Chapter 2. Writing Lab

Literature Cited

Lab 10 Pre-Lab—Literature Cited
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Any references included in the paper should be listed in this section. Every scientific publication has its specific format for citations, both in the body of the paper and in the literature cited section. In addition, different types of cited works have specific formats which are used. Listed here are some examples of citations.

Scientific Journal

The citation lists the last name of the author, followed by the initials of that author and then initials and last names of any additional authors. After the names comes the publication year. This is followed by the article title, journal name in italics, journal volume number (or if there is no volume number, the month), and the page numbers on which the article appears. Below are examples of journal citations from the example report shown in prior pre-lab sections:

Calvin, M. 1962. The path of carbon in photosynthesis. Science, 135:879–889.

Cordes, W.C. 1960. The responses of Elodea idioblats to environmental changes, temperature, and light. Physiologia Plantarum, 13:187–191.

Hill, R. 1939. Oxygen produced by isolated chloroplasts. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 127:192–210.

Masser, M.P. 2007. Impacts of Invasive Aquatic Plants. S. W. Hydrol. 6: 22–23.

Mazumder, A. and K.E. Havens. 1998. Nutrient-chlorophyll–Secchi relationships under contrasting grazer communities of temperate versus subtropical lakes. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 55(7): 1652–1662.

McKee, D., K. Hatton, J.W. Eaton, D. Atkinson, A. Atherton, I. Harvey and B. Moss. 2002. Effects of simulated climate warming on macrophytes in freshwater microcosm communities. Aquat. Bot. 74:71–83.

Book

A citation for work that appears in a book uses a format which is similar to the journal citation format. The last name of the first author is followed by the initials of that author and then initials and last names of any additional authors. After the names comes the publication year. This is followed by the book title in italics, the edition number, publisher’s name, and the place of publication. Following are the examples of book citations from the example report shown in prior pre-lab sections:

Falkowski, P.G. and J.A. Raven. 1997. Aquatic Photosynthesis. Blackwell Science, Malden, Massachusetts.

Garrett, R.H. and C.M. Grisham. 2010. Biochemistry. 4th edition, Brooks/Cole, Boston, Massachusetts.

Kirk, J. T. 1994. Light and Photosynthesis in Aquatic Ecosystems. 2nd Ed. Cambridge University Press, New York, New York.

Raven, P.H., R.F. Evert, and S.E. Eichhorn. 1992. Biology of Plants. 5th Ed., Worth Publishers, New York, New York.

Webpage

A citation of a website should include the following information: Name of the author (when available), date of publication or last revision, document title and the URL all enclosed in angle brackets (< >), and the date and time the site was accessed.

Masser, M.P. 2009, <Water Lettuce, http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/floating_plants/ water_lettuce.htm> May 8, 2009 4:10 pm CDT.

Masser, M.P. 2009, <Water Hyacinth, http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/floating_plants/ water_hyacinth.htm> May 8, 2009 4:15 pm CDT.

Helpful recommendations to consider in writing a scientific paper:
  • The paper should be presented in a simple and well-organized format with the understanding that the reader may not be as knowledgeable about your experiment.
  • Simple declarative sentences are a must. In addition, good sentence structure, spelling, grammar, and punctuation are required.
  • Scientific names for organisms should be used when possible. The convention is to capitalize the genus and use italic font for both the genus and the species.
  • Have someone proofread the paper. Have the reviewer make comments to clarify the information presented.