Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences
Academic Style Guides
Academic Style Guides
An academic style guide provides a set of rules and guidelines for writing in a given discipline. They dictate how a work should look and read so that it's consistent with other work in that field. The most commonly used Academic Style Guides include:
- APA (American Psychological Association): often used by Education, Psychology, and Sciences
- MLA (Modern Language Association): often used in the Humanities
- Chicago: often used in Business, Fine Arts, and History
For more information about Academic Style Guides, check out Excelsior OWL's Documentation Style Overview.
APA style, created by the American Psychological Association, it the writing format you will encounter the most in the sciences. It is a detailed and exacting style. The Publication Manual issued by the APA is the final authority on the style, but here are some additional resources for applying the rules of the style to your work.
-
Publication Manual (OFFICIAL) 7th Edition of the American Psychological Association
by
ISBN: 9781433832154Publication Date: 2019-10-01The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition is the style manual of choice for writers, researchers, editors, students, and educators in the social and behavioral sciences, natural sciences, nursing, communications, education, business, engineering, and other fields.
-
Excelsior OWL APA 7th GuideIn addition to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, the APA maintains its own website with multiple examples of how to format your paper and cite your sources. If you’re unable to find the answer to your question here, check the APA Manual 7th edition or the APA website.
-
APA Style and Grammar GuidelinesThe style and grammar guidelines pages present information about APA Style as described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition and the Concise Guide to APA Style, Seventh Edition. Explore the larger website for video tutorials and recorded webinars, sample papers of several different types, and more.
-
APA Style BlogThe APA Style blog is the official companion to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition. It’s run by the APA Style team—a group of style experts who work with APA Style every day. They explore the nuances that may not be entirely clear in the Publication Manual, and respond to comments.
Explore the resources below to help you write in MLA style.
-
MLA Handbook
by
ISBN: 9781603293518Publication Date: 2021-04-22The MLA Handbook is published by the Modern Language Association and is the only official, authorized book on MLA style.
-
Excelsior OWL's MLA Formatting and Style GuideMLA stands for the Modern Language Association, and its style guidelines have been assisting authors since 1951. In 2016, the MLA Handbook introduced a template using core elements in an effort to simplify much of the documentation process in MLA format. In 2021, the ninth edition was expanded with considerably more content and visuals.
-
FAQ about the MLA HandbookAnswers to Frequently Asked Questions about the MLA Handbook.
-
MLA Style CenterMLA Style Center, the only authorized Web site on MLA style, provides free resources on research, writing, and documentation.
Explore the resources below to help you write in Chicago style.
-
The Chicago Manual of Style
by
ISBN: 9780226817972Publication Date: 2024-09-19The venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar -- an indispensable reference informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice. Much has happened in the years since the publication of the seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. The world has transformed, and the Manual has risen to meet the moment. The eighteenth edition of this classic guide for writers, editors, and publishers is the most extensive revision in two decades. Every chapter has been reexamined with diversity and accessibility in mind, and major changes include updated and expanded coverage of pronoun use and inclusive language, revised guidelines on capitalization, and broader range of examples, new coverage of Indigenous languages, and expanded advice on making publications accessible to people with disabilities. The Manual's traditional focus on nonfiction has been expanded to encompass fiction and other creative genres, and the needs of self-published authors also receive wider attention. The citation chapters have been thoroughly reorganized for the benefit of new and experienced users alike, and key concepts for editing mathematics have been integrated into the chapters where they will be most useful to generalists. Evolving technologies -- including open-access publishing models and AI -- are covered throughout. And naturally, there are some well-considered updates to familiar rules, including changes intended to align the Manual's recommendations more closely with real-world usage. As with every new edition, devotees of the Manual will find much to discover and ponder.
-
Excelsior OWL's Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition18th Edition Chicago-style citations utilize two distinct formats: the notes and bibliography format and the author-date format. Both formats usually include a separate bibliography page where all references are listed. Students should double-check with their instructors about which format is preferred.
-
Chicago Manual of Style Q&AAnswers to questions about Chicago Style from The Chicago Style Manual Online.
-
Chicago Manual of Style BlogThe Shop Talk Blog of the Chicago Manual of Style. With these pages and posts, the editors and staff of the Manual hope to bring clarity, education, and amusement to anyone who works with words.
