YSE Articles Writing Guidelines

Scope:

• Articles would be read by a broad scientific audience. Here the target audience would be expected to have a typical 10+2 academic science background, without necessary specialization in the submitter’s respective field of education/expertise (undergraduate and beyond). This would mean minimizing technical jargon and/or using commonly termed alternatives.

• The communication should be original, i.e. even if based on single or multiple sources, the final product should have sufficient individualism incorporated. A word-for-word copy from references will not be accepted except for short excerpts (which need to be aptly indicated such as with quotation marks).

• The topic of the article can be of your own choice but should be related to Science.

Length:

• Authors may submit articles that would take a reader no more than 3-4 minutes to read. As a guide, a 3-4 minute read for an average reader means 400-500 words (approximately).

• Reviewers/editors will not count the words. But they may track their reading time. Authors are therefore encouraged to revise their article to make sure it fits reasonably within the reading-time limit before submission. A maximum buffer of an additional 1 minute may be considered as an exception but not more.

• Reading time would include figure captions/table captions that form an integral part of the article.

• Heading/title and references (if any) will not be counted in the time limit.

Storytelling:

• An ideal article would have a singular/overarching message or idea that the author would like to give to their readers.

• This singular message/idea should be delivered through engaging and succinct storytelling.

• The article in its 3-4 minute read should deliver a “complete message” by itself. References may be used as support, but not to substitute for the main content of the article. That is, readers should not have to read references to gain the essence of the message aimed to be delivered through the article.

• Appropriate use of images that add value to/complement the text or give suitable visual aid to the reader is highly encouraged. However, some articles may be better without images associated with the text - in this case, usage of an image would be redundant and maybe even distracting. Authors are encouraged to take a call based on what they feel is the best for their article.

Organization, Formatting and Referencing:

• Each article should be submitted in the form of a Word Document.

• The document should be saved as “<Title>.docx”. For example, "Time Travelling - Is it really possible?.docx". An appropriate title should be succinct and appropriately capture the essence of the communication in a few words. If possible a subtitle would be even better.

• Please do not include any extra formatting in the document. For example, the text should not be wrapped around any images. However, placing the image in the document close to the relevant location (such as immediately after the paragraph it is being referenced) would be ideal.

• The submitter’s identity (name and/or JBNSTS batch) should NOT be directly mentioned/evident in the filename or anywhere in the submission document. The review process will be a double-blind review (the submitter or the reviewer’s identity will not be available to the other to prevent any bias).

• Wikipedia should not be used as a reference for writing. Text or images inspired from Wikipedia should be traced to their original source, which needs to be cited.

• References need to be placed sequentially in the order cited in the article.

• Only the URL of the references (Research Papers, News Articles, etc.) needs to be mentioned. The publishing editor will format references appropriately. For example, citing a paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg9556