UMBC Review Style Guide

Articles submitted to the UMBC Review come from a variety of disciplines. Authors should identify and consistently follow the style guide typically used in their discipline, e.g. APA, MLA, etc.

In addition, the UMBC Review asks that authors also follow guidelines specific to the UMBC Review as outlined below:

Faculty Approval

  • The article, as written, has been approved by the faculty mentor

Audience

  • The article is written to be understandable to well-educated non-specialists, to the extent feasible. This may require definitions of technical terms and background information
  • The article has an introduction that explains why the research topic is relevant to the general public

Content

  • The article should present original research that was conducted in conjunction with an on-campus faculty mentor by an undergraduate UMBC student
  • Multiple authors are allowed, but the primary author must be a UMBC undergraduate at the time when the work was completed
  • The article must clearly describe the motivation for the work, the research methods, and the results
  • We cannot accept creative writing. Submit creative work that is not research-based to Bartleby

Body and Format

  • The article is double-spaced and in 12-point Times New Roman font (where appropriate).
  • The submission is written in the past tense, describing work completed and results
  • The article begins with a strong introduction that says what the research is and why it is important
  • Margins are left-justified with paragraph indentations. Indents should be created using the indent key only. No indenting should be created with the spacebar
  • Headlines, subheads, and other text should not be in all capital letters except for acronyms, such as NATO
  • Page numbers should not be included in the final text, as the numbers will change in typesetting
  • Headers and footers should not be used; these cause problems with design

Photographs, Tables, Graphs, and Figures

  • Tables and figures are labeled with the word “Table” and “Figure” written out in full
  • All figures and tables are referenced in the text with the full word
  • All tables, graphs, and figures have titles
  • All graphs have labeled axes, including units
  • Photographs must be submitted as JPEGs and must be a minimum of 300 DPI. No PNGs can be accepted
  • Do not to submit more than 3-4 images per article
  • Assume that all photos, graphs, charts, etc. will be printed in black and white, not color. Therefore, make sure that lines on graphs are discernable in grey scale
  • You must have permission to use photos. The editors will not seek permission, so either use photos that you’ve taken yourself, or obtain permission in writing from the photographer.
  • All photos (and borrowed charts and graphs) must be labeled with a photo credit
  • Graphs, charts, vectors must be a minimum of 150 DPI

Punctuation

  • A single space is used after the period at the end of a sentence
  • Where a slash is used for single-word options (either/or choices) – no spaces appear around the slash
  • Where a slash is used to separate two phrases there are word spaces around the slash
  • A comma is consistently used (or not used) before the final element in a series
  • Compound adjectives are hyphenated
  • Punctuation is located inside quotation marks

Conjunctions and Abbreviations

  • Standard form is used for abbreviations: “i.e.,” “et al.” and “e.g.,” “and”, not “&”

Numbers

  • Numbers under 10 are written out, e.g., “nine” not “9”
  • Ordinal numbers follow the same rule: first, ninth, 10th, 20th etc…

Endnotes

  • Endnote numbers are superscripts located outside the punctuation marks.
  • When a single sentence has two endnotes, the numbers are separated by a superscripted comma.
  • WE DO NOT PUBLISH FOOTNOTES

Biographical and Demystification Paragraphs

  • When thanking mentors and others, include the URA program IF the research was funded, in part, through an Undergraduate Research Award from the UMBC Office of Undergraduate Education
  • Ph.D. and similar abbreviations use periods
  • Seasons are not capitalized. Seasons with years do not use “of,” e.g., “fall 1992” not “fall of 1992”
  • All honors and memberships are referred to by their full, correct names
  • Provide all information in one paragraph without an initial indent
  • Do not put a header on the paragraph
  • Include in the file name “Biography” or “Demystification” and the name of the student
  • Use lower case for the names of the majors except when the major is a language
  • Use formal names for majors, not abbreviations or short-hand names, i.e., “mathematics”, not “math”
  • Where dashes are used, the correct form is used consistently, i.e., em dash, en dash, or hyphen

Remove biographical info. Revise this section to speak only to demystification.

Specifically for the biographical paragraphs:

    • The biography should be 100-150 words in which you state your major(s) and/or minor(s), your graduation date, any affiliation you have with scholarship programs, and 2-3 sentences about your future plans. Also say thank you to anyone you wish to acknowledge (such as your faculty advisor)
    • Write in the third person.
    • Start with the author’s name and major, “David Smith is a biological sciences major….”
    • Where there are two authors, their bios will be provided separately
    • URA scholars acknowledge URA funding

Specifically for demystification paragraphs:

    • The demystification paragraph should describe how you came to study your research topic, and should give a quick introduction to your research project.
    • Limit the paragraph to 200 words
    • Double-space content
    • Write in the first person
    • Vary sentence structure to limit the use of the word I to no more than once in every other sentence

While the following should be obvious when publishing written material, the UMBC Review asks that the authors and editors read again for the following, so that simple language grievances are not made:

Things to look for:

  • General logic
  • Noun-verb agreement
  • Correct formation of plurals and possessives
  • Consistent tense
  • Proper italicizing and capitalizing of scientific words
  • Consistency of capitalization, italicization, etc.
  • Word choice, particular commonly misused words for informal language
  • Parallel construction within sentences and lists