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73-508: APA style (also known as APA format) is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences , including sociology, education, nursing, criminal justice, anthropology, and psychology. It is described in the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA), titled

146-485: A bibliography ). They also deal with research, and are peer reviewed. Meanwhile, trade journals are aimed at people in different fields, focusing on how people in these fields can do their jobs better. They additionally cover information related to work, and include tips and advice for improving performance, but they are not scholarly. Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as students, researchers, and professors. Their intended audience

219-433: A broad way. However, it may be necessary and appropriate in context. If you do use it, avoid 'the marginalized' and don't use marginalized as an adjective." Historically marginalized is sometimes okay; marginalized people is not. From a jumping-off point of a The Lancet quote specifying "bodies with vaginas have been neglected" rather than " cisgender women ," a NLM study claims that rather than mere elaboration to specify

292-432: A discussion of similar research. The materials and methods or experimental section provides specific details of how the research was conducted. The results and discussion section describes the outcome and implications of the research, and the conclusion section places the research in context and describes avenues for further exploration. In addition to the above, some scientific journals such as Science will include

365-423: A gradual move towards a license to publish instead. Under such a system, the publisher has permission to edit, print, and distribute the article commercially, but the authors retain the other rights themselves. Even if they retain the copyright to an article, most journals allow certain rights to their authors. These rights usually include the ability to reuse parts of the paper in the author's future work, and allow

438-415: A journal uses to determine publication can vary widely. Some journals, such as Nature , Science , PNAS , and Physical Review Letters , have a reputation of publishing articles that mark a fundamental breakthrough in their respective fields. In many fields, a formal or informal hierarchy of scientific journals exists; the most prestigious journal in a field tends to be the most selective in terms of

511-495: A language guide that lists words and expression not to use and substitutes for them. Language guides are used by many organizations, especially non-profits (at least in the United States). An important part of communicating in a bias-free manner is by making sure to engaging in meaningful conversations using bias-free language. The writer's word choice is vital in terms of effectively communicating in ways that do not offend

584-458: A memo to limit use of inclusive language. Organizations in the U.S. with equity language guides include The Sierra Club , American Cancer Society , American Heart Association , American Medical Association , National Recreation and Park Association , Columbia University School of Professional Studies , University of Washington . According to George Packer, most of these guides are based on other guides such as A Progressive's Style Guide ,

657-462: A news section where scientific developments (often involving political issues) are described. These articles are often written by science journalists and not by scientists . In addition, some journals will include an editorial section and a section for letters to the editor. While these are articles published within a journal, in general they are not regarded as scientific journal articles because they have not been peer-reviewed. Electronic publishing

730-463: A recognized "APA style". The initial edition went through two revisions: one in 1957, and one in 1967. Subsequent editions were released in 1974, 1983, 1994, 2001, 2009, and 2019. The increasing length of the guidelines and its transformation into a manual have been accompanied by increasingly explicit prescriptions about many aspects of acceptable work. The earliest editions were controlled by a group of field leaders who were behaviorist in orientation and

803-408: A scientific article is citation of earlier work. The impact of articles and journals is often assessed by counting citations ( citation impact ). Some classes are partially devoted to the explication of classic articles, and seminar classes can consist of the presentation by each student of a classic or current paper. Schoolbooks and textbooks have been written usually only on established topics, while

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876-505: A subset of women in order to be more accommodating of people who identify as transgender, this is "desexing language when describing female reproduction" and represents the broader "avoidance of sexed terms" such as "mothers." Hence, engaging in language alteration when the sex of the person is relevant risks "decreasing overall inclusivity; dehumanizing; including people who should be excluded; being imprecise, inaccurate or misleading; and disembodying and undermining breastfeeding." The use of

949-426: A year. In general, this money is used to fund the activities of the scientific societies that run such journals, or is invested in providing further scholarly resources for scientists; thus, the money remains in and benefits the scientific sphere. Despite the transition to electronic publishing, the serials crisis persists. Concerns about cost and open access have led to the creation of free-access journals such as

1022-403: Is a new area of information dissemination . One definition of electronic publishing is in the context of the scientific journal. It is the presentation of scholarly scientific results in only an electronic (non-paper) form. This is from its first write-up, or creation, to its publication or dissemination. The electronic scientific journal is specifically designed to be presented on the internet. It

1095-405: Is defined as not being previously printed material adapted, or retooled, and then delivered electronically. Electronic publishing will likely continue to exist alongside paper publishing for the foreseeable future, since whilst output to a screen is important for browsing and searching, it is not well suited for extensive reading. Formats suitable both for reading on paper, and for manipulation by

1168-628: Is its seventh revision. The APA became involved in journal publishing in 1923. In 1929, an APA committee had a seven-page writer's guide published in the Psychological Bulletin . In 1944, a 32-page guide appeared as an article in the same journal. The first edition of the APA Publication Manual was published in 1952 as a 61-page supplement to the Psychological Bulletin , marking the beginning of

