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Every journal publishes rules, and most manuscripts break a few of them. Each post takes one rule, quotes its source, and shows the before-and-after redline: citation order, abstract limits, reference styles, author statements. Small rules carry outsized signals, and reviewers read compliance as care. This is the series Waraq's own rule library grew out of.
RULE OF THE WEEK
A reference manager applies one style file to the whole document. When that file was built for a different journal, every entry comes out tidy and every entry can still be wrong. Three common mismatches, and the check.
RULE OF THE WEEK
A passing data availability statement names a repository and an accession number. Why journals query 'data available on request,' what to write when privacy blocks sharing, and how the statement sits beside funding.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Line numbers give reviewer comments an address. What PLOS ONE and Frontiers actually require for spacing and numbering, why the two rules conflict, and the Word and LaTeX settings that take two minutes.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Most journals set a keyword range and their submission form checks it. Here is how to hit the count and choose terms that add reach.
RULE OF THE WEEK
The abstract travels without the paper, so a reference marker inside it points at nothing. What the rule says, why it exists, and rewrite patterns that replace a citation with a claim that stands alone.
RULE OF THE WEEK
A structured abstract is a formatting rule, not a rewrite. The heading sets The Lancet and Frontiers mandate, one abstract re-cut into sections without touching the science, and word budgets when the total stays fixed.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Journals now ask authors to declare generative AI use in writing, figures, and analysis. Here is what the written rules require, and a template you can adapt.
RULE OF THE WEEK
The CRediT taxonomy names 14 contributor roles. Here is what each one covers, who usually claims it, and how to write a statement your co-authors will sign.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Six authors, then et al., at both PLOS ONE and Frontiers in Neurology. The number comes from each journal's reference spec, not from Vancouver or APA, and a reference manager set once formats for the wrong journal.
RULE OF THE WEEK
The two reference systems journals actually enforce, what breaks when you paste APA citations into a Vancouver journal, and how to convert without retyping every entry.
RULE OF THE WEEK
The abstract word limit is a compliance gate, not a style preference. The real numbers at Nature, PLOS ONE, The Lancet and Frontiers, and how to get under them without losing a finding.
RULE OF THE WEEK
One rule, one before-and-after redline. How APA 7.12 handles multiple works in a single parenthetical, and why reviewers notice.