Submissions
General Information for Research Reviews — “Spotlights in Research”
Information Sheet for Research Reviews
Submission format for Research articles and reviews
Guidelines for Popular Science Articles (for Catalyst staff writers)
General Information for Research Reviews
Deadline for abstract submission: October 4.
If you’d like to submit an article, please download the 2009-2010 application for reviews.
If your article is accepted for publication, you will also need to download the publishing agreement.
On behalf of the staff of the Catalyst: Rice Undergraduate Science and Engineering Review, we commend you on your dedication to undergraduate research. We hope that the Catalyst can be used as a resource for undergraduates initially starting research in a university or institutional laboratory, as a medium for learning what their peers are doing within their own field and as a showcase for the excellent undergraduate research being performed by Rice undergraduates.
As part of any research process, the researcher needs to perform a literature review to get a sense of scope the field, past experiments, protocols, and areas of promising development. As a student researcher, this is often the most daunting first task. In summarizing your background gathering process, we hope it will be easier for future researchers to obtain a foothold in your fields. Before you begin writing, here are a few things to consider:
Submissions for reviews will be accepted from undergraduate students who have performed science or engineering research at any international university or research institution laboratory.
Reviews should be approximately the length of a professional review article (up to 10 pages, double-spaced) and should be written at a level found roughly between popular science magazines and professional journals. For example, authors can assume that readers have taken an introductory course in the general subject they are covering and are thus familiar with basic concepts in the field. No unexplained jargon should be used and the writers should assume that their readers are unfamiliar with the specialized research in the subject of interest.
You must recruit a sponsoring faculty member who will advise you during the writing process and read your manuscript for content and accuracy. When finally submitting the manuscript, please CC your faculty mentor. We require approval of the manuscript by the faculty member before your submission with be published.
Upon receipt, the editorial staff will review the manuscript for readability and didactic facility. The editors may request certain revisions be made in the manuscript to improve its clarity.
To prevent copyright violations, any student submitting to us should verify that their writing in the Catalyst would not conflict with the policies of the professional journal to which their research is being submitted. Students are to review patent disclosure and prior publication guidelines with his or her faculty advisor. Good examples of review articles may be found in the Nature Reviews.
Information Sheet for All Research Submissions
Please complete and return to Catalyst: Rice Undergraduate Science and Engineering Review — catalystruser@gmail.com — as soon as possible if you plan to submit a manuscript
Personal Information:
Last Name: ______________
First Name:______________
M.I. ______________
Advisor Information:
Last Name: _______________
First Name: _______________
M.I. _______________
Address:
Street ___________________________________
City ____________ State ___________ Zip code ________
Department ___________________________________
Institution ___________________________________
Phone number ___________________________________
E- mail address___________________________________
Manuscript Information:
Working Title (up to 150 Characters):
__________________________________________________________
Proposed Abstract
This is not binding, but to give the editors a general sense of the scope and field you wish to cover. Please briefly describe with 200–600 words.
Submission Format for All Submissions
All submissions MUST be sent as .rtf or .doc files. All submissions should be double spaced, contain no page breaks, contain no footnotes, and have no tables or figures included in the text.
Figures and Tables should be converted into images. Captions should not be included in the image, but rather written next to their respective image in the word document.’ If equations, figures, and tables are included, label each of them, cut them out of the text, and send them in a separate document in order of appearance with their captions.
The order of submission should be:
Title, Authors, Author affiliations
Abstract
Text
References
Figures
Figure legends
Tables
FIGURES
All submissions MUST include at least three images, graphs, models, or figures to help explain the concept or field being addressed. Images can be obtained by emailing previous publishers or authors for rights and/or creating your own images using Vector NTI, ChemDraw, Photoshow, or the appropriate software. Please email the design team or the editors if you require assistance.
Figures should be submitted as TIFF format as separate files. Filenames should be AuthorFig#.Tif”
Figures should be 3 or 6 inches in width to conform to column specifications. We will publish the manuscripts in either 1 or 2 columns per page depending on the length of the manuscripts and the relative significance. Figures either 3 or 6 inches in width will make formatting easier for the editors.
REFERENCES and IN-TEXT CITATIONS
1. Our journal follows ACS citation guidelines. http://chemistry.library.wisc.edu/writing/acs-style-guidelines.html. The following guidelines below are specific to our journal.
