Article formats

Fancy writing for SaintScience? Take a look at the article formats we publish

Comment and Opinion articles

Comment and opinion articles broadly address topical issues in a chosen scientific field and offer a reasoned argument for a position. These articles may be a discussion of a scientific topic and its current relevance, or a socio-political article addressing a scientific issue in the author’s chosen area of interest and its impact on humanity more widely. Consequently, comment pieces are typically, well informed and provoking articles raising awareness for a particular topical issue relevant to some piece of scientific research and its social or ethical repercussions. The author might provide a reasoned solution to the problem or highlight a route to solving the problem.
Alternatively, opinion pieces are typically a presentation of a personal or collective view on a relevant scientific topic and its ramifications, likewise with the goal of raising awareness of a topic, but with the view to persuade the reader to the line of argument.
As a firm guide, all comment/opinion pieces must be thoroughly evidenced; content found to be spurious, indefensible, or unjustified will be flagged during the peer review process. Depending on the extent of ‘weasel statements’ – statements without evidence given a priori throughout the article, the editorial board may choose to reject the article or return it to the author.

Formatting

Please use the submissions template found on the website under the Submissions tab
Your title should be fewer than 20 words and aim to be pithy and precise
Comment pieces have a strict maximum word limit of 800 and a minimum of 500 excluding the bibliography, though depending on whether the piece might feature in an issue, this length may change and would be communicated by the deputy editor(s) of their editorial boards to interested authors
Your bibliography should not exceed 15 references of any referenced material
The writing style should be academic but engaging. A benchmark for the comment/opinion writing style can be found in the NewScientist. Paragraphs should be no more than 150 words each
Jargon terminology should be avoided at all costs or explained when first introduced. Comment/opinion pieces are aimed at a wide readership and should therefore assume no prior professional training on the scientific topic
The first person IS acceptable in this article format when used sparingly. For instance, if the author were giving a personal anecdote to hook the reader to the article, this is acceptable. However, in an opinion piece, procedural statements like ‘I think…’ or ‘I believe…’ should be used minimally
Subheadings should not be used. The article should be continuous prose
Between 2-5 keywords should be given at the end of the article before the bibliography

Review and Minireview articles

A review article, in contrast to comment/opinion pieces, provides a balanced summary of a specific scientific topic, synthesising recent and past findings and putting them into context. Review articles are a core aspect of scientific development by extracting the most salient advances made within a scientific field and presenting the findings accessibly.

SaintScience considers two formats for review pieces: the full review and minireviews, shorter and more bitesized summaries. Review articles should be entirely unbiased and holistic. These articles are more extensively peer reviewed than the comment/opinion pieces with more bidirectional flow between the author and editorial board.

Format for minireview –

Please use the submissions template found on the website under the Submissions tab
Your title should be fewer than 25 words and aim to be pithy and precise
Comment pieces have a strict maximum word limit of 1000 and a minimum of 600 excluding the bibliography,
Your bibliography should not exceed 30 references of any referenced material
The writing style should be academic and formal, while remaining accessible to the scientific reader
Jargon terminology should be explained briefly when first introduced. An assumption of some training in the scientific topic can be made for minireviews
The first person IS NOT acceptable in this article format
The following sub-headings are required for a minireview:
- Abstract – maximum 100 words
- Introduction – maximum 200
- Discussion – maximum 250

An additional two subheadings may be given in the main body of text following the introduction and before the discussion. Subheadings should be a maximum of 5 words each

Between 4-10 keywords should be given at the end of the article before the bibliography following the guide in Section 6. These are not included in the main word limit

Format for review –

Please use the submissions template found on the website under the Submissions tab
Your title should be fewer than 25 words and aim to be pithy and precise
Reivew pieces have a strict maximum word limit of 2000 and a minimum of 1200 excluding the bibliography,
Your bibliography should not exceed 60 references of any referenced material
The writing style should be academic and formal, while remaining accessible to the scientific reader
Jargon terminology should be explained briefly when first introduced. An assumption of training in the scientific topic can be made for reviews
The first person IS NOT acceptable in this article format
The following sub-headings are required for a review:

- Abstract – maximum 100 words
- Introduction – maximum 400
- Discussion – maximum 500

An additional four subheadings may be given in the main body of text following the introduction and before the discussion. Subheadings should be a maximum of 10 words each

Between 4-10 keywords should be given at the end of the article before the bibliography following the guide in Section 6. These are not included in the main word limit

Research digest articles

Research digests are an opportunity to explore the breadth of research being undertaken at the University. Digest pieces are summaries of the latest cutting-edge findings of a particular lab or research group, put into a rigorous but accessible format for a wide readership. The goal with research digests is better vertical integration of academic research with undergraduate students and a broader appreciation for the array of questions the University is exploring.