1241-504: Is others in the field (such as students and experts), meaning their content is more advanced and sophisticated than what is found regular publications. They have different purposes, depending on the type. Articles with original research are meant to share it with others in the field, review articles give summaries of research that has already been done, and perspective articles give researchers' views on research that their peers performed. Each article has several different sections, including

1314-419: Is sometimes used to refer to this practice, either as a neutral description by supporters, by commentators in general, or with negative connotations by its opponents. Use of gender-neutral terminology has been controversial in languages where " all grammar is gendered ", such as Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and German; some areas have banned its use. Inclusive language is usually adopted by following

1387-405: Is that while some markets and audiences embrace the new language, others react against it (an example being the alleged " War on Christmas "). Whether businesses and organizations embrace or reject the language, they risk alienating the opposing side. Thus inclusive language has become part of "culture wars". Journalist George Packer makes a number of criticisms of inclusive language as used in

1460-736: Is therefore judged implicitly by the quality of the procedures reported and agreement with the data provided. However, some journals in the field of chemistry such as Inorganic Syntheses and Organic Syntheses require independent reproduction of the results presented as part of the review process. The inability for independent researches to reproduce published results is widespread, with 70% of researchers reporting failure to reproduce another scientist's results, including more than half who report failing to reproduce their own experiments. Sources of irreproducibility vary, including publication of falsified or misrepresented data and poor detailing of procedures. There are several types of journal article;

1533-403: Is wanted, such as physics , the role of the journal at disseminating the latest research has largely been replaced by preprint databases such as arXiv.org . Almost all such articles are eventually published in traditional journals, which still provide an important role in quality control , archiving papers, and establishing scientific credit. Many scientists and librarians have long protested

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1606-612: The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association . The guidelines were developed to aid reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of communication, and for "word choice that best reduces bias in language ". APA style is widely used, either entirely or with modifications, by hundreds of other scientific journals , in many textbooks, and in academia (for papers written in classes). The current edition

1679-637: The Public Library of Science (PLoS) family and partly open or reduced-cost journals such as the Journal of High Energy Physics . However, professional editors still have to be paid, and PLoS still relies heavily on donations from foundations to cover the majority of its operating costs; smaller journals do not often have access to such resources. Based on statistical arguments, it has been shown that electronic publishing online, and to some extent open access , both provide wider dissemination and increase

1752-955: The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the current one, published in October 2019. The goal of the book is to help people become better writers and communicators by promoting clarity, precision, and inclusivity. The manual has new resources for students, including a student title page, student paper formats, and student-related reference formats such as classroom course pack material and classroom website sources. The book also includes new journal article reporting standards for qualitative and mixed methods research in addition to updated standards for quantitative research. The bias-free language guidelines have also been updated to reflect current best practices for talking about people's personal characteristics. The manual addresses accessibility for people with disabilities for

1825-776: The Racial Equity Tools glossary , and others. Several tech companies promotes or provide inclusive language guides: Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM , Cisco Talos , SAP . Inclusive language in English, at least in the United States, goes well beyond gender inclusivity, the following with varying levels or usage. Political correctness and inclusive language both focus on attempting to use neutral terms and expressions to influence psychological and social forces to combat prejudices, stereotypes, etc. However, what may be, and in many cases already has, happened

1898-749: The Royal Society (1660) and the French Academy of Sciences (1666). In 1665, the French Journal des sçavans and the English Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society began systematically publishing research results. Over a thousand, mostly ephemeral , were founded in the 18th century, and the number has increased rapidly since then. Peer review did not begin until the 1970s, and

1971-532: The World Wide Web via hyperlinks that are created 'on-the-fly'. The PDF version of an article is usually seen as the version of record , but the matter is subject to some debate. Electronic counterparts of established print journals already promote and deliver rapid dissemination of peer-reviewed and edited, "published" articles. Other journals, whether spin-offs of established print journals, or created as electronic only, have come into existence promoting

2044-452: The U.S. Packer notes that Boo's book was written in 2012 before the new language guidelines emerged, and worries what the new rules will and are doing to good writing. "Shelf upon shelf of great writing might go the way of 'blind' and 'urban'" (both forbidden in language guideline). "Open Light in August or Invisible Man to any page and see how little would survive." And not only do

2117-488: The academic and research careers of scientists. They are instrumental in keeping researchers informed about the latest developments in their field, supporting the integrity of research through reproducibility and replicability, and influencing the direction of future research endeavors. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, with one estimate from 2012 indicating that there were 28,100 that were active, and many more have been published at various points in

2190-403: The academic landscape. The advent of electronic publishing has further expanded the reach and accessibility of scientific journals, enabling more efficient dissemination and retrieval of information, while also addressing challenges related to cost and copyright . Scientific journals not only contribute to the dissemination and archival of scientific knowledge but also play a critical role in

2263-633: The article as long as no fee is charged. The rise of open access journals, in which the author retains the copyright but must pay a publication charge, such as the Public Library of Science family of journals, is another recent response to copyright concerns. Bias-free communication Inclusive language is a language style that seeks to avoid expressions that its proponents perceive as expressing or implying ideas that are sexist , racist , or otherwise biased , prejudiced , or insulting to particular group(s) of people; and instead uses language intended by its proponents to avoid offense and fulfill

