Testing Whether Samples Are Alive or Dead Paper

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Testing Whether Samples Are Alive or Dead Paper

Alexa Donahue, Maria Ely, Ammar Dawas, Madelyn Frank INTRODUCTION • The results could be useful in future tests • We are testing to see if our samples are alive or dead • We are testing to see if our samples are organic or inorganic • It is important because the results are unknown, and we want to know what is alive and what is dead PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN • Step 1 = Feulgen Stain o + = alive or once alive, then move to step 2 o – = nonliving, then move to step 3 • Step 2 = Tetrazolium Test o + = alive o – = dead, then move to step 3 • Step 3 = Benedict’s Test o + = organic o – = inorganic OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS • Feulgen Stain –> Testing for DNA • Tetrazolium Test –> Testing for redox reactions • Benedict’s Test –> Testing for reducing sugars PROCEDURES 1. Feulgen Test a. Maria 2. Tetrazolium Test a. Madelyn and Ammar 3. Benedict’s Test a. Alexa • Repeat 3 times with different samples MATERIALS AND METHODS • Alive = contains DNA and carries out redox reactions • Dead = contains DNA and does not carry out redox reactions • Organic = contains sugars • Inorganic = does not contain sugars Feulgen Stain • Positive control: turned magenta color • Negative control: unchanged color Tetrazolium Test • Positive control: turned red or pink color • Negative control: unchanged color Benedict’s Test • Positive control: turned yellow/green or red color • Negative control: unchanged color SUPPLIES & EQUIPMENT Feulgen Stain • Sample • Goggles • Gloves • Plastic centrifuge tube • Ethanol/acetic acid • Pipet • Cotton tip swab • 1M HCl • 60C water bath • Schiff’s reagent • Microscope Tetrazolium Test • Sample Test Tube • Liquid or solid Sample • 37 C water bath • Tetrazolium solution • Pipet Benedict’s Test • Sample • Test tube • Scalpel or a mortar and pestle (if solid) • Benedict’s solution • Pipet • 60C water bath PART I. HOW DO SCIENTIFIC PAPERS DIFFER FROM “POPULAR PRESS” ARTICLES? Information about scientific discoveries can be presented in many different writing styles and formats. The style and format most familiar to nonscientists is called “popular press” and can be found in magazines or newspapers like Discover, National Geographic, Newsweek, and The New York Times. These articles are designed to inform the public of new and sometimes controversial issues arising as a result of scientific investigation. “Popular press” authors often compete with each other to sell their articles to magazines. The more interesting or controversial the topic the more likely the article will be accepted and the more likely the sales of the magazine will increase. As a result, there is considerable pressure to appeal to “What the reader wants.” In “popular press” articles, the writing style and format of the article are designed to hold the reader’s interest. The articles often contain pictures and illustrative drawings. The author may refer to specific scientists by name. However, the articles generally contain no references to the specific source(s) of information used. That is, no reference list is provided. The scenario is not the same when scientists write to communicate their discoveries to other scientists. Like “popular press” articles, scientific articles are designed to inform others of new and sometimes controversial issues in scientific investigation. However, the style and format of scientific journal articles are much more prescribed and are dictated by long-standing rules or standards. Scientific writing follows fairly standard rules. At its best, scientific writing is clear and concise. As such, it focuses on “Just the facts.” Many articles are written in the third person, passive voice. Others are written in the first person, active voice. The voice chosen may be left to the author’s discretion, or it may be dictated by the journal in which s/he hopes to publish. Verb tense may be either past or present, but must be consistent throughout the paper. Illustrations and tables are presented only to support the textual information that is presented. All information obtained from others’ studies is referenced, and all references are listed at the end of the paper. The authors of scientific journal articles must provide enough information to allow others to duplicate their study as exactly as possible. This means that the specific species name(s) of any organism(s) must be provided along with age, sex, diet, and maintenance methods. Manipulations performed and equipment used must be specified. This includes specifying equipment manufacturer and model number. Composition and dose levels of all chemicals and/or drugs must be provided. Results must be clearly stated. This includes stating what hypotheses remain possible and what hypotheses can be eliminated. Not all papers submitted to journals are accepted for publication. Scientific papers must be approved by a board of recognized experts in the field, the journal’s editorial board or panel, before they are accepted for publication. The editorial panel is made up of other scientists working in the same or similar areas. The decision to publish is based on the recommendations of these reviewers. If an article is accepted, the author is not paid for the article, but rather, is often expected to pay the journal from $50 to several hundred dollars per page to help defray publishing costs. At