User:Daniel Mietchen/Notes to self/WorkgroupWeeks/PLoS Guidelines
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Guidelines for Community Page at PLoS Biology
The “Community Page” is meant to provide organizations interested in the dissemination of scientific information, science education, or public understanding of science with an opportunity to highlight their activities.
We ask contributors to resist the temptation of self-promotion and instead focus on conveying information to a diverse audience. It is usually preferable to focus on a specific activity or program rather than listing a number of them.
Length guidelines
A page accommodates approximately 1200 words and one image/table or box. Organization of the manuscript:
- Concise title -- fewer than 50 characters
- The text should be written as a single narrative and be accessible to an educated layperson.
Examples
Mitchell BJ, Gillespie RG (2007) Graduate Students Take to the Field in K–12 Education. PLoS Biol 5(6): e162 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050162
Seshadri R, Kravitz SA, Smarr L, Gilna P, Frazier M (2007) CAMERA: A Community Resource for Metagenomics. PLoS Biol 5(3): e75 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050075
Marincola E (2003) Research Advocacy: Why Every Scientist Should Participate. PLoS Biol 1(3): e71 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0000071
Chen J, Call GB, Beyer E, Bui C, Cespedes A, et al. (2005) Discovery-Based Science Education: Functional Genomic Dissection in Drosophila by Undergraduate Researchers. PLoS Biol 3(2): e59 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030059
General Author Guidelines for Front Section articles
The writing style should be concise and accessible. Specialist terms, abbreviations and jargon should be avoided or explained. Editors will make suggestions for how to achieve this, as well as suggestions for cuts or additions that could be made to strengthen the article. Our aim is to make the editorial process rigorous and consistent, but not intrusive or overbearing. Authors are encouraged to use their own voice and to decide how best to present their ideas. Either American or English spelling and grammar is acceptable although one or the other must be used consistently within an article.
Authors and Affiliations
Provide the first names or initials (if used), middle names or initials (if used), and surnames and the e-mail addresses and affiliations - department, university or organization, city, state/province (if applicable), and country - for all authors. One of the authors should be designated as the corresponding author.
References
Only published or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list. Meetings abstracts, conference talks, or papers that have been submitted but not yet accepted should not be cited. Limited citation of unpublished work should be included in the body of the text only. All personal communications should be supported by a letter from the relevant authors.
PLoS uses the numbered citation method. References are listed in numerical order of appearance. Because all references will be linked electronically as much as possible to the papers they cite, proper formatting of the references is crucial. Please use the following style for the reference list:
Published papers
Sanger F, Nicklen S, Coulson AR (1977) DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 74: 5463-5467.
Please list the first five authors and then add "et al." if there are additional authors. Use of a DOI number to the full-text article is acceptable as an alternative to or in addition to traditional volume and page numbers.
Accepted papers
Same as above, but "in press" appears instead of the page numbers.
Electronic journal articles
Loker WM (1996) "Campesinos" and the crisis of modernization in Latin America. Jour Pol Ecol 3(1). Available: http://www.library.arizona.edu/ej/jpe/volume_3/ascii-lokeriso.txt via the Internet. Accessed 1996 Aug 11.
Books
Bates B (1992) Bargaining for life: A social history of tuberculosis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 435 p.
Book chapters
Hansen B (1991) New York City epidemics and history for the public. In: Harden VA, Risse GB, editors. AIDS and the historian. Bethesda: National Institute of Health. pp. 21-28.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments should include details of the funding sources that have supported the author’s work that is relevant to the article.
Figures/Images
Figures/images must be published under our Creative Commons License (thus, in general, we cannot re-use previously published work).
Figures submitted for review purposes may be created as EPS, Excel, GIF, Illustrator, JPEG, PhotoShop, PowerPoint, or TIFF files. Figure panels should be lettered with capital letters in a serif font, such as Times Roman. If the article is accepted for publication, the author will be asked to supply print-acceptable version of the figures: EPS or TIFF files of at least 600 dpi resolution. Figures submitted from the beginning in these formats at a print-quality resolution will speed the publication of the paper.
Figure Legends
The aim of the figure legend should be to describe the key messages of the figure, but the figure should also be discussed in the text. An enlarged version of the figure and its full legend will often be viewed in a separate window online, and it should be possible for a reader to understand the figure without switching back and forth between this window and the relevant parts of the text. Each legend should have a concise title of no more than 15 words. The legend itself should be succinct, while still explaining all symbols and abbreviations. Avoid lengthy descriptions of methods.
Tables
Tables should have a concise title. Footnotes can be used to explain abbreviations. Citations should be indicated using the same style as outlined above. Tables occupying more than one printed page should be avoided, if possible. Very large tables can be published as online supplementary files.
Multimedia and other supplementary files
We encourage authors to submit essential supplementary files along with their manuscripts. Multimedia files should be smaller than 10 Mb in size because of the difficulties that some users will experience in loading or downloading files of a greater size. All supplementary material will be subject to peer review.
Naming scientists in the text
Provide full name on first use, along with brief affiliation (and position if appropriate). On subsequent uses, use only the surname.
Submission of Manuscripts
Electronic formats
Text files can be submitted in the following formats: Word, WordPerfect, RTF, LaTeX, TeX, and PDF.
Graphics files can be submitted in the following formats: EPS, Excel, GIF, Illustrator, JPEG, PhotoShop, PowerPoint, or TIFF. If possible, please label all figures using Times Roman or some other serif font