All papers (including additional work) are to be formatted in 11-point font with 1-inch margins on all sides. The body of the synopsis should be double-spaced throughout, but the bibliography should be single-spaced. Number all pages AFTER the cover page, including the bibliography; place your last name and page number (e.g., “Mendel – 7”) at the center of the bottom of each page.
The synopsis should begin with a title page, which includes the paper title (centered on page), your name, your advisor’s name, then “Senior Integrative Exercise, Department of Biology, Carleton College,” date, and final character count.
The main text is limited to 2200-2500 words. The word count includes only the body of the text and not the title page, bibliography, figures, or tables. The count also does not include literature citations within the text. To get an accurate count without citations, it may be necessary to make a copy of your final paper with references deleted.
Note that you will submit a Bibliography, not a Literature Cited. The bibliography must include all papers cited in the text, but also any papers that you read and that influenced your ideas. Within the Bibliography, be sure to specify the 8-10 key references indicated by an asterisk as the first character in the listing.
Literature citation is a critical part of any scientific paper, and to avoid plagiarism it is essential to cite the work of others correctly. It is assumed that you are familiar with Carleton’s standards and policies concerning plagiarism and academic integrity. Unless the idea is your own, you should let the reader know where you got it. If the idea is yours, it is better to use the first person (“I conclude that…”) than to use ambiguous phrases such as “the author concludes…” (which author?) or “it is concluded that…” (concluded by whom?).
Footnotes are very rare in scientific writing and should be avoided. Direct quotations from sources should be used only when it is essential for the reader to know exact wording; the usual practice is to paraphrase sources.
There are many differences among scientific journals in the style of citing references in the text and listing them in the Bibliography. For your synopsis, you should choose the style of one of two model journals selected by the Biology faculty: Stem Cell Reports or The American Naturalist. Once you select your style, it will be essential to consult a recent issue of the model journal for details of how to proceed.
Please note that there is a standard way of listing an article in a journal, a chapter in a book, an entire book, etc. References should be cited within the text by author(s) and year. Do not use the numbered reference format found in Science or Nature; the bibliography should be arranged alphabetically by author. The asterisked key references should be alphabetized with all the other sources in the bibliography.