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JDS Author Instructions
PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT
Title page. Across the top of the title page (first page) indicate a running head (abbreviated title) of 45 characters or less. The running head is centered and all uppercase. Our Industry Today, Hot Topics, and Nucleic Acids Sequences papers serve as their own running heads. Short Communications, Technical Notes, Reviews, and Letters to the Editor use a running head beginning with the appropriate designation (i.e., SHORT COMMUNICATION:) followed by a short title.
The title should be in boldface and is limited to 100 characters. The first letter of each word is capitalized except for short articles and prepositions. The title should contain words or phrases used for indexing the article.
Under the title, names of authors should be typed upper and lowercase (space between initials) and in boldface. Institutional addresses are displayed below the author names; footnotes referring from author names to displayed addresses should be symbols. The full name, mailing address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author should appear directly below the affiliation lines on the title page. The e-mail address of the corresponding author will be identified by a numeric footnote on the first page of the published article. Footnotes (numeric) to the title appear at the bottom of the first page. Supplementary address information may be given in footnotes to the first page; use numerals for footnotes. Acronyms (except USDA) are discouraged unless the acronym is the official name. The state or provincial abbreviation is not included between city and zip code if the state or province is previously mentioned in the address (see example). Authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for acceptable variations in format.
Abstract. Abstracts must be limited to 2,500 keystrokes. The abstract should review important objectives, materials, results, conclusions, and applications as concisely as possible. The abstract disseminates scientific information through abstracting journals and is a convenience for readers. Open the abstract with objectives and make the abstract intelligible without reference to the manuscript. Use complete sentences and standard terms. Limit the use of abbreviations in the Abstract. Refer to the list on the inside front cover of JDS for those terms that should be defined in the abstract. If a term is used less than 3 times in the abstract, it should be spelled out at each use.
Minimize the amount of data in the abstract and exclude statements of statistical probability (e.g., P < 0.05). Exclude references to other work because the abstracts will appear online and in indexing services without the reference list.
Key words. After the abstract, list 2 to 4 key words or phrases; these will be used to create the subject index of JDS. In most instances, these key words should be taken from the title; they should be typed in lowercase letters and separated by commas. Key words should be singular (e.g., “dairy cow” not “dairy cows”).
Abbreviation key. An abbreviation key will no longer appear in JDS articles. Author-derived abbreviations should be defined at first use in the abstract and again in the body of the paper. The abbreviation will be shown in bold type at first use in the body of the manuscript. Common abbreviations, symbols for chemical elements, abbreviations for standard units of measure, or common amino acids need not be defined at first use.
Body of the paper. The body of the paper should contain an introduction to the problem (questions, objectives, reasons for research, and related literature); materials, methods, experimental design, and procedures; and results, discussion, conclusions, and applications.
Headings. Three classes of headings are used within the text of the manuscript. Major headings are centered, uppercase, boldface, and consist of ABSTRACT, INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION (or RESULTS AND DISCUSSION), CONCLUSIONS (heading optional, but statement of conclusions is mandatory), ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (optional), REFERENCES, and APPENDIX (optional).
First subheadings begin at the left margin, the first letter of all important words is capitalized, and the headings are in boldface and italicized.
Second subheadings begin the first line of a paragraph. They are indented, italicized, and boldfaced, and followed by a period. The first letter of all important words is capitalized.
Abbreviations.
Consult scientific style manuals for guidance in forming abbreviations and for lists of the correct forms of many standard abbreviations.
Numbers, Measures, and Mathematics. In 2004, JDS adopted an adaptation of the proposed changes for the number style by the Council of Science Editors for the seventh edition of their Style and Format Guidelines. The greatest change is more widespread use of numerals for single-digit numbers.
Statistical Analyses
Biology should be emphasized, but the use of incorrect or inadequate statistical methods to analyze and interpret biological data is not acceptable. Consultation with a statistician is recommended. The statistical model, classes, blocks, and experimental unit must be designated and adequate references should be provided. Any restrictions used in estimating parameters should be defined. Reference to a statistical package (such as SAS) without reporting the sources of variation (classes) and other salient features of the analysis, such as error terms used, covariance or orthogonal contrasts, is not sufficient. A statement of the results of statistical analysis should justify the interpretations and conclusions.