first glance, such restrictions on style and format may appear to be incompatible with, or even contrary to independent thought and expression. Some might even consider them a capricious or “picky” exercise of power by the editorial boards of journals. In reality, however, these rules have been instituted for very good reasons. Thousands of new scientific articles are published every month in over 9,000 life science journals from more than 100 countries. With a set or standard format, a scientist can open any journal article and know where to find results, discussion, methods, etc. With dialogue limited to “just the facts,” s/he can similarly get through an article with a minimum of reading time and at a minimum cost of publication. PART II. WHAT ARE THE RULES OF WRITING EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH PAPERS? GENERAL RULES FOR PUBLICATION All experimental papers for this course will contain the following information: Author(s)’ Name(s) Course Title Lab day/time Date submitted TITLE ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES TABLES AND FIGURES How each section should be formatted and what each should contain are described below. This description is set up in the form of a scientific paper. We will expect you to understand and use this information and this format in writing papers for lab and for experimental independent projects. TITLE The title should be centered on the page. It should be specific, descriptive, and concise. In other words, the title should provide a very brief description of the rationale for and results of the experiment. Key words pertaining to the experimental organism and experimental objective(s) should be found in the title. Researchers often search titles to decide which articles pertain most to their own areas of interest. Read the following titles. Which give you a good idea of the content of the articles and which do not? 1. 2. a. Hypocotyl Growth of Rapid Cycling Brassica b. Auxin-Induced Effects on the Gravitropic Response of Rapid Cycling Brassica Hypocotyls a. The Upstream Struggle of the Salmon b. Imprinting to Chemical Cues: The Basis for Home Stream Selection in Salmon ABSTRACT Note, that with the exception of the title, each major section of the paper is identified by an appropriate section heading, e.g., ABSTRACT, INTRODUCTION, etc. The abstract is like the “Cliff or Spark Notes” for the paper. As such, it: 1. Begins with a general statement which introduces the reader to the purpose, objective, or importance of the study. 2. Briefly discusses the methods used to allow the reader to understand how results were obtained. 3. Presents the major results. 4. Presents the major conclusions. Scientists often decide whether or not to read a paper based on the information provided in the abstract. Most publications place limits on the number of words per abstract. In this course, abstracts should be between 150 and 300 words in length. Note: Even though it appears at the beginning of the paper, the abstract is the last thing written! INTRODUCTION Why did you do your study? What did you expect to happen? The goals of the introduction are to 1) state the purpose or reason for undertaking the study and to 2) explain what you expected to occur and why. To help achieve these goals, this course strongly encourages students to break down the Introduction section into at least three main paragraphs. 1. First paragraph: Broad rationale The broad rationale includes background information about the broad biological concept you are investigating and the history of the research that led to the major discovery that your work will expand on—to the extent that the “big picture” significance of your project is clear. There are a number of topics and concepts that you can include in this paragraph; in fact, the broader framework that you place your study in will likely be quite different than other students’ papers. However, make sure you do not broaden the scope of your project too much. It is important as a scientist to put one’s research into the appropriate context. This includes making sure you do not accidentally exaggerate the significance or impact of your study. 2. Second paragraph: Specific rationale In the second paragraph, the background information should start to get more specific, eventually transitioning to your specific project. In the specific rationale, there should be more details about the focus of your project and provide necessary background information about your study organism. The purpose of this paragraph should be to connect your broad background with your project’s hypothesis and prediction. It may be useful to discuss the findings of previous experiments from scientific articles that will help you explain what question your research project is trying to answer and why it is interesting. 