Guidelines for Writing a Biology Review Paper

Definition of a review paper

A review is a comprehensive synthesis of results from a wide and complex set of studies

A synthesis of findings rather than ideas.

Goal of a review paper is to help readers make sense of all available information

Direct quotations rarely found in reviews. Do Not Use!

Research reviews focus on primary sources

Original scientific experimentation reported in scientific journals

The quality of the review depends largely on the comprehensiveness of the literature search

Use of secondary sources--textbooks or review journals (Science, Scientific American, Discover)

Overview of material--easier to understand.

Use references for networking, authors

Get keywords

Help devise outline

Formatting the Paper

General Information

15-20 pages of text (not including figures and tables)

Typed, double-spaced

12 point serif type fonts (Times, Times New Roman, Palatino)

Margins 1.5" left, 1" top, 1" right, 1" bottom

Indent eah new paragraph 0.25"

Must be in a bound folder with a transparent cover

Title Page

Center title about 1/3 down the page in18-point font. Capitalize the first letter of each word except for articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (and, but, for) and prepositions (in, on, to)

The Adaptations for Thermoregulation in Winter Moths

Center your name 10 lines under the title in 12-point font

Center the date of submission date a double space below your name in 12-point font

Center the following phrase a triple space below the date: "a paper submitted to the faculty of the Department of Biology, Presbyterian College, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Senior Seminar, Biology 401"

Pagination

Number the pages consecutively, beginning with the title page, which does not have a page number but is still counted as the first page

Use only arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.)

Put the page numbers in the upper right hand corner

Headings

Use sparingly

Make them informative and concise

Center headings.

Triple space before the heading and double space after the heading

Use 12-point font, but bold

Using Numbers in Paper

Spell out numbers less than 10

Do not begin a sentence with a numeral, even if it larger than 10

Always use numerals when reporting quantitative data with a unit: 15 km, 8 g, 5 mL (check McMillan pp. 155-157 for proper abbreviations)

Tables and Figures

Must be incorporate/insert tables and figures in the text following the first text citation.

Cite according to number: "----as shown in Figure 3." "----the relationships of the species (Table 2)."

Each table and figure should be self-explanatory.

Left justify all titles and legends (single-spaced).