Lab Report Guidelines – BIOL 404
(Prepared by Dr. Diane Srivastava)
You will create lab reports which follow the general conventions for scientific
manuscripts. The following guide is a composite of real instructions to authors submitting
to EcoScience and Oecologia (peer-reviewed ecology journals based respectively in
Canada and Europe). I have indicated in blue the few places where Biol 404 requirements
will differ, or where I feel you need more guidance.
How long? Most lab reports are under 10 pages including figures, and typically have 1-6
references.
Instruction to Authors
General
Presentation of the manuscript must conform to the "Guide to Authors". The text must be
type written, double-spaced [in the interests of paper conservation, single-spacing and/or
double-sided is also permitted for Biol 404], on one side of white paper, 21.5 cm x 28 cm
(letter) with margins at least 2.5 cm wide. All pages should be numbered, including the
title page. Manuscripts not following these guidelines will not be sent out for review.
Authors are responsible for consistency and accuracy in spelling of Latin words and
specialized terms. Abbreviations, symbols, units and nomenclature must conform to the
international codes for various disciplines. All measurements must be metric; use SI
symbols in most instances. Abbreviations and symbols should be defined the first time
they occur in the abstract and in the text. Genus and species names should be in italics.
Organization
Manuscript should be presented as follows: title page, abstract and keywords, text,
acknowledgements, literature cited, tables and figures.
Title page
The title must be concise and representative of the content. Expressions such as
"Contribution to..." or "Study of..." should be avoided. Authors should appear in the
definitive order of publication, with the address of each at the time of the study. Good,
clear titles are important and can draw the reader to your paper. The problem/hypothesis to
be tested should be clear from the title. Be aware that a short title (< 15 words) that clearly
guides readers to the core of your work will enhance the likelihood that your paper will be
read and cited. Please do not begin the title with "Effects of …".
Abstract
Authors must submit an abstract in the language of the text.The abstract should have about
200 words and should be as concise as possible [can be much shorter for Biol 404, say
100 words]. Present it in one paragraph and do not use abbreviations. Start with your
hypothesis. Refrain from first listing measurement techniques and then reporting the
results obtained with these techniques. In most cases the technique becomes obvious by the
type of results and the way they are reported. Refrain from statements such as "… is
discussed". Instead report the overall outcome/conclusion of the discussion. Abstracts
should end with a conclusive statement and/or of how the work has contributed to
furthered our ecological understanding.
Keywords
Immediately following the abstract, up to five key words should be supplied, indicating the
scope of the paper and not repeating terms already used in the title. Search engines will
find your paper as long as important terms show up ONCE, either in the title OR in key
words. A "key word" should not contain more than two compound words, preferably only
one. Key words should be ordered alphabetically.
Introduction
Limit the introduction to the scope, purpose and rationale of the study, the definition of the
problems and the reasons for or perspective of the work. A brief literature review should
give only the guideposts to guide the reader and place the study within a more general
context. Biol 404: An introduction should start general ("One of the most common
sampling techniques in ecology is quadrat sampling"), then explain why the field
needs a particular research question to be answered in order to progress ("However,
the tradeoff between quadrat number and size is likely to be very dependent on the
system studied. No information on this tradeoff has yet been published for B.C.
coniferous forest."), and then end with the specific hypotheses you are testing (We
hypothesized that older forest would require many small quadrats compared to
younger forest..."). ALWAYS justify your hypothesis ("...because of the higher
spatial heterogeneity of trees, both in terms of age and position (Brown 1987) in older
forests."). Failure to justify your hypotheses is the most common mistake of
undergraduate and graduate students.
Methods
The "Methods" section describes the framework needed to answer the questions raised in
the purpose of the work. Limit the information to what is necessary for judging whether
the findings are valid. Methods should include items such as: a) brief description of the
study area, geographical location, habitat, etc. [only appropriate for certain Biol 404 labs],
b) nature of biological material (but the exact location of rare and endangered species
should not be given), c) relevant field procedures, equipment and techniques (but refer to
literature for techniques already published, giving only the adaptations), d) when
appropriate, a complete list of abbreviations used in the text, e) hypotheses underlying the
choice of statistical analyses with references to literature cited, and f) the brand name of
commercially available equipment or chemical products (with company and town in
parentheses). Biol 404 students: do not duplicate the lab manual! Simply summarize
the methods, and reference Krebs or other sources for specific details (e.g. equations).
