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Author and Speaker Guidelines
Manuscript Instructions
Manuscripts are to be prepared using the unique format of the Current Opinion series of journals published by Elsevier, B.V. The goal of this series is to provide concise, timely and systematic reviews of major areas of research in the life sciences in a series of thematic issues or sections. In those journals, reviews are written by internationally recognized authorities and cover developments occurring over the last 12-24 months and provide an "expert's" view of the important original research in the field. Contributions to the MMG 445 eJournal are intended to provide similarly comprehensive reviews by student authors, within a 12-60 month timeframe.
Format
Title page - Provide the title of the manuscript, author, scope and subject category, department and email address on a separate cover sheet.
Abstract - The abstract should provide the reader with a brief description of the manuscript and should be no more than 100 words in length.
List of abbreviations (optional) - any non-standard abbreviations used in the article should be included in this list. Authors should avoid over use of abbreviations as well as pay careful attention to those that may be homonyms or synonyms in other well-known contexts.
Manuscript body - You are free to cover as much of an area as you want, but the body of the review may not exceed 2000 words in length and no less than 1800 words.
Introduction - The introduction should be no more than three paragraphs in length and provide the reader with a brief background about the current state of the field.
Main body - The main body of the manuscript should provide an orderly discussion of the chosen subject. Subsections should be identified by headers (in bold) to clearly identify transitions. Nesting of subsections should be limited to two layers deep.
Conclusions - The conclusions should provide the reader with a brief summary of the author's views of the field, based on the points that were raised in the body of the text. Authors may also provide the reader with their views as to where the field is likely to head in the near future.
Acknowledgements - any source of funding received by the author (fellowships, scholarships, research grants, etc.) should be cited, along with any individuals who may have reviewed the manuscript prior to submission, provided helpful comments, etc.
References and recommended reading - Authors must provide a detailed list of references that were used in preparing their manuscript. Formatting of references must follow the unique Current Opinion style and authors must identify at least five references of particular interest, published within the last 12 months. These must be annotated with one or two bullets following the reference number in the in-text citation and in the reference list. In addition, authors must provide the reader with a brief commentary as to why those references are of significance. Patents that are cited should be listed separately from journal articles, book chapters and other references. Web sites (and URLs) are not acceptable unless the web site is referred to in a peer-reviewed article. In such cases, the article describing the web site should be referenced. Authors should carefully review the formatting of references in a recent issue of Current Opinion in Microbiology to ensure conformity in style.
Tables - Authors should include no more than two tables in their manuscript. These should be referred to by number in the body of the manuscript and should be appended to the manuscript, following the references. Tables should include a heading and may include explanatory footnotes.
Figures - Authors should include no more than two figures in their manuscripts. Each figure should be referenced in the body of the text by number. Figures and figure legends should be provided on a separate page and briefly describe the figure so that a reader may understand it without reading the text.
Miscellaneous - Names of organisms appearing in the manuscript or references should be formatted according to the appropriate convention and code of nomenclature. Validly published names of Bacteria and Archaea should appear in italics at all taxonomic ranks. Names of plants and animals above the rank of genus should not be italicized. Invalid and illegitimate names should appear in quotes.
Sequence identifiers - Authors are expected to confirm that the accession number of any protein, nucleic acid or genome sequence resolves to the correct information.
Manuscripts are to be uploaded into the eJournal by 5:00 PM, seven days before the your presentation is posted to the class.
Presentations
Your presentation will be based on the topic chosen for your review article. You will be expected to deliver a polished and concise overview of the topic in the form of a 20 min voice-over PowerPoint presentation. The presentation must be delivered by 5 PM before the scheduled posting date and will be available for viewing by the class for 24 hrs. Following viewing, each student will be expected to ask one well-formed question about the presentation, after which you will have 24 hrs to respond. All questions and answers will be posted to the MMG 445 blog.
Guidelines and suggestions:
Your presentation should generally follow the outline of your paper and should include a brief introduction that provides the audience with a frame of reference, a main body of the presentation and a strong conclusion. Your goal is to engage the audience effectively and to get your message across. To do that, they need to be able to focus on the science and not be distracted from your message by figures that are needlessly complex or difficult to decipher.
"Slides":
Although there are a number of excellent presentation programs available, we recommend that you use either Power Point (PC or Mac) or Keynote (Mac only) as both of these program support voice recording of the presentation. (The university continues to recommend against using Windows Vista/Microsoft Office 2007 applications as most on-campus computers tied to projection systems are not yet capable of handling the new file formats.) In one of the recommended texts, Michael Alley provides some excellent ideas on how to format presentations. The ideas and suggestions below are from the American Society for Microbiology Meeting Site Instructions to Speakers.
The graphics you use in your presentation should be chosen carefully, to support the spoken word. Your slides should help to clarify your ideas, emphasize important points, show relationships, and to provide the visual information your audience needs to understand your message. The following are general guidelines.
