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Title
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List all author names (followed by a letter, number, or symbol such as † to indicate their
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affiliation); indicate the corresponding author with an *.
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List of author affiliations (e.g., university or institute).
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* Corresponding author: provide the complete mailing address if you have not already provided
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this in the list of affiliations.
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Tel.:
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Fax:
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E-mail:
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Short running title: Most journals require a short title less than 50 characters long.
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Abstract
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In a single paragraph of less than 200 to 250 words, describe the main problem or
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problems that you studied and the area of the world where you studied them. Briefly describe the
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approach (e.g., field surveys), but not the details (e.g., the size of the sample plots). Report
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anything that was unique about your methods. Present your primary results, then clearly state
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their meaning. Do not cite any papers in the abstract.
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Keywords
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Provide a list of around 5 keywords that do not appear in the title of your paper, in
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alphabetical order and using U.S. spelling.
Introduction
Define the problem you are studying: what is it and why is it important? (Repeat this for
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each problem.) Describe previous efforts to study this problem or these problems. What aspects
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of this research did you adopt in your own study methods? If there were important areas the
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previous research did not cover, or problems that it did not solve, state what these were. That is,
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tell the reader about the state of knowledge before you began your research, and explain what
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you will be adding to that body of knowledge. Cite key papers in your field: remember that
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journal reviewers are chosen because they are experts in this field of study, and they will expect
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to see you cite their papers.
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Methods and materials
If you performed research in the field rather than in the laboratory, describe all aspects of
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your study site (e.g., temperature, elevation, precipitation, land use) that could affect the results
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and that could therefore produce different results from the same study conducted at a different
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location. Describe each method in enough detail that another researcher could repeat your
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research exactly. Where a research method is well established, provide a literature citation for a
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paper that describes the necessary details. (For example, cite a laboratory manual that you could
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give to your graduate student so that they could learn the technique.) Consult the journal that will
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review your paper to find similar types of study, and ensure that you provide the same level of
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detail that is found in the published paper.
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Results
Some journals allow this section to be combined with the Discussion. If the journal that
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will review your manuscript does not allow this, present your results without interpreting them or
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trying to explain them. Note that figures and tables should be numbered to match the order in
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which you discuss them. Most journals will not accept figures and tables inserted in the middle
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of your paper, so place this supporting information at the end of the manuscript file. You can
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help the journal’s production staff learn where to place your figures and tables by adding text
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such as the following immediately following the paragraph where you cite the figure or table for
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the first time:
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<Figure 1 and Table 2 near here>
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Discussion
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Summarize what your results mean: Do not repeat all the data you described in the
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Results section, but do present any key summary statistics (e.g., maximum values, means and
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standard deviations) for the most important results. Have you solved each of the problems that
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you described in your Introduction? If not, what future research will let you solve those
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problems? Do your results confirm previous research (provide literature citations)? If your
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results contradict or differ from previous research, explain why. If you cannot explain this
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difference based on your results, can you explain it based on the results of previous research by
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others (provide literature citations)?
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Conclusions
Summarize the key implications of your research, but without repeating all the data that
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you provided in the Discussion to support your interpretations. This section should be very short:
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typically, you should present no more than 1 or 2 sentences for each problem that you studied
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(i.e., for each key result).
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Acknowledgments
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Name any key individuals who helped you perform your research, and add their
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affiliation (e.g., university, institute) in brackets. List all sources of funding that you received,
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and the grant numbers. Some research grants may define specific wording that must be used in
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this section.
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References
Carefully check that all references cited in the text are present in this section, with the
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same author names and dates. Delete any references that you have not cited. Follow the journal's
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guidelines carefully; journal editors can reject a manuscript that does not follow their guidelines.
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If the guidelines are not clear, examine how the references have been prepared in a recent issue
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of the journal; this is often clearer than the outdated and incomplete guidelines found on the
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journal’s Web site.
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List of figures
Figure 1. Description of the figure. Define all abbreviations used in the figure.
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List of tables
Table 1. Description of the table. Define all abbreviations used in the figure.
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