Format for Term Papers

The term paper should include the following sections: title page, text, and literature cited.  Manuscripts may be no longer than 10 pages, with a minimum of 5 references.  All papers should include some recent (1 or 2 year old) references.  Older ones should also be included, but the student must show evidence of having researched the current literature.  Topics are up to the student, but must reflect study of some aspect of vertebrate anatomy and must be approved by the instructor.  Remember that a decent 10 page typed, double-spaced term paper must be focused.  There is not enough space to cover a very broad topic adequately. 

Type or print the manuscript on white paper, 8 1/2 x 11 in., with margins of at least 1 in.  Type or print on only one side of the paper.  Use double-spacing on all pages, including the title page, text, and literature cited. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page.  Put the page number in the upper right-hand corner of each page.  Manuscripts should be written in concise, logical, and grammatically correct English.

Title Page

The title page should contain (same format as above) (1) the title of article, which should be concise but informative; (2) author, and (3) course number.

Citations

Citations should be done in the Name-year format following the Council of Biology Editors Style Manual (CBE Style Manual, 1999).  When you quote from a book or other source, after the sentence that has the quote or paraphrase, put a set of parentheses with the last name of the author and the year of the source.  Remember that you must give the citation even if you have altered the wording of the original material.  Whether you quoted exactly does not matter.  What matters, is, if the material you are presenting came basically from someone else’s work, or whether it came from your own head or your own original research that you personally discovered or invented.  Sometimes you do not have to use a citation if the information you are citing is “general knowledge”, that is, if is something that every well-informed person can be expected to know and there is no argument about it. 

For example: Bottle nose dolphin calves that separate from their mother more often gain more hunting and social experience than calves who choose to stay close to their mothers (Mann, 1997).

Literature Cited

Literature citations of earlier findings should be selective rather than encyclopedic. References should be listed alphabetically by the authors surname.  If the author is completely the same in two or more references, sequence by publication date (earliest to latest).

Journal articles:

Author(s).  Year.  Article title.  Journal title volume number(issue number): inclusive pages.

Alexander, R. McN.  1976.  Estimates of the speed of dinosaurs.  Nature 261:129-130.

Books:

Author(s) [or editor(s)].  Year.  Title.  Place of publication: publishers name.  Number of pages.

Alexander, R. McN.  1989.  Dynamics of dinosaurs and other extinct giants.  , New York: Columbia University Press.  167 pp.

Multi-authored Book Chapters:

Author(s).  Year.  Chapter title.  In: Editor(s).  Book title.  Place of publication: publishers name.  Inclusive pages.

Liem, K.F. and D.B. Wake.  1985.  Morphology: current approaches and concepts.  In: M. Hildebrand, D.M. Bramble, K.F. Liem and D.B. Wake.  Functional Vertebrate Morphology.  Cambridge: Harvard University Press.  Pp. 366-377.

Electronic Journal Articles:

Author(s).  Date of publication.  Title of article.  Journal title (or abbreviated journal title) [type of medium]; volume number(issue number): pagination.  Availability statement.  [date accessed]

Harrison, C.L.  1992.  Aspirin compared with acetominophen for relief of headache.  Online J Therap [serial online]; 1(3):109-115.  Available from EbscoHost.  Accessed 1999 Dec 1.

WWW sites:

Author(s).  Title of work.  Date of publication.  Place of publication.  Availability statement[protocol and address].  Date accessed

Smith, A.B.  The echinoids: introduction.  1994-2001.  London: Natural History Museum.  Available [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/palaeontology/echinoids/INTRO/INTRODUC.htm].