The following codes are used today:. Common names of species can vary by geographic region but a universal protocol helps avoid ambiguity and ensures consistency. Note that the designations are in Latin. This could be challenging for some who are not familiar with that language; however, the terms are globally consistent.
There is no need to interpret them or translate them into another language. The levels from highest to lowest classification are as follows:. The binomial name consists of a genus name and specific epithet. The scientific names of species are italicized. The genus name is always capitalized and is written first; the specific epithet follows the genus name and is not capitalized. There is no exception to this.
From above example, note that the classifications go from general Animalia to specific C. A species, by definition, is the combination of both the genus and specific epithet , not just the epithet. For example, we can use the term gray wolf but we cannot use just Canis or lupus to describe this animal.
Canis lupus is a species. We then choose which to use throughout and make it consistent. In subsequent references, we can use either the common or scientific name. If we use the scientific name, we need only to use the first letter of the genus followed by a period and the specific epithet.
Notice that the parenthesis is placed at the end of the sentence of clause containing the reference and that punctuation FOLLOWS the citation. Another way to cite a study is to make the last name of the researcher the subject or object of the sentence or clause and follow it immediately with the date of the study in parentheses:. Grubb found that cyanide inhibits enzymes. Because Grubb found that cyanide inhibits enzymes These data support the conclusions of Grubb As early as , Grubb observed the inhibitory effect of cyanide on enzyme action.
This strategy is often effective for presenting an historical perspective of the problem i. Incorrect: Grubb found that cyanide inhibits enzyme action If you wish to cite more than one study per reference, i. Cyanide has been found to inhibit enzyme action Grubb , Smith , Taylor In the case of more than three authors, you may use et al. Cyanide has been found to inhibit enzyme action Jones et al.
Lab manuals are often written as imperatives also known as directives , a grammatical mood where the author gives directions to an implied audience. For example, your lab manual may say:. In narrative writing, such as the kind used in fiction, active voice is often preferred because it is more illustrative.
However, in scientific writing particularly in a methods section passive voice has traditionally been employed because it emphasizes the actions of the procedure over the person who completed the task. While some scientific journals have begun to allow the use of active voice, it is challenging to do so while also maintaining a scientific style and minimizing the use of first person.
Until you have reached a mastery of scientific writing sufficient to know when this is appropriate, the best rule of thumb is to avoid first person and active voice all together in methods. If the journal that you are writing for has a policy on active vs. Usually such policies are described in an "Instructions for authors" page on the journal's website. The best way to get a feel for the general patterns in formatting of journal articles is to examine recent papers in well-established scientific journals.
The exact format of a paper depends on the guidelines established by the publishing journal. All journals publish "Instructions to Authors" which are available on the journal's website. In this class, we will use the format of Ecology, a publication of the Ecological Society of America. The format of Ecology is fairly typical for non-biomedical journals.
Anatomically modern humans are also known as Homo sapiens sapiens. It can help to search for published papers about the same organism, especially those in your target journal. If you like our articles, try our workshops! Our articles are based on the material from our scientific writing workshops, which cover these and many other topics more thoroughly, with more examples and discussion. We offer on-site workshops for your event or organization, and also host workshops that individual participants can attend.
Our on-site scientific writing workshops can range from hours to several days in length. We can tailor the length to suit your needs, and we can deliver a writing workshop as a stand-alone activity or as part of scheduled meetings.
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Your comments and suggestions are valuable! Click here to return to our scientific editing article library. The effective communication of research results depends on the correct use of scientific nomenclature, including the names of biological species.
The scientific nomenclature of biological species clearly identifies the organism named and the person who first named the species. The genus always capitalized and the species not capitalized are given in italics.
For example, the Philippine brown deer is Rusa marianna , and the dove tree, found in parts of China, is Davidia involucrata.
When the same name is used more than once in a paper, the first letter of the genus still capitalized may be used as an abbreviation in the second and subsequent uses of the name, but the rest of the name is not abbreviated R.
In particular, the name is commonly written out in full when it first appears in the abstract and then abbreviated in the rest of the abstract using the convention shown above.
The name is again written out in full when it first appears in a subsequent section of the paper typically, the introduction and is then abbreviated upon further use. In a few fields of study, two-letter abbreviations are used i. For example, the full scientific name for the dove tree can be broken down like this: Davidia the genus name involucrata the species name Baill.
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