Due to the sensitivity of some high-impact content, close contact at every stage is required with the relevant member(s) of staff whose research is being summarised. It is therefore the responsibility of the author, whether a formal member of the journal – a journalist – or a general member of the University, to secure the written permission of the lead staff member involved in the research. Submissions that secure permission will undergo extensive peer review and bidirectional feedback with the author. Before submission, the article preprint is sent to the lead researcher for their approval on the accuracy of the summary.

Depending on the level of discretion required, research digests may be one of two formats: Impact article or Full digest article. The Impact article highlights the main findings in broad detail with some or little reference to the primary data. Alternatively, Impact articles might summarise the current goals of a particular lab more generally and its current relevance to the reader, rather than a specific research paper. For protection of intellectual property, details on methodology should not be given in this article where this raises concerns for the lead member of staff.

Full digest articles are more transparent and enable a fuller contextualisation of the researchers’ methodology, quantitative findings and impact for recent research published or conducted in the past two months. Crucially, both Impact and full digests should highlight the impact factor of the research with a discussion of future directions

Format for Impact digests –

Please use the submissions template found on the website under the Submissions tab
Your title should be fewer than 25 words and aim to be pithy and precise
Comment pieces have a strict maximum word limit of 800 and a minimum of 600, excluding the bibliography,
Your bibliography should not exceed 20 references of any referenced material
The writing style should be academic and formal, while remaining accessible to the scientific reader
The following sub-headings are required for an Impact digest:
- Abstract – maximum 100 words. Brief background and findings
- Introduction – maximum 150 words. More in-depth background knowledge, questions left unanswered and the focus of the research
- Discussion – maximum 200 words. Broad discussion of the findings or results with next steps

Format for Full digests –

Please use the submissions template found on the website under the Submissions tab
Your title should be fewer than 25 words and aim to be pithy and precise
Comment pieces have a strict maximum word limit of 1500 and a minimum of 800, excluding the bibliography,
Your bibliography should not exceed 20 references of any referenced material
The writing style should be academic and formal, while remaining accessible to the scientific reader
The following sub-headings are required for an Impact digest:
- Abstract – maximum 100 words. Brief background and findings
- Introduction – maximum 200 words. More in-depth background knowledge, questions left unanswered and the focus of the research
- Methods and Results optional – maximum 300 words each
- Discussion – maximum 400 words. Broad discussion of the findings or results with next steps

Undergraduate Research

A central aim of the Journal is maximising awareness of the calibre of undergraduate contributions to research at every level of the academic cycle. Publishing undergraduate research is an opportunity for students to showcase their work to the rest of the University community and give insight to prospective students on what to expect as St Andrews students in the sciences.

For undergraduates interested in publishing their research to SaintScience as undergraduate research articles, it must meet the following criteria:

It cannot have been published in another journal and/or is ineligible for publication in an indexed journal
Your research supervisor has given written permission for the research to be published in SaintScience
The research is high-quality and complete and does not breach GAP

Literature-based research or research reviews conducted by undergraduates are entirely open for submission. Research review articles conducted as part of novel research would be categorised as ‘undergraduate research’ and ‘review article’, though review articles should still conform to the format given above in 5b, unless permission is acquired from the editorial board for a longer piece.

Format for Undergraduate Research

Please use the submissions template found on the website under the Submissions tab
Your title should be fewer than 25 words and aim to be pithy and precise
Undergraduate research pieces have a strict maximum word limit of 5000 and a minimum of 3000, excluding the bibliography,
Your bibliography should not exceed 100 references of any referenced material
The writing style should be academic and formal, while remaining accessible to the scientific reader
The following sub-headings are required for Undergraduate Researcht:
- Abstract – maximum 150 words. Brief background and findings
- Introduction – maximum 850 words. More in-depth background knowledge, questions left unanswered and the focus of the research
- Methods and Materials – maximum 1000 words. The tools used, approach to answering the research question, details on cell or animal lines for instance
- Results – maximum 1500. The research findings by applying the methods discussed above
- Discussion and conclusions – maximum 1500 words. Broad discussion of the findings and results put in context with next steps

Graphical abstract. This should be a concise, pictorial overview of the research that represents some aspect of the findings or methods used in the research. Please use a ratio of 500×200 with a minimum resolution of 300dpi

Keywords

To standardise keyword usage across the website, please use this guide to formatting novel keywords

Format

Always use lowercase unless the phrase is an acronym or abbreviation
All keywords should conform to the spelling guidelines listed in this document
Only nouns should feature as keywords. Verbs should be nominalised if used as keywords, i.e. deforest is converted to deforestation
Simple phrases consisting of two words max should be used

Content

Only add a keyword if that word/phrase features in the article or refers to the subject area of the article. For instance, an article on arctic tundral melting might use the keywords ‘arctic tundra’, ‘climate change’ or ‘climatology’

Check if a similar keyword has been used before in the index of keywords in the spreadsheet below