frequently abused.
Define terms that may be unfamiliar to the reader, and spell out all acronyms the first time you use them.
When referring to a species, give the scientific (Latin) name the first time you mention it, thereafter use only the common name. The genus is always capitalized, species is lowercase, both must be in italics or underlined.
Capital letters are frequently misused. Confine their use to proper names and beginnings of sentences. Random capitals within a sentence is a sure sign of absence of proof-reading.
Trailing comparisons: if you use a comparison word such as “more”, complete the comparison with “than”
e.g., “Lowland rivers tend to be more turbid than headwater streams”
Similarly, use of ‘-er words (greater, lesser) requires a comparison. “Europeans are taller” is not a complete sentence.
Specify the subject of your sentence, particularly at the beginning of a paragraph. Never use “it”.
not “These were the most likely to suffer mortality”
instead “The tagged fish were the most likely fish in the study population to suffer mortality”
better “Tagged fish had higher mortality than untagged fish.”
Start each paragraph with a good topic sentence. Let your reader know what this paragraph is going to talk about.
Subject and verb should agree (singular vs. plural); ‘none’ is a singular word: “None of us is perfect”, “ The pail of frogs was heavy.”
Don’t confuse:
effect vs affect
its vs it's (it’s is always and only an abbreviation for “it is” or “it has” - the apostrophe is not possessive, as in “Fred’s dog”, so you would write “its tail”)
like vs such as – “Many fish like sturgeon are benthic” is wrong (there are no other fish like sturgeon, sturgeon are being used as an example)
they're vs their vs there
principal vs principle
presently vs currently - the first means soon, the second means now
lead (noun - heavy stuff), lead (verb - opposite of follow), led (verb, past tense of lead)
freshwater (adjective); fresh water (adjective and noun). Thus: freshwater fish live in fresh water
Two words used together to modify a noun should be hyphenated: snow-covered mountain
Remember that data is a plural word, datum is the singular. “The data were analyzed.” not “The data was analyzed”
Beware of turning one word into two:
throughout, not through out
without, not with out
Punctuation
always put a space before an opening parenthesis, but not within the parentheses (like this)
use characters such as % for percent, ° for degree, $ for dollars - that’s why word processors are so cool
p. is an abbreviation for ‘page’, pp. is an abbreviation for ‘pages’; sp. is one species, spp, is several within a genus
avoid the temptation to preach about the ills of mankind’s influence on the environment
avoid using esoteric words - they are more often misused than not
In science writing, always use metric!
Et al. is an abbreviation for the Latin “et alia” meaning “and others”, used in citations such as “the paper by Smith et al.”. Thus al. is an abbreviation and has a period after it.
In the text, do not describe figures or tables (“Figure 1 shows the relationship between fish length and weight”); describe the data (“Fish tended to increase in weight linearly with increase in length (Figure 1)”).
When fewer words will convey the same information, use fewer words:
the purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis I hypothesized
in this study we assessed we assessed
in order to provide a basis for comparing to compare
during the process of during
conspicuous numbers of many
for the duration of the study during the study
despite the presence of despite
in a single period of a few hours in a few hours
the largest fish was 150 millimeters long and the smallest fish
was 75 millimeters long fish lengths ranged from 75 to 150 mm
showed a tendency toward higher survival had higher survival
“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.” -Francis Bacon