RULE OF THE WEEK
Preprints and Unpublished Work: What Belongs in Your Reference List.
The line journals draw between the reference list and an in-text mention, why a submitted paper is not a citation, and how a DOI moves a preprint across it.
Rule of the week.
Blog
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
When journals require an ORCID iD, and who has to have one.
The corresponding author almost always needs one now. A smaller set of publishers require an iD from everyone on the paper, and you want to know which before deadline day.
RULE OF THE WEEK
The footnote ban: where journals want that text to go instead.
The footnote is a humanities habit, and many science templates have no slot for it. Where an aside, a citation, a permission note, and a funding remark each belong once footnotes are prohibited.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Heading levels: PLOS ONE allows three, Frontiers allows five.
Heading depth is a journal-specific rule, not a matter of taste. The real numbers at PLOS ONE and Frontiers in Neurology, and three ways to flatten a four-level outline without losing the argument.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Figure and Table Placement Is a Written Rule, Not a Guess.
PLOS ONE writes down where figures and tables belong. Here is what the placement rule says, what stays in the text, and why images upload separately.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Why Zotero's output can still fail the journal's own rule.
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
Data availability statements: the sentence journals push back on.
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, page numbers, double spacing: what journals actually require.
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
Journal Keyword Rules: How Many to Pick, and Which Ones.
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
Citations in the abstract: why journals say no and what to write instead.
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
Structured abstracts: which journals require headings, and what they want.
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
AI Disclosure Rules: What Journals Ask You to Declare About ChatGPT Use.
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
CRediT Author Contributions: Assigning the 14 Roles Without a Lab Dispute.
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
The et al. cutoff: six authors is a journal rule, not a style default.
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
Vancouver vs APA: Numbered by Appearance or Alphabetical by Author.
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
Abstract word limits: Nature caps you at 150, PLOS ONE allows 300.
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
Rule of the week: APA 7.12, in-text citations.
One rule, one before-and-after redline. How APA 7.12 handles multiple works in a single parenthetical, and why reviewers notice.