Below are other Academic Style Guides you may encounter in your career.
- ACS (American Chemical Society)
- ASA (American Sociological Association)
- Purdue OWL ASA Formatting and Style Guide
Resources for writing
Academic Writing
There are many resources available to help with academic writing. Below are a few options worth exploring:
- Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL)
- UMass Amherst Writing Center
- located in the Learning Commons in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, available to book free appointments
- Harvard College Writing Center Resources
Inclusive Language in Academic Writing
Resources to support the use of inclusive language in academic writing:
- Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication (Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications)
- Conscious Language Guide (Conscious Style Guide)
- University of British Columbia Inclusive Language Resources
- National Association of Black Journalists Style Guide (NABJ)
- Freedom for Immigrants Glossary of Immigration Terms
- Cultural Competence Handbook (National Association of Hispanic Journalists)
- Best Practices in Authority Work Relating to Indigenous Nations in the US (Latin American and Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Funnel)
- Disability Language Style Guide (National Center on Disability and Journalism)
- How to write about people with disabilities, 9th edition (University of Kansas)
- Media Reference Guide (GLAAD)
Books on Writing & Research
-
Writing Dissertation and Grant Proposals
by
Call Number: R853.P75 C48 2014ISBN: 9781466512061Publication Date: 2014-04-28The scientific proposal-writing process can be a daunting experience for graduate students and young researchers. This book covers all aspects of the process, from structure and style to obtaining research grant funding. Organized much like a research proposal, the book covers identifying a research topic, drafting a hypothesis, conducting a literature review, describing methods for data collection and analysis, and presenting the proposal. The final section describes strategies for putting together a winning NIH proposal and responding to reviewer comments. -
Successful Grant Writing by
Call Number: HV41.2 .G58 2014eb E-BookISBN: 9780826148049Publication Date: 2021Written for individuals in both academic and practice settings, the guide addresses, step-by-step, the fundamental principles for effectively securing funding. It is the only book to provide grant-writing information that encompasses many disciplines and to focus on building a research career with grant writing as a step-wise process. It provides detailed, time-tested strategies for building an investigative team, highlights the challenges of collaboration, and describes how to determine the expertise needed for a team and the roles of co-investigators. The book addresses the needs of both novice and more experienced researchers. -
News & Numbers: A Writer's Guide to Statistics
by
Call Number: RA407 .C64 2012eb E-BookISBN: 9781444344332Publication Date: 2012News & Numbers focuses on how to evaluate statistical claims in science, health, medicine, and politics. It does so by helping readers answer three key questions about all scientific studies, polls, and other statistical claims: "What can I believe?” “What does it mean?” and "How can I explain it to others?" The text emphasizes clear thinking and common sense approaches for understanding, analyzing and explaining statistics, and terms throughout the book are explained in easy-to-understand, nontechnical language.
Open Scholarship and Scholarly Publishing
Open Scholarship and Scholarly Publishing
When you're ready to publish your research, you might find that the world of scholarly publishing can be challenging to navigate. We have resources here at the Libraries to support your publishing journey. Check out the Libraries' Open Scholarship & Scholarly Publishing research guide to explore a robust collection of resources and explanations of different aspects of scholarly publishing. Also take a look at the other tabs of this box for an introduction to open scholarship and scholarly publishing.
Open Access
What is open access? "By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited." (Budapest Open Access Initiative Definition, 2002).
Check out UMass Amherst's Open Access Policy to learn more about faculty publications and archiving in our institutional repository. Also explore Kennesaw State University's Open Access Hub for additional open access resources and information, including educational presentations on a variety of open access topics.
Scholarly Publishing
There are several factors to consider when deciding where to publish your work. Think. Check. Submit. is an organization that helps researchers identify journals and publishers that are reputable and trusted. They have resources for publishing books and book chapters, as well as articles in journals.
Questions about research metrics? Check out the Metrics Toolkit, a resource to help scholars understand and use metrics across disciplines.
Using a citation manager
Sometimes you need to create a citation on the fly, while other times, your writing will be more complicated and involve citing several items and keeping track of sources. For this type of work, use a citation manager.
- About citation managers: Citation Manages
- The Libraries offer workshops on the different citation managers: Libraries Events Calendar