2. End references should be ordered alphabetically by first author. They should be numbered in order. Ex: 1 Argon, K. The parasitic interaction between genetic forms.
3. When needing to cite more than one reference at a time, include the reference numbers in increasing order separated with commas. Use a dash if 3 numbers are in sequence. Ex: results indicated. 3, 7, 8 ; results indicated. 3-5, 7
4. Do not include personal communications or unpublished work in reference list; they should appear in parentheses in text. However, if something has been accepted by a publisher but not yet published, you can include in reference list with (in press) at the very end of citation.
5. Place in-text citations by writing a superscript number at the end of the sentence. Example: A single-chain Fv in Antibody Binding sites have been isolated.3
6. When cross-referencing material, also use parentheses: (See Table 3.) or (For more information, see pp.31-42.)
7. Both “Figure” and “Fig.” are acceptable, but you must use only one throughout entire article. “Table” is never abbreviated. Figure 3A charts Day 5 of the experiment; The cell split on Day 5 of the experiment (Figure 3A).
The control mice shown in Fig. 7 made a full recovery. The pesticide-induced mice, on the other hand, died a swift death (Fig. 8).
NUMBER STYLE
1. Number style differs between regular text and scientific/math information. For writing generally in the article, spell out numbers 1-9, use numerical thereafter. Always spell out a number that begins a sentence.
Eight scientists agreed; We measured five times in 24 hours.
2. Always use numerical for all measurements, years, ages, dates, percentages:
Day 5, a 6-well plate, 35 percent, 2 miles, 57 years old, 60 kilograms
3. When speaking in general terms, spell out measurement:
45 miles, 31/2 cubic feet,7 milliliters, 11 picas, 31 hectares, 60 volts, 100 pounds
Poverty is growing at a 6percent increase annually; Thirteen results showed a 2 to 1 ratio; I drove 1,500 miles in 5 days and needed five aspirin.
4. For statistical or scientific material/equations, all physical quantities such as distances, lengths, areas, volume, masses, pressures, and so on are expressed in numerals, including fractions. Use abbreviations with a space between number and measurement, no periods:
31/2 ml, 110 lbs, 34 ft X34 ft, 20 in X 30 ft, 30 C, 10%
WORD STYLE
1. It is very important to distinguish between protein and genes: different model organisms have different nomenclature guidelines please consult http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/publications/resources.cfm. This is a comprehensive guideline of biological nomenclature. Please consult the section on your model organism before submitting your manuscript.
2. Also use italics for both generic and specific Latin names of plants and animals. The genus name is capitalized, the species or subspecies name lowercased:
Rosa caroliniana, Styrax californica, Trogon collaris puella
3. Divisions genus and higher without species designations–phylum, class, order, family and genus–are capitalized without italics:
Chordata, Chondrichthyes, Monotremata, Hominidae
4.Use italics for designating variables, as well as Greek symbols: sin x, log x,
Guidelines for Popular Science Articles (for Catalyst staff writers)
Guest writers (undergraduate students attending Rice University who are not part of staff) may submit General or Feature articles.
Section II is comprised of news briefs, general articles, and feature articles. It is important to remember that all articles from this section will be geared toward a general audience with or without an extensive scientific background. Therefore, all the articles must refrain from excessive use of jargon. At least 3 references should be included.
I. News Briefs:
News briefs are a one paragraph (2 max) concise report on significant breakthroughs or findings in any scientific field. We highly prefer the writer search within Rice University S/E departments for his/her material.
II. General articles
General articles are about 2-3 pages long (double spaced). These will present an overview of innovative research in any scientific field of the author’s choice. In general, each article should answer most, if not all, the following questions:
Who/what? (who or what is the topic of your discussion)
When? (the time span of the research)
Where? (where was this research conducted?)
Why? (what were the incentives for this research?)
How? (how is this research important. What are its promises? How are the readers going to be affected by it? In what ways is this research significant within the history of its field of study? What is the future of this research? Etc. )
III. Feature articles
These are in-depth assessments of a research topic relayed in a narrative form. A feature article should be roughly 4-5 pages (double spaced) in length. Features answer all of the questions that a general article should, but in a narrative form. Therefore, eloquence and proficiency plays a larger role than for general articles. The narrative form serves to engage the readers, while simultaneously informing them of the main topic. The author may choose to take 2-3 paragraphs to introduce the topic.