3. Third paragraph: Purpose, research question, hypotheses, and prediction While the beginning of the paper guides your reader through what other scientists have done, here is where you begin to talk about what your project’s purpose is. The purpose should make it clear to the reader what separates your study from the body of scientific literature. Try to state your research question without phrasing it as an actual question. The hypothesis should be more broad, while your prediction should be specific enough that the reader should be able to visualize what a graph of the predicted results would look like. Additional tips for your Introduction section: ● You are welcome to write more than three paragraphs for your Introduction section. In fact, you might need to in order to get your point across effectively (though make sure you are concise as well!). ● As mentioned, the three major components of the Introduction begin with the general background information that sets the stage for the research (rationale) and then narrows to the specific goals or objectives of the research (purpose). Therefore, make sure you look back at your Introduction section once it is written to ensure it follows this transition from broad to narrow. ● When writing papers on laboratory experiments, write as if the experiment was your own idea (not an assignment). For example, you could structure the last paragraph of your Introduction as follows. This paper reports the results of a series of experiments designed to determine the effects of pH on the locomotor activity of planarians. ● You could then state your hypothesis and prediction as follows. Based on results from previous studies, we hypothesize that pH affects the amount of time planarians spend moving. Our null hypothesis is that pH does not affect the amount of time planarians spend moving. We predict that if we place individual planarians in petri dishes with different pH levels of water, then planarians will spend significantly more time moving in water at pH = 7 than at pH = 4 or pH = 10. METHODS How did you do the study? How were the data obtained? In this section, you should provide an account of how the experiment was run. In doing this, describe the techniques, materials, chemicals, and equipment used. You should provide enough information for the reader to be able to repeat your procedure. For example: Six month old Sprague Dawley male rats were anaesthetized using ketamine (1 mg/kg body weight) injected into the tail vein. A midline incision was used to expose the abdominal cavity. Pancreatic tissue was removed and placed in ice cold unbuffered saline (0.9%). Mitochondria were then isolated and the ADP/ATP translocase was purified as described previously (Smith, 1981). Note that procedures which are fully described elsewhere in the literature are usually given a brief explanation followed by a reference of the literature source. For example: Mitochondria were then isolated and the ADP/ATP translocase was purified as described previously (Smith, 1981). Do not write the Methods section as a story (e.g., First I did, then I did, then I did, etc.). Instead, organize this section conceptually. If your procedure required a number of different operations, it may be better to subdivide your methods section similarly, e.g., you can organize methods by type of operation with each in a separate subsection with a separate subheading. Do not include a separate listing of all materials, chemicals, and equipment used. Instead, introduce these as needed in your description of the methods. Example METHODS Tissue Extraction Describe all operations involved in tissue extration under this subheading. Enzyme Purification Describe all operations involved in purification here. Etc. pH Optimization Test Describe the method used to test for optimal pH for the enzyme activity. RESULTS What did you find as a result of the study? This section states specifically what was found; that is, it shows the data that were obtained. If the Methods section is subdivided into subsections, the Results section should be similarly subdivided. All pertinent information contained in summary tables and figures should be interpreted by the writer and presented in sentence form, i.e., as a narrative, to the reader. In doing this, you should point out trends evident in the data, important differences, similarities, and unexpected results. Do not omit important negative results. In other words, do not write, “Results are shown in Table 1” without providing further explanation in the text. It is true that the reader can interpret tables/figures for him or herself. However, the purpose of the Results section is to let the reader know how you, the author, interpret them. Therefore, be sure to include your interpretation in the text of the results. What you point out in the Results section sets the stage for your discussion of what the results mean in the Discussion section. DISCUSSION What do the results mean relative to the purpose/hypothesis proposed in the Introduction? The Discussion section tells the reader what the results mean. In doing this, the Discussion relates the findings or data you obtained back to the purpose(s) of the paper as outlined in the Introduction. How the results relate to those of the other studies mentioned in the Introduction is also stated. Possible reasons for such relationships are given. For example, if the results disagree with those of another study, reasons why this may be the case should be provided. Proposals for further research should also be included in this section. Keep in mind that disproving the hypothesis is just as valid as supporting the hypothesis. For example, assume you do a study of children in daycare versus home care. Your hypothesis is that children placed in daycare from age 6 weeks to grade school are less healthy and more emotionally insecure than children whose mothers stayed home until they were of school age. You conduct the study and find no significant difference in either health or emotional well being of the children in the two test groups. How would you report the results? Would you decide not to report them because there was no significant difference among the test groups? Now consider the following. You are the parent of a child who has been in daycare since s/he was 3 months old. Would you not like to know that in this study there was no significant difference in health or emotional security of children in daycare versus home care? REFERENCES The term “reference” is sometimes confusing because it is used loosely to refer to two different parts of a scientific paper. 