Guidelines for Writing a Biology Review Paper

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Definition of a review paper A review is a comprehensive synthesis of results from a wide and complex set of studies A synthesis of findings rather than ideas. Goal of a review paper is to help readers make sense of all available information Direct quotations rarely found in reviews. Do Not Use! Research reviews focus on primary sources Original scientific experimentation reported in scientific journals The quality of the review depends largely on the comprehensiveness of the literature search Use of secondary sources--textbooks or review journals (Science, Scientific American, Discover) Overview of material--easier to understand. Use references for networking, authors Get keywords Help devise outline Formatting the Paper General Information 15-20 pages of text (not including figures and tables) Typed, double-spaced 12 point serif type fonts (Times, Times New Roman, Palatino) Margins 1.5" left, 1" top, 1" right, 1" bottom Indent eah new paragraph 0.25" Must be in a bound folder with a transparent cover Title Page Center title about 1/3 down the page in18-point font. Capitalize the first letter of each word except for articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (and, but, for) and prepositions (in, on, to) The Adaptations for Thermoregulation in Winter Moths Center your name 10 lines under the title in 12-point font Center the date of submission date a double space below your name in 12-point font Center the following phrase a triple space below the date: "a paper submitted to the faculty of the Department of Biology, Presbyterian College, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Senior Seminar, Biology 401" Pagination Number the pages consecutively, beginning with the title page, which does not have a page number but is still counted as the first page Use only arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) Put the page numbers in the upper right hand corner Headings Use sparingly Make them informative and concise Center headings. Triple space before the heading and double space after the heading Use 12-point font, but bold Using Numbers in Paper Spell out numbers less than 10 Do not begin a sentence with a numeral, even if it larger than 10 Always use numerals when reporting quantitative data with a unit: 15 km, 8 g, 5 mL (check McMillan pp. 155-157 for proper abbreviations) Tables and Figures Must be incorporate/insert tables and figures in the text following the first text citation. Cite according to number: "----as shown in Figure 3." "----the relationships of the species (Table 2)." Each table and figure should be self-explanatory. Left justify all titles and legends (single-spaced).

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