Methods should be presented in enough detail that someone could replicate in general
terms what you did, but should not include extremely specific details like the weather,
name of trail, etc.
Results
The results should be presented as comprehensively as possible while keeping in mind to
answer only the questions raised in the purpose of the work. Whenever possible, findings
should be exposed following the logical sequence of the study and methods, so as to avoid
repeating information that should be clearly presented in tables and figures. Do not
include any interpretation of your results in this section: all interpretation should be
in the Discussion.
Discussion
The discussion should focus on the main contributions of the study, interpreting the
findings, and comparing them to other studies. The discussion is a synthesis, an
interpretation, exposed in broadly applicable generalizations and principles. In addition,
the way in which the findings agree or contrast with other published work should be
expressed. The scope, significance and general conclusions of the study should end the
discussion. One way to think of the Discussion is that it answers the question raised by
the Introduction.
Acknowledgements
Authors should acknowledge only people (or organizations) who have substantially
contributed to the scientific and technical aspects ofthe research, granted financial support,
or helped improve the quality of the manuscript. [Biol 404: if you have no one to
acknowledge (likely), this section can be omitted]
Literature cited
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all elements appearing in the "Literature cited"
section. References should be cited in the text by the name of the author and the year of
publication. For instance, a text by D. M. Pete and D. H. Mann published in 1994 would be
cited as: Pete & Mann (1994) or (Pete & Mann,1994) depending on sentence construction.
Consecutive citations must be separated by a semicolon. The phrase "et al." should be used
only when there are more than three (3) authors. An article not yet accepted for publication
will be followed by the mention "unpubl." in parenthesis and will not be listed in the
"Literature cited"section.
In the bibliography, all references should be listed alphabetically according to the first
author's name. Those in a given year with the same author(s) must be chronologically
indentified by a, b, c, etc. Indent after the first line of each reference. Authors must ensure
that references cited "in press" have been accepted for publication. All the names of
journals or publishing organizations must be written in full.
Journal articles
Stuart-Smith, A. K. & S. Boutin, 1995. Behavioural differences between surviving and
depredated juvenile red squirrels. Écoscience, 2: 34-40.
Lawton, J. H., 1990. Species richness and population dynamics of animal assemblages.
Patterns in body size: Abundance space. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
of London, Series B, 30: 283-291.
Book
Pimentel, D. (ed.), 1993. World Soil Erosion and Conservation. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
Chapter in book
Walsberg, G. E., 1990. Problems inhibiting energetic analyses ofmigration. Pages 413-421
in E. Gwinner (ed.). Bird Migration: Physiology and Ecophysiology. Springer-Verlag,
Berlin.
Thesis
Lavoie, L., 1994. Évaluation régionale de la stabilité des forêts au Québec nordique. Thèse
M. Sc., Université Laval, Québec, Québec.
Reports
Achuff, P. L., 1991. Non-native plant management in Western Region National and
Historic Parks: Issue analysis and recommendations, phase II. Report to the Canadian
Parks Service, Western Region Office, Calgary, Alberta.
Parsons, G. L., G. Cassis & A. R. Moldenke, 1991. An annoted list of insects and other
arthropods at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, western Cascade Mountains, Oregon.
U.S.Department of Agriculture, Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-GTR-290,
Eugene, Oregon.
Institutional publications
Malcolm, S. B. & M. P. Zalucki (ed.), 1993. Biology and conservation of the Monarch
butterfly. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, no. 38, Sciences Series, Los
Angeles, California.
FAO, 1991. Food Balance Sheets. Food & Agricultural Organization of the United
Nations, Rome.
Papers in conference proceedings
Davidson, N. C. & P. R. Evans, 1988. Prebreeding accumulation of fat and muscle protein
by arctic-breeding shore birds. Pages 342-352 in H. Ouellet (ed.). Acta XIX Congressus
Internationalis Ornithologici. Volume I. University of Ottawa Press, Ottawa, Ontario.
De Smet, K. D. & M. P. Conrad, 1991. Management and research needs for Baird's
sparrow and other grassland species. Pages 83-86 in G. Holroyd, G. Burns & H. C. Smith
(ed.). Proceedings of the Second Endangered Species and Prairie Conservation Workshop.
Provincial Museum of Alberta Natural History, Occasional Paper, no.15, Alberta.