1. Throughout the paper, whenever a statement of fact is made, a previously used procedure explained, or the results of another study mentioned, it should be followed by a reference. This is also referred to as a “citation” or “citing a reference.” References in the text of a paper are placed in parentheses. Refer to Appendix A, Section III, References Part A, below for the appropriate format for citing references in the body of a paper. 2. At the end of the paper, a list of all the references cited in the body of the text appears in what is called the “References” or “Literature Cited” section. The sources of all citations used in the body of the text should be listed in the References section. Conversely, all references listed in the References section must be cited in the body of the text. Other references you may have read but did not cite are not included. This is one of the major differences between a reference list and a bibliography. In the reference list, all articles and/or books referenced in the paper are listed in alphabetical order according to the last name of the first author. If more than one paper from an author exists, they are listed in chronological order with most recent listed first. Refer to Appendix A, Section III, References Part B, for specifics on how to format the References list. TABLES AND FIGURES In the text of the paper, figures and tables must be numbered in order of appearance. For example, the first table mentioned becomes Table 1. The next table mentioned is labeled Table 2 and so on. Similarly, the first figure mentioned in the text is Figure 1; the next is Figure 2 and so on. BOTH TABLES AND FIGURES MUST CONTAIN APPROPRIATE CAPTIONS. 1. FIGURE CAPTIONS ARE PLACED BELOW THE FIGURE. 2. TABLE CAPTIONS ARE PLACED ABOVE THE TABLE; LEGENDS/FOOTNOTES ARE PLACED BELOW THE TABLE. Titles and legends for figures and tables should be descriptive enough to allow the reader to interpret the figure/table without reference to the text of the paper. Another way of saying this is that titles and legends should stand on their own. Someone who has not read the paper should be able to understand what the figure is presenting by reading the title or legend alone. Refer to figures and tables in your text book for examples or see below. Figure 1.Changes in the numbers of animal species that occurred on two islands over a 24 month period. On island A, a snake species was removed at time zero. This same species was not removed from island B. Table 1.Numbers of grasshopper deaths per acre per year resulting from the operation of two different agents of mortality in a population of grasshoppers at different density levels. Grasshopper Population Density (Individuals/Acre) Deaths Per Year Per Acre Agent A Agent B 100 5 0 1,000 50 25 10,000 500 500 When submitting a paper to a journal (or for this course), Tables and Figures must be grouped at the end of the article, just after the References. Tables and Figures should not be incorporated into the article. This allows both the writer and reviewer to determine: 1. If the text of the paper stands on its own without the tables and figures and 2. If the tables and figures can be understood without immediate reference to the text. PART III. HOW SHOULD REFERENCES BE CITED IN THE BODY OF THE PAPER AND IN THE REFERENCE LIST? Each journal adopts a specific referencing format that must be used by anyone who plans to publish in that journal. Articles with references not in the required format are not accepted for publication until the appropriate changes have been made. Just as the data document your interpretations and conclusions, reference citations document statements made about the literature. As a result, you should choose references judiciously and cite them accurately. Appropriate scientific conduct requires that you read the research paper of the original author. This allows you to interpret the original data for yourself and avoid possible misinterpretations. For example, assume you want to write a paper on melanomas. JD Smith performs an experiment in 1993 which showed the sunscreen additive PABA directly caused an increase in incidence of certain melanomas in rats. He then writes a paper describing his research. In 1995, SP Adams writes a review article on melanoma and cites the work of JD Smith (1993). You read the article written by SP Adams, but have not read Smith’s original paper. If you want to include the statement that PABA has been shown to cause melanoma, which is based on Smith’s research, you must find and read Smith’s original paper. If the original paper is in a foreign language or is not available, you can cite Adams’ paper. In this case, the citation format would be (Smith, JD as cited in Adams, 1995). The following examples indicate the referencing format that will be required in this course for all experimental lab reports and papers and for all library research papers. A. HOW SHOULD WE CITE REFERENCES IN THE BODY OF THE PAPER? 