Science & Education Style and Format Guide

The following guidlines may be downloaded as a pdf here.

You may view a sample submission in the proper format here.

Please follow the journal’s style and format conventions. This greatly reduces subsequent editorial and copyediting work, and contributes to a more consistent and professional looking publication.

Abstract

Usually 70-150 words with first word being Abstract in bold.

Citations

The Harvard, or in-text, citation system is used. So give author family name, year of publication (and page if a quotation) in the text. So: (Harris 2005, p. 10). Please place p. or pp. before page numbers.

Where four or more citations are given, introduce a footnote and place citations there with some suitable lead-in: ‘See for example Brown (2000), Kelly (1985), Smith (1990), Wilson (2010). Long lists of citations within a text look unsightly and distract from reading, especially when there are multiple such long lists within a sentence or a paragraph.

For consistent appearances, and ease of locating citation in Reference list, please place lists of citations in alphabetical order (as above), not date order or random order.

Quotations

Long quotations (40+ words) should be indented with reduced font, with author, year and page placed in parentheses after final period of quote.

Indented quotes should not have invert marks or be italicized – the indentation identifies the text as a quotation so no further identification is required.

Author’s name, date, page should follow the indented quote. The lead-up can be ‘Kelly says:’ but place (Kelly, 1985, p. 200) at end of quote after the period. Do place author’s name, year and page in the parenthesis, not just year and page. This avoids problems of the quote being a long way from the mention of the author’s name, but should be consistently used no matter how close the quote might be to the mention of the author’s name.

Leave a one-line space before and after indented quotations.

For short in-text quotations, the citation is placed in parentheses after the final invert mark and before the period.

Footnotes

Footnotes, not endnotes are used in the journal. Digressions in the text should be placed in footnotes so that the structure of the argument is not obscured, but remarks germane to the argument of the text should be placed in the text, not in footnotes.

References

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list. For journal articles, just give numerals of page numbers; for book chapters use pp. x-y. Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work. For ease of reading, the second and subsequent lines of an entry should be indented; use the ‘hanging indent’ format facility (see the following).

Journal article:

Mahner, M. (2011). The role of metaphysical naturalism in science. Science & Education, 20(1), 1-23.

Article by DOI:

Slifka, M. K. & Whitton, J. L. (2000). Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. Journal of Molecular Medicine, doi:10.1007/s001090000086

Book:

Hume, D. (2007/1779). Dialogues concerning natural religion and other writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Johnson, P. E. (1993). Darwin on trial (2nd edition). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Book chapter:

Smith, K. C. (2001). Appealing to ignorance behind the cloak of ambiguity. In R.T. Pennock (Ed.), Intelligent design creationism and its critics : Philosophical, theological, and scientific perspectives (pp.705-735). Cambridge (Mass.): MIT press.

Online document:

Abou-Allaban, Y., Dell, M.L. & Cowell, V. (2006). Religious/spiritual commitments and psychiatric practice. Resource document. American Psychiatric Association. http://www.psych.org/edu/other_res/lib_archives/archives/200604.pdf . Accessed 25 June 2007.

Journal names and book titles should be italicized when referred to in the text and when placed in the reference list; once titles are italicized inverts and underlining are not necessary. Only author’s initials, with periods, are used, not full given names. List all names in multi-authored works; only use ‘et al.’ in text or footnote citation, not in Reference list.

Ampersand

The ampersand (&) should be used to join co-authors in reference lists and when references are given in the text in parenthesis, but not when co-authored references appear as part of the text.

Do not write in the text: “Hershey & Chase’s identification in 1952 of DNA as a transforming agent”. This should be written as: “identification of DNA as a transforming agent (Hershey & Chase 1952)”.

Remember that the official title of Science & Education journal uses the ampersand not the word ‘and’.

Paragraphs

Try to create short paragraphs where possible. Where you can see an obvious point to break a long paragraph, please do so. Very long paragraphs overly tax the concentration of the reader, and can obscure the structure of an argument. If a paragraph goes on for more than 12-14 lines, you should begin to look for a natural break. If then a pronoun then begins the new paragraph, it should be changed to the proper noun to which it is referring.

The first line of paragraphs are flush left immediately after headings and subheadings, but indented thereafter without line spaces between paragraphs.

Headings

Headings are flush left and bold; the first letter of major words are capitalized; do not capitalize all words or underline headings. Second-level headings are italicised with first letter of major words capitalized.

Personal Pronouns

For the most part the personal pronoun (I, my, we) should be removed as it is usually redundant. So instead of: ‘I believe that Kuhn was wrong in asserting …’, simply say: ‘Kuhn was wrong in asserting …’. Or instead of ‘We will argue that the correct interpretation of so and so is ..’, simply say: ‘The correct interpretation of so and so is …’ or possibly ‘It will be argued that ….’

If a claim is made in a manuscript, the assumption is that the writer is making it, and also believing it. The ‘we contend’ or ‘I believe’ is almost always superfluous; there is no need to preface claims, assertions and intentions with a personal pronoun, the assumption is that it is the author who is making them or believing them.

Numerals

For low numbers, use words not numerals. So write ‘in the past three years’ not ‘in the past 3 years’. Also use ‘1970s’ not ‘1970’s’ or ’70s. There is no possessive apostrophe or missing letter.

Et al.

Use the abbreviation only in citations, not within the text. So instead of ‘Smith et al. have shown that ….’ write ‘Smith and colleagues have shown that …’

Font

Times-Roman 12pt is preferred, with 11pt for indented quotations and footnotes; use 14pt for title.