The experimental unit is the smallest unit to which an individual treatment is imposed. For group-fed animals, the pen or the paddock containing the group of animals is the experimental unit. If individual animals fed as a group are considered by authors to be independent experimental units, this deviation from accepted procedures must be explained and justified. Measurements on the same experimental unit over time are not independent and must not be considered as independent experimental units. For analysis of time effects, use time-sequence analysis.
Usual assumptions are that errors in the statistical models are normally and independently distributed with constant variance, but occasionally this is not the case and data transformations or other techniques are helpful. Most statistical procedures are based on the assumption that experimental units have been assigned to treatments at random. If animals are stratified by ancestry or weight or if some other initial measurement should be accounted for, the model should include a blocking factor, or the initial measurement should be included as a covariate.
Standard designs are adequately described by name and size (e.g., “a randomized complete block design with 6 treatments in 5 blocks”). For a factorial set of treatments, an adequate description might be as follows: “Tryptophan at 0.05 or 0.10% of the diet and niacin at 5, 10, or 20 mg/kg of diet were used in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement in 5 randomized complete blocks, each block consisting of littermates.” Note that a factorial arrangement is not a design; the term “design” refers to the method of grouping experimental units into homogeneous groups or blocks (i.e., the way in which the randomization is restricted). A parameter (mean µ), variance [σ2]), which defines or describes a population, is estimated by a statistic (x, s2). The term parameter is not appropriate to describe a variable, observation, trait, characteristic, or measurement taken in an experiment. Standard deviation refers to the variability in a sample or a population and is the square root of the error variance. The standard error (calculated from error variance) is the estimated sampling error of a statistic such as the sample mean. When a standard deviation or standard error is given, the number of degrees of freedom on which it rests should be specified. When any statistical value (as mean or difference of 2 means) is mentioned, its standard error or confidence limit should be given. They are of value when results from several experiments are combined in the future. They also are useful to the reader as measures of efficiency of experimental techniques. A value attached by “±” to a number implies that the second value is its standard error (not its standard deviation).
For more complex experiments, tables of subclass means and tables of analyses of variance or covariance may be included. When the analysis of variance contains several error terms, such as in split-plot and repeated measures designs, the text should indicate clearly which mean square was used for the denominator of each F statistic. Unbalanced factorial data can present special problems. Accordingly, it is well to state how the computing was done and how the parameters were estimated.
Contrasts (preferably orthogonal) are used to answer specific questions for which the experiment was designed; they should form the basis for comparing treatment means. Nonorthogonal contrasts may be evaluated by Bonferroni t statistics. The exact contrasts tested should be described for the reader. Multiple-range tests are not appropriate when treatments are orthogonally arranged. Fixed-range, pairwise, multiple comparison tests should be used only to compare means of treatments that are unstructured or not related. Adjusted, or population marginal (so-called least squares), means should not be defined as such when they are the same as arithmetic means. This occurs when the design is balanced and does not contain an adjustment for a covariate. In factorial treatment arrangements, means for main effects should be presented when important interactions are not present. Means for individual treatment combinations also should be provided in table or text so that future researchers may combine data from several experiments to detect important interactions. An interaction may not be detected in a given experiment because of a limitation in the number of observations.
The terms “significant” and “highly significant” traditionally have been reserved for P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively. Other probability levels can be discussed if properly qualified so that the reader is not misled, but do not report P values to more than 3 decimals. (Thus, the lowest value would be 0.001.) When available, the exact probability levels (of a Type I or alpha error) should be presented rather than merely P < 0.05 or P < 0.01. Regardless of the probability level used by the authors, failure to reject a hypothesis should be based on the relative consequences of type I and II errors. A “nonsignificant” relationship should not be misinterpreted; it is not evidence that no relationship exists. An inadequate number of experimental units or inadequate control of variation limits the power to define the source of variation. Conducting a test to determine the minimum number of experimental units should be done prior to conducting an experiment. Use of P < 0.05 to indicate nonsignificance should be avoided; readers may interpret this as the probability of a Type II error, not a Type I error. This problem can be avoided by citing the absolute probability of an Type I (alpha) error.
Give only meaningful digits. A practical rule is to round values so that the change caused by rounding is less than one-tenth of the standard error. Such rounding increases the variance of the reported value by less than 1%, so that less than 1% of the relevant information contained in the data is sacrificed. In most cases, 2 or 3 significant digits (not decimal places) are sufficient.