1. Citing a paper or text with a single author Citing a single paper or text with a single author may take one of several forms. For example: Sorokina (1972) demonstrated that penetration of hydrogen ions across cell membranes in snail neurons occurred very slowly. It has been demonstrated that penetration of hydrogen ions across cell membranes in snail neurons occurs very slowly (Sorokina, 1972). 2. Citing papers or texts with more than one author Use one of the following forms when referencing papers or texts with two authors: In isolated polytene chromosomes (Chironomus), Lezzi and Gilbert (1972) reported a loss of puff material at pH 7 of their isolation medium. In isolated polytene chromosomes (Chironomus) a loss of puff material at pH 7 has been reported (Lezzi and Gilbert, 1972). Use one of the following forms when referencing three or more authors: Lacko et al., (1971) demonstrated that exchange transport of glucose in human erythrocytes was dependent on the pH of the incubation medium. The authors suggest that this implies carrier mediated transport. Exchange transport of glucose in human erythrocytes is dependent on the pH of the incubation medium (Lacko et al., 1971). 3. Citing Several Papers and/or Texts Relating to the Same Topic A number of papers all relating to the same topic can be referenced as follows. Numerous authors agree with this observation, while numerous others claim that intracellular pH changes can occur almost simultaneously with incubation in medium of differing pH (see reviews by Wadell and Bates, 1969 and Caldwell, 1956 ). B. WHAT SHOULD WE INCLUDE IN THE REFERENCE LIST AT THE END OF OUR PAPER? All references cited in the body of the text should be listed in the References section at the end of the paper. Conversely, all references listed in the References section must be cited in the body of the text. The references should be listed alphabetically by the last name of the author (or the last name of the first author of papers or texts with multiple authors). References to journal articles, books, personal communications, and web sites should all be contained in this list. In this section, you must pay close attention to the placement of commas (,) periods (.) colons (:), spaces, underscoring (_) and the use of upper and lower case letters. In the References section, depending on the requirements of the specific journal, you may be required to use full journal titles or commonly accepted journal abbreviations. In 1081L and 1082L, you are required to provide the full journal title for each reference. On the following page is a properly formatted reference list for the references cited in part A above. REFERENCES Caldwell PC. 1956 . Intracellular pH. International Review of Cytology. 5:22 9– 277. Lacko L, Wittke B, and Geck P. 1971. The pH dependence of exchange transport in human erythrocytes. Journal of Cell Physiology. 80:73–78. Lezzi M and Gilbert R. 1972. Chromosomes isolated from unfixed salivary glands of Chironomus. In: Beerman, W (ed.) 1972. Developmental Studies on Giant Chromosomes, p 35 –57, Springer-Verhlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York. Sorokina ZA. 1972. Role of hydrogen ions in active potassium and sodium transport across neuronal membrane of Helix pomatia. Translated from: Zhurnal Evoliutsionnoi Biokhimii i Fiziologii. 8:35 –40 . Wadell WJ and Bates RG. 1969. Intracellular pH. Physiological Reviews. 49:285– 32 9. 1. In general, journal article references should be formatted as follows: If a single author: Author’s Last Name Initial(s). Year of publication. Article title. Journal Name. Volume number: page–page. For example: Caldwell PC. 1956 . Intracellular pH. International Review of Cytology. 5:22 9–277. If more than one author: (The names of all authors must be included in the reference.) Author’s Last Name Initial(s), Author’s Last Name Initial(s), and Author’s Last Name Initial(s). Year of publication. Article title. Journal Name. Volume number: page–page. For example: Lacko L, Wittke B, and Geck P. 1971. The pH dependence of exchange transport in human erythrocytes. Journal of Cell Physiology 80:73–78. If the same author has multiple papers: List each article separately using the directions described above but arrange them in chronological order with the most recent first. If the author has more than one paper published in the same year, e.g., 1998, list one as 1998a and the other as 1998b. 2. References to textbooks are formatted as follows: Author’s Last Name Initial(s). Year of publication. Book Title. Publisher, City(ies) of publication. [Notice the book title is underlined.] For example: Beerman W (ed.). 1972. Developmental Studies on Giant Chromosomes. Springer-Verhlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York. 3. References to personal communications (e.g., unpublished information from a recognized expert in the field) are formatted as follows: Person’s Last Name Initial(s). Year information was provided to you. Title and Address of person – Pers. comm. For example: Garriga G. 1996. Professor. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 . Pers. comm. In the text of the paper, the above source would be referenced as follows. Many nerve cells in both Ascaris summ and C. elegans have very elaborate cell processes that defasiculate and form complex, frequently varicose endings as seen in Fig. 6 (Garriga, 1996). Please Note: reference to personal communication are not allowed in this course except for under very rare circumstances. Please ask your instructor if it would be appropriate, and how you should cite it. However, you should always first try to find an appropriate published peer-reviewed journal article. 