63rd Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Spring 2009
Full-length Paper
Full-length research manuscripts are especially noteworthy accomplishments, and students who are ready are encouraged to submit full-length papers for consideration for awards at the 63rd Eastern Colleges Science Conference (ECSC). Students are encouraged to have their research mentors help with the process. All full-length papers are to be sent via the online registration system by 5:00 pm, Monday, March 16, 2009. There can be no exceptions to this deadline. To go to the online registration site, please click here . To go to the online paper submission site, please click here .
Each manuscript submission should be a single document file, with all components (e.g., manuscript text, tables, figures, figure legends) included in that single file. The first author should be the student who is submitting the manuscript for award consideration. Dr. Stearns will copy the uploaded document file, remove author name(s), institution, and Acknowledgments section, and send the manuscript for review.
ALL MATERIALS FOR A MANUSCRIPT MUST BE IN MICROSOFT WORD. IT SHOULD BE SENT AS MS WORD 2007 FOR WINDOWS OR MS WORD 2008 FOR MACINTOSH. DO NOT SEND IN PDF FORMAT.
The evaluation of the judges will be final. Awards will be presented only to excellent full-length papers at the awards ceremony, during the conference’s banquet. Each award will be presented only to a single student author. In the case of multiple authors, only the first author will be awarded. Please see “Awards and Evaluations” for more information.
Each full-length paper that ECSC will consider for an award must be original, empirical research that presents a testable hypothesis, describes the laboratory or field experimental design to test the hypothesis, presents the results, and discusses those results in the context of other research that addresses the hypothesis.
FORMAT FOR THE MANUSCRIPT:
Page 1 must contain only the title, name(s) of author(s), and institution(s) of author(s). Note: The name(s) of author(s) and institution(s) of author(s) should not appear on any other page.
Page 2 must contain the Abstract, a short and concise summary of the hypothesis being tested, the methodology, the results, and the discussion.
Page 3 must begin the Introduction section. The introduction should provide some overview of the general research topic, leading to the specific hypothesis being tested in the manuscript as a logical next step.
The Introduction section is followed by the Materials and Methods section, where the experimental design is presented so that the reader can clearly understand how the experiment was conducted.
The Materials and Methods section is followed by the Results section, where results are stated in concise paragraphs and where references are made to particular figures and/or tables that show those results. Note: Please do not discuss results in this section.
The Results section is followed by the Discussion section, where one concludes whether to reject or accept the tested hypothesis, based on the results. Here, the results are interpreted intelligently in the context of other peer-reviewed, published information dealing with the research topic. A case is made here regarding the significance of the research undertaken.
The Discussion section is followed by the Acknowledgments section, where special thanks are given to those who played a major role in the research. This is also the section where reference is made to the funding source for this research, if known.
The Acknowledgments section is followed by the Literature Cited section, where all information sources referred to in the manuscript are fully cited following a standard scientific format for reference citations. (Note: Please consult with your research mentor regarding which format to follow for this section.)
The Literature Cited section is followed by the Tables section (if there are tables). Tables should be presented in numerical order and cited in the manuscript text as Table 1, Table 2, etc. Each table should have a title that is so complete that a reader can understand the table without having to read the manuscript text. All tables should be cited at least once in the text of the manuscript.
The Tables section is followed by the Figure Legend section (if there are figures). Here, the figure titles are presented in numerical order (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.), separate from the figures themselves. Each figure title should be so complete that a reader can understand the figure without having to read the manuscript text.
The Figure Legend section is followed by the actual figures, presented in numerical order. Please label each figure as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. All figures should be cited at least once in the text of the manuscript.
PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is defined as the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as your own. Each of our institutions has a plagiarism policy and you may use your institution’s guidelines for writing your ECSC paper. The author should pay close attention to the following explanation of plagiarism and the use of citations: “It is still plagiarism if you use an author’s key phrases or sentence structure in a way that implies they are your own, even if you cite the source” (p. 29 of Victoria E. McMillan’s Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences, 4th ed. (2006), New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 269 p.)
If you are a student with a question regarding this process, please contact your research mentor. If you are a research mentor with a question, please contact Dr. Donald Stearns at dstearns@wagner.edu.