Writing and submitting your manuscript
Technical writing
Technical papers differ from other expository compositions. When a scientist reads a journal article, she expects to see specific things in specific places: an abstract, enough information to replicate or evaluate the experimental approach, a summary and interpretation of the data, and references.
Manuscripts submitted for the NMJAS competition should be publication-ready for the New Mexico Journal of Science, with standard margins and fonts, using Microsoft Word. The general formatting is: Times New Roman 12pt font; single spaced; left aligned; 1″ margins; and numbered pages. References and text citations use the American Chemical Society (ACS) format.
To familiarize you with these journal articles, a student should scan (or read) several published articles.
Specific requirements for NMJAS
The submitted winning paper for the 2021 NMJAS competition is used below to demonstrate specific requirements. If you have any problem meeting these requirements, please contact your regional director as soon as possible.
The formatting requirements were last revised in 2022 to match those of the NM Journal of Science. The policy on use of AI was added in October 2026:
You may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a project resource; but it must be used ethically, be cited, and given proper acknowledgement.
- You may use AI as a research tool to identify background information such as previous research, datasets, methods, and algorithms. You are responsible for verifying the validity of the source of this information.
- You may use AI as an editing tool to improve grammar, sentence structure, and overall clarity, or to find errors or adhere to word limits. However, the final products submitted must be in your own words.
- You may not use AI in the generative mode to create original content such as text or images, experimental methods or protocols, data generation or analysis, or computer code.
- In acknowledging AI assistance, describe which AI tool was used, how you used it, and the prompts that you used so that the output can be reproduced.
Cover sheet
The cover sheet includes contact information and is separate from the manuscript itself.
- Title of paper
- Division (junior or senior)
- Student name, home address, phone, email
- School name, address
- Sponsor name, address, phone, email
Formatting: Times New Roman 12pt font; single spaced; left aligned; 1″ margins
Title page
This page should include only the following
TITLE OF PAPER (capitalized, left aligned)
Author’s name
ABSTRACT (capitalized, left aligned)
200 words or less, sentence case. Define the problem, describe the methods used, summarize results, state the conclusions.
Author’s email
Author’s school and city/town
General formatting throughout: Times New Roman 12pt font; single spaced; left aligned; 1″ margins; page numbers at bottom right
Manuscript body
There is a 4,500 word limit to the body.
The body includes 4 major sections:
- Introduction. Describe previous works, background information, state the problem or question, and the goals. Give appropriate credit for others’ work.
- Methods. Describe what you did, what materials and equipment you used. Describe the work so someone else could replicate it.
- Results. Describe what happened. Data should be summarized (raw data can be included as an appendix). Display and analyze your data using appropriate graphs, tables, or descriptions. Label graphs, tables and other graphic elements appropriately. Conclusions go in the Discussion section.
- Discussion/Conclusions. Describe your conclusions (even the obvious ones) and, if appropriate, discuss suggestions or implications for further work.
Capitalize the title of each section.
References within the body of the paper: includes simple reference enclosed in parentheses – author’s last name and date. For example, To ensure the accuracy of results, models must be validated with data from the real system (Gotelli, 2008). A full citation will be included at the end of the paper.
Appendices
You may include raw data and supplementary material. This section is not included in your 4,500-word limit.
Acknowledgments & References
Acknowledgements
Thank individuals who have helped you in any way with your project.
AI references
Specify the AI tool used, its version, the manufacturer, and the date of use. Describe the task performed, the specific prompt(s) used, and summarize how the output was incorporated into your work.
Literature references
List the complete information about each reference you cited in the body of the paper in alphabetical order by author.
Citations should be consistent with the style guide for the New Mexico Journal of Science, which uses the author-date format option from the American Chemical Society. The general format is «Authors». «Publication>, «Date» , «Volume/page».
Several examples are below.
For scientific papers: Foster, J. C.; Varlas, S.; Couturaud, B.; Coe, J.; O’Reilly, R. K. Getting into Shape: Reflections on a New Generation of Cylindrical Nanostructures’ Self-Assembly Using Polymer Building Block. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141 (7), 2742−2753. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b08648.
For a book: Bard, A. J.; Faulkner, L. R. Double-Layer Structure and Absorption. In Electrochemical Methods: Fundamentals and Applications, 2nd ed.; John Wiley & Sons, 2001; pp 534−579.
For a newspaper article: McKay, D. 2000. Arsenic: how much is safe? Albuquerque Journal. July 30, 2000, p. A1.
For a web site: ACS Publications Home Page. https://pubs.acs.org/ (accessed 2019-02-21).
There are always special and odd references such as interviews and dictionary entries. For a complete guide to this author-date style of references, see the ACS Quick Style Guide.
Submitting your paper
If you have specific problems such as not being able to insert formulas or format tables, contact your regional director.
When your paper is complete, review the manuscript checklist one more time. Your paper will be judged according to a uniform manuscript judging form.
The registration and submission deadlines are:
San Juan – February 15
Northeast – March 7
Four Corners – March 2
Central – March 2
Southern – TBD
You may upload your manuscript directly or send it electronically to your regional director.
Additional resources
Formatting Rules for Technical Papers (pdf version of this page, with additional notes)
Author Guidelines (for NM Journal of Science)
If you have never written a technical paper, you will find more information and guidelines through the links below. Although these guidelines are mostly intended for college students, they still may contain useful advice.
David Caprette, Rice University, Writing Research Papers – simple advice
Ecological Society of America: Scientific Writing Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Undergraduate Writing in the Biological Sciences – medium complexity; here is a pdf of the journal article
SciTable: English Communication for Scientists, Unit 2: Writing Scientific Papers – very detailed, with discussions on language and composition
PLOS: How to write a scientific paper in fifteen steps – detailed; you can download a pdf through this link
Elsevier: 11 steps to structuring a science paper editors will take seriously – this is fairly extensive, but has good advice for formatting figures and graphs
National Library of Medicine: How to Write Your First Research Paper – very detailed, intended for professional submissions; here is a pdf
SPIE: How to write a good scientific paper – this is a 100+ page book as a pdf
Barbara Gastel and Robert A. Day: How to write and publish a scientific paper – this is a 300+ page book as a pdf
Last revised: October 2025