4. References to internet sites are formatted as follows: Author’s Last Name Initial(s). Title of work [Online]. . Date site was accessed (month/day/year). For example: Case Western Reserve University. Gene information search tool [Online]. http://genome.cwru.edu/gist/gist/html [Nov.5, 1999]. In the text of the paper, a citation for the above would look like the following. (Case Western Reserve, 1999). Please Note: references to internet sites are not allowed in this course except for under very rare circumstances. If you think you need to use an internet source, please ask your instructor if it would be appropriate, and how you should cite it. PART IV. MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUCTIONS: AVOIDING COMMON MISTAKES A. WHAT IF MY PAPER IS LATE OR LOST? 1. Late papers will be accepted without penalty only under extremely special circumstances from your instructor prior to the deadline date. Otherwise, there is an automatic 10 % deduction for each school day that the assignment is late. The instructor has the right to deduct the first 10 % as soon as the assignment is five minutes late. 2. Always keep a backup copy of your paper in your email account, a USB drive, and/or on multiple devices. While it is rare that papers are lost, it will happen to someone. B. WHAT BASIC RULES SHOULD WE FOLLOW FOR ALL PAPERS? 1. All papers must be typed. 2. You must number the pages of your papers. 3. You must use 1.5 or 2 line spaces between lines of text on the page. 4. Use 1 inch margins on the top, bottom, right, and left sides. 5. Use a 12 pt font size. Times New Roman is preferred. 6. Your name(s) and lab # (or lab day and time) must be included on the first page of the paper in the upper right hand corner. 7. The title must be on the first page of the report. Unless instructed otherwise, you do not need a separate title page. Begin your paper following the title. 8. You may write in either the third person or the first person. For both it is best to use active voice. You may use either past or present tense. Whatever you choose, the person, voice, and tense must be appropriate and consistent throughout the paper. 9. Be consistent with your Section Heading Format. For example, all letters in the heading should be CAPITALIZED or Bold and Underlined or Bold, etc. You can choose whichever format you desire, but be consistent. 10. Begin the References section on a new page, separate from the rest of the paper. All articles cited in the body of the text must appear in the References section. Similarly, all articles listed in the References section must be cited in the body of the text. 11. All tables and figures must be grouped at the end of the article, not incorporated into the article. All tables and figures must be accompanied by a table or figure number, a title, and a legend. Some very simple tables may not require a legend. 12. Always check spelling and grammar before finalizing your paper. Use the spell checker on your computer. If a grammar checker is available, use it as well. 13. Unless instructed otherwise, you will submit your paper to SafeAssign on Canvas in the Assignments folder. You do not need to hand in a paper copy unless you are instructed to do so by your instructor. If you do need to hand in a paper copy, do not use plastic report covers. Instead, simply staple your report in the upper left hand corner. C. HOW CAN WE AVOID COMMON MISTAKES IN CONTENT? 1. In your Introduction, it is acceptable to state directly, “The purpose of this experiment is …” or “This experiment is designed to …,” etc. You do not need to do this, but you should get to the point quickly. 2. You must include the scientific names of all organisms used in the study. When you first introduce the organism you need to identify both its scientific and common names. For the remainder of the paper, you can use the common name. If the common name of an organism appears in the title, the scientific name must also appear (usually in parentheses following the common name). 3. When using scientific species names, the genus name is capitalized but the species describer (or epithet) is not, e.g., Homo sapiens. The species name consists of both the genus name and the species describer and must be underlined or italicized. When the genus name is used alone, it is capitalized and italicized. 4. When referencing the information in a whole paragraph to a single article or text, you can start the paragraph by stating, “According to Smith et al. (1990) …. Alternatively, you can put a period at the end of the last sentence in the paragraph, then follow this with the reference. (Smith et al., 1990) 5. You should use metric units of measure in scientific papers. Numbers less than one should be reported in decimals with a zero placed before the decimal point, for example, 0.25. This helps prevent misunderstanding if a decimal point is accidentally left out. 6. The abbreviation, et al., stands for the Latin, et alia, which means “and others.” Et is a complete word and does not require a period (.); al. is the abbreviated form of alia and requires a period (.). Because these are foreign words, they also need to be italicized. 7. Similarly, e.g., is short for exemplia gratia (“for example”) and i.e., is short for id est (“that is” (to say) or “in other words”). Because these have been in common use for so long they are generally not italicized or underlined. 8.