1 (revised 11/1/2014) Writing Emphasis for GEOS170C Key concepts: - Scientific writing and the peer review process. - Finding resources in the library and on the internet link. - Plagiarism is never acceptable. Scientific Writing Publication of research in scholarly, peer-reviewed publications is the basis of our scientific method and professional success. ("publish or perish") A "jury" of experts (reviewers) in the field reads each manuscript and recommends its acceptance or rejection for publication, to the editor of the journal. Nonetheless, published research is sometimes false. When this is discovered, the scientist responsible is subject to professional sanctions (firing) and civil judgments (jail). The primary reasons for these actions are falsifying data and self-plagiarism. - biased reviews of papers or grant proposals - bias created by business funding - changing collected data - making-up data, without any research - stealing someone else's data or text - submitting a paper containing text copied from your-own previous paper, or publishing the same text in a different language. Additional "misconduct" topics may be acceptable (Pseudoscience & "Hollywood Science [example]"), with previous written (email OK) permission of Prof. Davis. Writing the paper Write a 2-page paper to be submitted to the D2L dropbox. Use Times or Times New Roman font, 12 point, double-spaced with 1 inch margins. Any figures must be included on separate sheets at the end of the paper and do not count in the page limit. The paper must include a heading, an Introduction, a Body and a Conclusion. The paper must contain at least one citation in the text and be followed by a reference at the end of the paper. The references must be in the GEOS170C format (see p. 4). Introduction Create a thesis statement - a sentence that basically sums up the topic of the paper. Include the history of the topic and its importance. Briefly explain how the rest of the paper will support your topic. Body The body is the part of the paper where you develop and expand on your topic. It is the main section of the paper in which you present arguments that support your thesis statement. You should have three or four main points which support your thesis statement, and each point should be a detailed, separate paragraph.2 Conclusion The conclusion reiterates the topic of the paper and briefly sums up the body of the paper. The conclusion is where you state the outcomes of your research. Citations in the Text Always cite direct quotations and ideas that are not originally yours. Word-for-word quotes must be in quotation marks. Otherwise, you are plagiarizing and this is considered cheating. Do not include an entire paragraph in quotation. CITATIONS must appear immediately after the quoted material and refer to a full reference in the bibliography. Citation with one author – "One reason for the extinction of the Neanderthals is that they may have been out-competed by Homo sapiens (Tattersall, 1999)." Two authors – "Deforestation is having a significant impact on biodiversity in Lake Tanganyika (Cohen and Jones, 1992)." Three or more authors – "African megadroughts forever altered human evolution (Cohen et al., 2007)." GEOS170C Format for References in the“Works Cited” Your paper should end with “Works Cited”, where you provide the full reference for all the papers, books, and other materials you used when writing your paper. References are listed in alphabetical order by the first author. Examples of the correct format for different types of reference material are shown below, and you may also want to look at the bibliography in the workbook. (M.L.A. style is not acceptable! Use this guide carefully!) Below is an detailed illustration of the general GEOS170C format. Note the punctuation and placement of initials after the authors’ names, etc. Every comma, colon and capitalization has to be right. Note the use of italics. The basic format is Author(s) in the order shown on the publication, Last name, First initial... Date original publication’s year, followed by a period Title italics if a book, not-italics otherwise Publisher replaced by journal title if a scientific article Encyclopedias (including Wikipedia) are not acceptable as references.3 Book (italics for book title) – McGarity, T. O. and Wagner, W. 2008. Bending science : how special interests corrupt public health research. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. Spece, R. G. and Bernstein, C. 2007. Scientific misconduct and liability for the acts of others : investigating scientific misconduct. International Center for Health, Law and Ethics, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. Journal article (italics for journal name) – Cyranoski, D. 2009. Retracted paper rattles Korean science. Nature 458: 561-561. Marris, E. 2010. Statistics spark dismissal suit. Nature 467: 260-260. Moore, J. W. 2002. Scientific misconduct. Journal of Chemical Education 79: 1391. Article published online – Follow the "journal article" format, above, and also include the URL, because journals may correct mistakes in the online article and they do not always make that obvious. (Nature Editorial Staff). 2010 Collateral damage: An investigation at Harvard University highlights the human cost of scientific misconduct. Nature: 466: 1023. Available from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7310/full/4661023a.html. Accessed October 1, 2010. Wade, N. 2010. Harvard finds scientist guilty of misconduct. The New York Times August 20, 2010. Available from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/education/21harvard.html. Accessed September 23, 2010. Web site – Web pages typically don’t include all the information found in books and journal articles, making them potentially a less reliable source of information. Furthermore, web pages are frequently taken offline making their content impossible to check. Web references that are not electronic copies of published (paper) journal articles should contain the same information (if included!) Author(s) in the order shown on the web page, Last name, First initial... Date moved to the end of the reference as “last updated” Title the largest font at the top of the page, usually; not-italics Publisher replaced by URL, followed by: last updated, date viewed Akst, J. 2010. When is self-plagiarism ok? The Scientist.