Tables
All tables should be numbered with Roman numerals, following the order they are cited in
the text. The title must be concise and clear. Vertical lines should not be used. Authors
will be charged $50 for each table exceeding three (3) per article [Biol 404: obviously we
won't charge you! But we could deduct marks for excessive tables!. Also note that figures
are often more useful than tables]. Commonly tables have a header but not as lengthy a
legend as figures. Present explanatory details as footnotes immediately below the closing
line of your table. Dimensions or units must be provided for all numbers.
Figures
Figures should be numbered. An illustration is only justified if it clarifies or reduces the
text. The same data should not be presented in both graph and table form. Information
given in captions should not be repeated in the text. It is essential to provide the best
quality copy of all illustrative material to ensure proper reproduction since many figures
will be scanned. Figure captions must be typed with double spacing on a separate sheet
[Biol 404: you can put figure legends under the figures if you wish: easier for us to read!
Most journals do not permit more than 6 tables+figures: choose carefully]. Computer
drawings are acceptable provided they are of minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Computerdrawn curves and lines must be smooth. Lettering must be of high quality; Helvetica [or
Arial] is the preferred font. Lettering fonts must be consistent within and among all
figures.
Biol 404: The comments on figures that follow are useful guidelines for making
professional standard figures. We encourage you to read over these guidelines and
incorporate some of the suggestions! However, we also don't want you to spend hours
sweating over tiny details, so you will not be penalized for figures that do not conform
to every single one of these points. As long as your figures are clearly laid out and
useful to your story, we'll be happy.
A general comment on figures. Too many papers ending up coming back to the authors
for changes in the figures before we can accept the paper for publication. Reviewers might
not always catch inconsistencies between figures or slopiness in the preparation of figures.
Below are some comments to help you in preparing your figures.
• Layouts for figures: Graphical work will be printed by the publisher as you have
submitted it. Therefore, please consider the limited printing space and the column structure
of a printed page when creating your figures. We often return figures that do not achieve
an economical layout. Symbol explanations should be integrated into the rectangular frame
within the figure or placed in the legend, and should NOT be appended to the right or left
of the diagram in such a way that the legend occupies additional space. It often assists
visualization to label lines or bars directly rather than to guide the reader via a separate
legend. Do not surround your entire figure with an enclosing box, as is common to
some of the currently available statistical and graphic programs.
• Multiple (compound) figures: In cases where a figure is composed of several diagrams, at
least one of the axes labels must be common. In such cases, combine to produce a single
axis label and remove unnecessary gaps/spaces between the figure components.
• Text above and within the figures: Figures require no heading, so please don’t add one
(as is typical in many powerpoint figures). Most diagrams will be reduced in size to a
single printing column width. At final printing size, letters should not appear smaller than
the running text. It is Oecologia style that all axis labels start with an upper case initial
(only the first word in a sequence). Also, any other stand-alone words should start with an
upper case letter. All axis labels (with the dimension in brackets) need to be parallel to the
axis. The gap between the axis label and the axis should not exceed the font size width.
Tick marks should be provided to assist the reader and should point towards data
(inwards). The preferred fonts for figures are either Arial or Helvetica.
• Line quality within a figure: We cannot accept figures in which lines of similar rank have
different width (we often receive printouts where the thickness varies with line direction).
We also cannot accept lines that are composed of visible "pixel-steps". The publisher
typically rejects lines consisting of strips of gray shade, since these lines can disappear in
the final publication. Usually, you need to export your artwork from the statistical package
to a graphics program in order to obtain a professional quality figure.
• Symbols and error bars within figures: Circles (open or closed) should be your first
choice for use in a figure, followed by the use of triangles, squares, and diamonds in more
complex figures. Symbols such as "+", "x" or "* " lead to a messy and confusing
appearance and should therefore be avoided. Error bars (1) need to be clearly explained as
either standard error or standard deviation, and (2) if there are many standard errors in line
diagrams, straight lines (without a horizontal top/bottom line) commonly make figures less
messy. Bar diagrams require an error bar and preferably should contain visual information
on the significance of differences (P=..., asterisks, or letters indicating statistically
significant differences).
• Shades within figures: Shading often help visualizing differences and are welcome.
However, shade dot size needs to permit size reduction of the diagram, and if different
shades are used these must be clearly different. The primary challenge is to produce
shading that will be apparent when the figure is published in a reduced size.
• Figure submission: Each figure must be on a separate sheet with the figure number on the
front. Writing the figure number on the back is a nuisance to both referees and the editorial
process. No page numbers on tables and figures, please. [Biol 404: In the interest of paper
conservation, you can stick multiple figures on a page]