Sensory Data
Sensory data should comply with the “Statement of Policy in the Report of the Committee on Sensory Data to the Journal Management Committee of the American Dairy Science Association, 1986,” Journal of Dairy Science 69:298.
Computer Software
Computer software should conform to the “Report of ADSA Subcommittee on Standards for Publications with Reference to Computer Software,” Journal of Dairy Science 70:209-210.
Nomenclature
Microorganisms. All microorganisms must be named by genus and species. Current names appear in Bergey’s Manual of Systemic Bacteriology, Volume 1 (1984), edited by N. R. Kreig and J. G. Holt; Volume 2 (1986), edited by P. H. A. Sheath, N. S. Mair, M. E. Sharpe, and J. G. Holt; Volume 3 (1989), edited by J. T. Staley, M. P. Bryant, N. Pfeenning, and J. G. Holt; and Volume 4 (1989), edited by S. T. Williams, M. E. Sharpe, and J. G. Holt; Catalogue of Yeasts, 18th ed. (1990) American Type Culture Collection; Ainsworth and Bisby’s Dictionary of the Fungi, Including the Lichens, 8th ed. (1995), edited by D. L. Hawksworth, P. M. Kirk, B. C. Sutton, and D. C. Pegler; and Virus Taxonomy. Seventh Report of the International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses (1999), M. H. V. Van Regenmortal, C. M. Fauquet, D. H. L. Bishop, E. Carstens, M. Estes, S. Lemon, D. McGeoch, R. B. Wicker, M. A. Mayo, C. R. Pringle, and J. Maniloff. These documents should be used to determine the correct names of microorganisms. Also, names of bacteria that have been validated and published in the International Journal of Systemic Bacteriology since Bergey’s Manual was published should be used.
The name of the genus must appear in full the first time that the microorganism is cited in the abstract, in the body of the paper, and in each table and figure legend. Thereafter, the genus can be abbreviated by its first initial unless it will be confused with other microorganisms cited in the paper, in which case each genus should be abbreviated to use enough letters to avoid confusion. The names of all microorganisms should be in italics. Specific strain designations and numbers should be used when appropriate. Authorities are not required.
For microorganisms that are genetic variants of a parent strain, the genotypic and phenotypic properties should be cited according to the procedures described by Demerec et al. (1966) in Genetics 54:61-76. Phenotypes should be identified by 3 letters; the first is capitalized. Genotypes should be identified by 3 lowercase italic letters. Superscript plus (+) signs are used to refer to a wild-type. The serial isolation number is placed after the locus symbol for mutations. The delta symbol is used to indicate deletions. Nomenclature for bacterial plasmids should be cited according to Novick et al. (1976) in Bacteriological Reviews 40:168-189.
Enzymes.
Mention of an enzyme should include the EC number.
Animal Care and Use
All research animals should be acquired, retained, and used in compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Authors should explicitly state that experiments were conducted in a manner that avoided unnecessary discomfort to the animals by the use of proper management and laboratory techniques. The manuscript should state that the experiment was conducted under IACUC (or equivalent) approval. Experiments should be conducted in accordance with the principles and specific guidelines presented in Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Agricultural Research and Teaching (available from Federation of Animal Science Societies, 1111 N. Dunlap Ave., Savoy, IL 61874). Methods of killing experimental animals must be described in the text. In describing surgical procedures, the type and dosage of the anesthetic agent must be specified.
Commercial Products
The use of names of commercial products should be minimized. When a commercial product is being tested as part of the experiment, the manufacturer and location (or web site address) should be given parenthetically at first mention in text, tables, and figures, but, when possible, the generic name should be used thereafter. Trademark symbols and registration marks should not be used and will be removed.
Avoid describing a method as "per manufacturer’s instructions." If the product goes out of production, the method will be lost to readers. Many products come with literature references; try to use references that can be found by other researchers to describe a method being used.
Miscellaneous Style and Format Notes
Footnote numbers should follow punctuation.
Do not use italics for common foreign words and phrases (e.g., in vivo, ad libitum, a priori).
Indicate probability with a capital italic P and space around signs of operation (e.g., P < 0.05).
Use only one slant line in a given expression (e.g., 2.3 kg/d per cow).
Consult standard dictionaries and writing manuals for detailed instructions on prose style. The editorial staff at ADSA headquarters uses Webster’s 11th New Collegiate Dictionary (2003) as a primary source for spelling of common terms.
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