- Keep your visuals clear and simple.
- Use simple graphs, charts, and diagrams wherever possible.
- Avoid using too many colors, patterns and graphics in one frame.
- Use a minimum of words for text and title frames.
- Upper and lower case lettering is more legible than all capital letters.
- Vary the size of lettering to emphasize headings and subheadings.
- Avoid using more than three font sizes per frame.
- Sans serif fonts project better and are easier to read. (Example: Arial.)
- Try to maintain the same or similar font size from frame to frame.
- Try to keep all type horizontal.
- Contrasting colors work best.
- Highlight your main point or heading with a dominant color.
- Avoid intensely bright or saturated colors that compete with the text.
- Keep color schemes consistent throughout the presentation.
- During your talk, make specific reference to each of your slides.
- Avoid a series of slides that merely repeat what you are saying.
Backgrounds:
Backgrounds should be unobtrusive. Cool colors (blue, green, turquoise, purple, magenta) allow the text to be more readable, provided that contrasting colors are used. Smooth gradation of the color helps. On the other hand, textured, embossed, or otherwise busy backgrounds tend to draw attention away from the content and should be avoided.
Graphics:
Photographs, graphs, illustrations and other types of artwork are excellent means of communicating complex ideas, providing that they are meaningful and relevant. Likewise, a well-placed cartoon can sometimes drive home a point that might not otherwise be made.
Planning your presentation:
Make sure that you spend an adequate amount of time in planning your presentation. The best way to begin is to create a template to ensure consistency among your slides. You should also consider your audience, their technical/educational level, the amount of time allotted to your presentation, and the complexity of the subject matter. Sketching out the flow of the presentation in storyboard fashion is generally helpful in deciding what to include or exclude. It may also help you decide what type of visual effects is appropriate, and where to place them. Animation, if used at all, should be used sparingly. Animated slides take much longer to create than static slides, so plan accordingly.
Once you have completed your slides, practice your presentation more than once before recording the audio track. Unlike a live presentation, you have the opportunity to refine your recorded presentation. If you use the scripting utilities of either PowerPoint of Keynote, take care to pace you reading at the same rate as you would normally speak. If possible, project your slides on screen to make sure that your presentation works and your color scheme is not problematic. Make sure that each slide is essential to your message and non-redundant. Carefully review the content of each slide so that you know which points you want to emphasize and why. A general rule of thumb is that you should never have more than one slide/minute, including the title, transitional slides, and the acknowledgments. Be brutal when editing your slides and pay careful attention to those on which you tend to become bogged down in explanations. We will cut you off at 20 minutes, whether you are done or not.
Packaging your manuscript and presentation:
You will also be responsible for entering your presentation into the MMG Basic Biotechnology eJournal by 5 PM the day before your presentation is scheduled for distribution.. Pick the appropriate sub-category for your paper and presentation and follow the instructions on the site. Presentations should be uploaded as supplements to the manuscript. Please be aware, that as you load both your manuscript and presentation into the system that you are warranting that the work is your own and free of any plagiarism. You are also authorizing your classmates to view your work as reviewers and editors.
Recording your Presentation (optional)
Both PowerPoint and Keynote support audio recording of a narration that accompanies the slides. There are a number of more sophisticated tools that are also available for this purpose and platform dependent (e.g., Camtasia and Windows Movie Maker on Windows Based PCs, and iMovie on Mac computers) that permit editing of the soundtrack after recording. While a limited amount of support can be provided for students using PowerPoint for Keynote, those who chose to adopt more sophisticated approaches are on their own. When planning for your presentation, you should find a quite place that is free from any background noise and allows you to run through the presentation uninterrupted.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The author warrants that the submission is their own original work and that it does not incorporate the work of others.
- The submission has not been previously submitted elsewhere to meet the requirements of another course nor is it being used to simultaneously meet the requirements of a course in which the author is currently enrolled.
- The manuscript file is in Microsoft Word , HTML, or RTF format.
- The text is single column and double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed at the end of the manuscript, in a separate appendix.
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
- The presentation slides were prepared using PowerPoint and adherer to the stylistic guidelines.
- All figures and tables that have been taken from other sources have been appropriately attributed to the original source.
Permissions have been granted for the use of figures or tables are obtained from other non-open source publications. - The author is the copyright owner of the PowerPoint presentation and manuscript and authorizes its royalty free, non-exclusive distribution through the MMG 445 Basic Biotechnology eJournal.
Copyright Notice
The MMG 445 Basic Biotechnology eJournal adheres to open access principles of Creative Commons Attribution Licensing. Copyright of papers, presentations, and audio-visual materials contained in the MMG 445 Basic Biotechnology eJournal resides with the authors, who have granted the journal the exclusive right of first publication. Others are free to share in the work with an acknowledgement of the original authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.