November 16, 2006
Journal of the American Water Resources Association
Style Guide for Copy Editors
General
 Consult Author Guidelines (http://www.awra.org/jawra/instructionsForAuthors.htm) for
general information.
 If a manuscript is so poorly written that it will take more than a couple of hours to copy
edit, please do not copy edit and notify the Editorial Assistant.
 Manuscripts may be written in the first or third person, but should be consistent
throughout the paper.
 A JAWRA manuscript is referred to as an “article,” as in, “Later in this article, we show
…”
 Do not be concerned with format (e.g., justification, spacing between words, sentences,
paragraphs, and lines). This will be handled in typesetting
 Correct for proper English grammar.
 Bulleted text should be minimized. If possible, change to paragraph format.
 All sources of data not original to the study should be cited, either in the Literature Cited
section or as a personal communication or unpublished data.
 Numbered items within text should be minimized. If left in the numbers should follow
the format: (1) first item, (2) second item, and (3) third item.
 Latin should be italicized (et al. and a priori), but not for more common usages (e.g. or
i.e.).
 An italicized “vs.” or “v.” may be used in place of “versus,” as in “Roe v. Wade, but
should be used consistently throughout the paper.”
 Acronyms should be defined in parentheses following the definition only the first time
used. However, if acronyms are used in the Abstract only once they do not have to be
spelled out, but should be spelled out the first time they are used in the manuscript.
 Regions of the U.S. should be in initial caps (West Coast, Pacific Northwest).
 When papers are published, any section numbering is removed. Please replace any
references to section numbers in the body of the text with section titles as appropriate.
Title

Under 120 characters is recommended, and the first 66 characters - all that Google™
shows - are the most important.
Author Information and Citation
 Author names under the title may be listed as the authors prefer, using either the western
(given name followed by surname) or eastern (surname followed by given name)
convention. (The citation section, however, uses its own order.)
 Include a position title and affiliation for each author (e.g., "Associate Professor,
Department of Basketweaving, Enormous State University, Bigten, Ohio"), and full
JAWRA Style Guide for Copy Editors
November 10, 2006
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mailing and email addresses for one author designated as the corresponding author, in a
footnote.
Key Terms
 Key terms (not key words) should immediately follow the abstract and the format should
be as in the following example.
o (KEY TERMS: modeling; runoff; water quality; phosphorus transport; watershed
management; nonpoint source pollution; monitoring.)
Abstract
 The abstract must stand alone. Therefore, no citations are permitted in the abstract.
 The abstract must be one paragraph.
 There is no limit on length, but 200 words is recommended.
Literature Cited
 Check citations in text for proper format and with Literature Cited section, noting any
discrepancies. Please remember to check figures and tables for citations.
 For citations in the text, et al. should be used for three or more authors. For two authors,
both names should be used. In the Literature Cited section, all authors should be listed.
 In the text, for grouped citations for the same author but different dates, use a comma
between the chronological dates. For example (Black, 1990, 1995).
 In the text, for grouped citations for the same author and same year, use the following
format: (Black, 1990a, b).
 In the text, for grouped citations for different authors, use a semicolon between citations,
which should be listed in chronological order. For example: (Black, 1990; Donovan,
1993; Black, 1995).
 Page numbers in citations for direct quotes are preferred, but not necessary.
 In the text, personal communication citations should follow this format: (Joe Smoe,
USEPA, 23 July 23, 2006, personal communication).
 In the text, unpublished data or document citations should follow this format: (Joe Smoe,
USEPA, 1999, unpublished data).
 Please look through citations in Literature Cited section for missing words and spelling,
but do not spend time editing format of citations.
 When the “author” is an organization, use the full name of the organization with the
acronym (if any) in parentheses. The acronym may be used for the citation in the text. For
example, a text reference, “…according to USGS (1997)…” would have a Literature
Cited entry of “U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 1997. …”
 Publications by the same author(s) shall be ordered oldest to newest.
 URL’s when given, should be at the end of the citation, in this format:
“http://www.awra.org/jawra/instructionsforauthors.html, accessed August, 2006.” The
accessed date may be as imprecise as a year. There is no need to include “Available at” or
identify them specifically as URL:.
 Where known, the digital object identifier (DOI) should follow the citation.
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November 10, 2006
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If a paper needs to reference a related paper in the same issue (This is common in
Featured Collections), it should use a form such as (Boggess et al., this issue) within the
text. Literature Cited should contain normal citations, although these will need to be
resolved for page numbers, etc., at production time.
Punctuation and Capitalization
 Allow a minimum of hyphenated words (e.g., “non” in front of a word should not be
hyphenated).
 A dash should have a space on each side.
 Use double parentheses ( . . . ) ( . . . ) instead of single (. . . ; . . . ), except in citations..
 Units of measurement abbreviations should not include a period (kg, m).
 A space should separate the numeral from the unit of measurement (10 m).
 There should be no colon prior to an equation unless dictated by sentence structure.
 Ranges of numbers and dates may be expressed with a hyphen as in “1960-67” when the
meaning is clear. Unless context indicates otherwise, the hyphen is inferred to mean
“through.”
