GENERAL

In writing your paper, assume a scientifically literate audience – not necessarily 100% oceanographers, but the same community that might pick up JGR, Nature, L&O, Science, etc. Present your story accordingly. Draw on the text of your research proposal from Ocn 443; you may already have on hand the basic prose for your Introduction, Background, and Methods. We strongly advise the use of outlining as a tool for keeping your paper organized. Not doing this will virtually ensure that you have some Results in the Discussion section, Discussion in the Conclusions section, Results in the Methods section, etc. The style and format of the Journal of Limnology and Oceanography, with some specific exceptions described below, will be used for all written submissions. Drafts and your final paper should be double-spaced, with numbered pages. The following is an abbreviated description of a suggested organization for your paper.

A. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY

This section is not normally a part of an L&O manuscript but we require it for your Ocean 444 paper and web posting. It is a short summary, in laypersons terms, of your project and its results. Length should be about the same as for an Abstract (250 words or no more than a single page) but more descriptive and less scientifically terse.

B. Acknowledgments

This is an opportunity for you to give recognition to those who were of special assistance to you and the success of your project.

C. ABSTRACT

This is usually the last section of you paper to compose. It is also often the most difficult because it must capture the essence of your entire effort in a few lines (the L&O limit is 250 words). Explain why you performed the study, how you did it (not too much detail here!), and what you found. Do not present anything that has not been covered in the body of the paper. Think about all those database searches you've conducted and what distinguishes a useful abstract from a poor one.

D. INTRODUCTION

This section should proceed from the general to the specific and include:

1. An overview of the project theme and the central question or hypothesis being addressed;

2. A description of your specific project and how it ties into the overall theme.

The Introduction should develop your specific project theme and help educate the interested reader. Its basis is generally a scholarly survey of the literature pertinent to your project.

F. METHODS

Here you describe in detail how your work was carried out, including any variations from standard methods. You may wish to break out your field/sampling methods from your laboratory/analytical methods. If a complex or novel approach to data evaluation is a part of your project, include a description. For example, in the case of a salt budget calculation, make clear the method of the determination and any underlying assumptions. If this section is disproportionately long or detailed, you might want to relocate some of it to an Appendix (see below).

G. RESULTS

This section describes the results of your field and laboratory measurements. What data or information did your methods yield? Make efficient use of figures and tables and refer to them in a logical sequence. A basic written explanation (caption) should accompany your figures and tables, serving to highlight the key features observed. Where applicable, you must include an estimate of accuracy and precision and how you arrived at those estimates. Figures and plots should include error bars where appropriate.

H. DISCUSSION

This section picks up where you left off in Results (the raw observations/results). It is the fun part where you interpret the meaning of your data. Proceed logically to prove or disprove your hypothesis or otherwise argue your interpretations. Cite the results of published studies to support or contrast your claims. Don't rely solely on figures from the Results section; the Discussion is the place for interpretive figures where you've ingeniously discovered a meaningful correlation between two properties or mined the literature to produce a comprehensive data plot never before seen. If you have several key interpretations (e.g. effects of grain size vs polychaete abundance; effects of pollutants on polychaetes; etc) break up your discussion into sections with appropriate headers. Finally, a frequent outcome of short-term studies of the type you are conducting is the realization that a different approach or better experiment is needed, or that a new question needs to be considered. Mention these for the sake of future investigators, but keep it brief (some reviewers disapprovingly view this as advertising for future work of your own!).

I. CONCLUSIONS OR SUMMARY

The L&O style guide does not specifically require a Conclusions section; it is a requirement for Ocean 444, however. This is a concise restatement of the findings of your study. Do not present any data or information here that have not already appeared in the body of the paper. The difference between a Conclusion and a Summary is largely that the former can single out one of a few specific results, whereas the latter is a more complete recap. In papers which require an Abstract (such as yours), Summaries are often discouraged.

J. REFERENCES

For most journals (L&O included), this is purely a matter of following directions as to precise typographical mechanics. Examine your style guide very closely. Listing references in the wrong format can needlessly lose grading points. The style guide prohibits inclusion of unpublished papers and reports in your references section. We allow one exception to this: you can certainly include past Ocean 444 student papers. Note also that the L&O style guide places a limit on the length of your References section.

K. APPENDICES (optional)

The L&O style guide specifically forbids appendices, but they can be included as part of your paper. This section could contain information that you may wish to preserve and present, but which is not crucial to the body of the paper. For instance, this section might contain a comprehensive data listing that you feel should accompany the report. Another example might be a detailed computational description (not routine arithmetic), original computer algorithms, description of your own instrument design, etc. Large appendices that only seem to be ‘padding' will probably not survive the draft submission phase.

(L&O Style Guide)