journalstyle

Journalstyle refers to the set of conventions used by scholarly journals to present articles in a consistent, recognizable format. It covers writing style, manuscript organization, citation and reference formats, figure and table presentation, terminology, units, and the procedural requirements for submission, peer review, and publication.

Most journals prescribe a specific structure, typically including an abstract, keywords, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, and references, along with guidelines for figure captions, table formatting, and ethical disclosures. Language should be clear and precise, with an emphasis on reproducibility and transparency where applicable. References follow a citation system that can be numeric, such as Vancouver, or author-date, such as APA or Chicago. Journals may require their own house style, which can align with a broader guide but imposes particular punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviation rules.

Many journals provide official templates for LaTeX or Word to ensure consistency. Authors commonly use reference management tools to organize citations and generate bibliographies in the required format. Editorial offices, copyeditors, and typesetters apply final polish before publication to ensure adherence to journalstyle.

Disciplines also have specialized conventions; chemistry often uses ACS style, engineering may follow IEEE, and biomedical fields frequently employ Vancouver or AMA guidelines. In the digital era, journalstyle increasingly emphasizes accessibility, data availability statements, ORCID identifiers, and machine-readable metadata.

To follow journalstyle, authors should consult the instructions for authors, use provided templates, adhere to the prescribed citation format, and verify compliance with figures, tables, and ethical disclosures prior to submission.