 The percentage sign is permitted in place of the word, “percent” when writing a value, as
in “27% of the samples…”
 For lists of things, use a comma before “and” (lock, stock, and barrel).
 No ‘ should be used with acronyms (unless possessive) or years (BMPs or 1900s).
 Numerals of 1,000 or larger should contain commas. (This is not SI practice, but is
retained here for continuity.)
 Replace contractions with full words, except within quotes.
 Numbered regions, sites, or samples should have initial caps (Region 10, Site 5, Sample
23B).
 Conventional practice is to place a trailing period or comma within enclosing quotations.
This practice should not be followed in situations where it could cause ambiguity in
writing computer codes or addresses. For example, if the password, "raspberry," does not
contain an ending comma, it should be punctuated as "raspberry".
JAWRA Style Guide for Copy Editors
November 10, 2006
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Word Conventions
 The following are two words when used as a noun, and hyphenated when used as an
adjective, as in “We used a ground-water model to study ground water.”
ground water
ground watershed
base flow
storm flow
flow path
flow rate
time scale
water body
field work
bed load
policy maker
decision maker
 The following are treated as one word:

instream
database
snowmelt
streamflow
streambank
freshwater
wastewater
stormwater
floodplain
bankfull
hillslope
dataset
overpredict
underepredict
 Preferred abbreviations:
o USEPA = U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
o USGS = U.S. Geological Survey
o U.S. = United States, or United States of America
 Use t-tests instead of “t” tests.
 Both gaging and gauging are acceptable, but must be consistent within a single paper.
 Spell out numbers one through nine. Use numerals for 10 and higher. However, within a
single sentence, use all numerals or spell out all.
 Use “20th Century” as opposed to spelling it out.
Symbols and Units of Measurement
 For units of measurement, System International (SI) units are required, as defined by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology,
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/introduction.html. Other units may be given only when
they derive from source materials, and should include the SI equivalent in parentheses ,as
"The ordinance allowed the diversion of 1,000 acre-ft (1.23 Mm3) of water,".
 Units of measurement should not have a negative superscript (i.e., km day-1 should be
km/day), except for m-1 appearing by itself.
 Numerals should always be used with a space to follow preceding units of measurement
(e.g., 1 percent, 2 km, 3 years).
 Negative exponents are acceptable for base 10.
 Use “ml” instead of “mL” and “l” instead of “L.”
 The abbreviation for million gallons per day should be “mgd” instead of “MGD.” Note:
“mgd” is not an SI unit.
 The correct SI unit for large volumes if water is cubic meters (m3), modified by the
million (Mm3) or billion (Gm3) prefix. Please note that acre-feet has no direct metric
equivalent, such as hectare-centimeters, and should be presented as Mm3.
 An equal sign, and similar symbols, should have a space on either side.
 Use degree symbol with temperature in F or C or with latitude or longitude (e.g., 5ºC or
41ºN), but otherwise spell out degrees.
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November 10, 2006
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Currency symbols should be preceded by an abbreviation for the country (e.g., US$15 or
CDN$15), except in the case of Euros.
The preferred way to write a date is either Month day, year (e.g., “August 6, 2005"), or
the ISO Standard 8601 form, YYYY-MM-DD, (e.g., “2005-08-06”). Alternative forms,
such as "6 August 2005," "6Aug05," may be used in figures if graphics programs or
space requirements do not allow the preferred form. The use of non-ISO numerical
forms, such as "6/8/05" or "8/6/05," is discouraged because of confusion between
American and European notations.
The preferred way to write time is the 24-hour notation, or "08:15," not "8:15 AM." All
times are assumed to be local, unless indicated as UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) or
a specific time zone.
Where an exact date and time needs to be specified, follow ISO Standard 8601, YYYYMM-DDThh:mm:ss.sTZD.
Figures, Tables and Equations
 The caption for a figure or table has three parts:
1. FIGURE n or TABLE m, with n and m numbered in sequence.
2. A one phrase title, in initial caps, as “Photograph Showing Erosion in Mud
River.”
3. An optional description, which may be as long as necessary, as “The severe
undercutting on the left was caused by recent flooding. Trees prevented erosion
on the opposite bank.”
Put together:
FIGURE 1. Photograph Showing Erosion in Mud River. The severe undercutting on
the left was caused by recent flooding. Trees prevented erosion on the opposite bank.
 The title/description of each figure should explain the main point of the figure to a reader
who cannot view the figure. For example, “FIGURE 2. Graph of Costs. Note how cost
increased nearly exponentially with time.”
 When a figure with multiple parts is referred to in the body of the text, no parentheses are
used (e.g., Figure 2a).
 For tables, please be sure to edit the table title and the table itself, where necessary.
 Tables and figures mentioned in an appendix only, should be labeled Table A1, Figure
A1, Table A2, Figure A2, etc.
 For figures, please edit the list of figure titles. It is not necessary to edit the figure title
appearing with the figure.
 The equation number appearing with the equation should be in parentheses and to the
right of the equation.
 When an equation is referred to in the text, the equation number should be in parentheses.
For example: Equation (5).
 Equation definitions following an equation should be in paragraph form with proper
sentence structure.