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2336-433: The articles it will select for publication, and usually will also have the highest impact factor . In some countries, journal rankings can be utilized for funding decisions and even evaluation of individual researchers, although they are poorly suited for that purpose. For scientific journals, reproducibility and replicability of the scientific results are core concepts that allow other scientists to check and reproduce

2409-507: The author to distribute a limited number of copies. In the print format, such copies are called reprints; in the electronic format, they are called postprints . Some publishers, for example the American Physical Society , also grant the author the right to post and update the article on the author's or employer's website and on free e-print servers, to grant permission to others to use or reuse figures, and even to reprint

2482-416: The authors are unpaid and receive no compensation from the journal. However, their funding bodies may require them to publish in scientific journals. The paper is submitted to the journal office, where the editor considers the paper for appropriateness, potential scientific impact and novelty. If the journal's editor considers the paper appropriate, the paper is submitted to scholarly peer review . Depending on

2555-440: The average number of citations an article receives. Traditionally, the author of an article was required to transfer the copyright to the journal publisher. Publishers claimed this was necessary in order to protect authors' rights, and to coordinate permissions for reprints or other use. However, many authors, especially those active in the open access movement, found this unsatisfactory, and have used their influence to effect

2628-651: The changes come without any transparent discussion, they come "with a suddenness and frequency that keep the novitiate off-balance". People of color becomes standard usage until the day it is demoted, by the American Heart Association and others, for being too general. The American Cancer Society prefers marginalized to the more "victimizing" underresourced or underserved—but in the National Recreation and Park Association's guide, marginalized now acquires "negative connotations when used in

2701-461: The corrections online for free in a single document on October 1, 2009, and shortly thereafter alerted users to the existence of the corrections in an APA blog entry. These errors attracted significant attention from the scholarly community and nearly two weeks later, on October 13, 2009, the article "Correcting a Style Guide" was published in the online newspaper Inside Higher Ed that included interviews with several individuals, one of whom described

2774-466: The cost for a print subscription, although this may reflect the number of people who will be using the license—while a print subscription is the cost for one person to receive the journal; a site-license can allow thousands of people to gain access. Publications by scholarly societies , also known as not-for-profit-publishers, usually cost less than commercial publishers, but the prices of their scientific journals are still usually several thousand dollars

2847-399: The cost of journals, especially as they see these payments going to large for-profit publishing houses. To allow their researchers online access to journals, many universities purchase site licenses , permitting access from anywhere in the university, and, with appropriate authorization, by university-affiliated users at home or elsewhere. These may be quite expensive, sometimes much more than

2920-407: The data discussed supports the conclusion offered and the implications suggested. Novelty is also key: existing work must be appropriately considered and referenced, and new results improving on the state of the art presented. Reviewers are usually unpaid and not a part of the journal staff—instead, they should be "peers", i.e. researchers in the same field as the paper in question. The standards that

2993-406: The errors as " egregious ". All copies of the printing with errors were soon after recalled in 2009 (including those from major retailers such as Amazon.com) and a new printing correcting all the errors, with a copyright date of 2010, was issued. APA style uses an author–date reference citation system in the text with an accompanying reference list. That means that to cite any reference in a paper,

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3066-491: The exact terminology and definitions vary by field and specific journal, but often include: The formats of journal articles vary, but many follow the general IMRAD scheme recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors . Such articles begin with an abstract , which is a one-to-four-paragraph summary of the paper. The introduction describes the background for the research including

3139-438: The experiment or calculation to verify the results, or so that they could evaluate whatever the research article's findings were. Each such journal article also becomes part of the permanent scientific record. Articles in scientific journals can be used in research and higher education. Scientific articles allow researchers to keep up to date with the developments of their field and direct their own research. An essential part of

3212-506: The feminine and masculine forms of a word used in the masculine when it is used in a generic sense." As of June 2022, the city government of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, banned teachers "from using any gender-neutral words during class and in communications with parents", on the grounds that it "violated the rules of Spanish and stymied students' reading comprehension". At least five organizations, "a mix of gay rights and civil rights groups", have filed lawsuits seeking to overturn"

3285-452: The field and advanced students. In some subjects this is inevitable given the nature of the content. Usually, rigorous rules of scientific writing are enforced by the editors; however, these rules may vary from journal to journal, especially between journals from different publishers. Articles are usually either original articles reporting completely new results or reviews of current literature. There are also scientific publications that bridge

3358-419: The field, journal and paper, the paper is sent to 1–3 reviewers for evaluation before they can be granted permission to publish. Reviewers are expected to check the paper for soundness of its scientific argument, including whether the author(s) are sufficiently acquainted with recent relevant research that bears on their study, whether the data was collected or considered appropriately and reproducibly, and whether

3431-403: The first time. APA worked with accessibility experts to ensure APA style is accessible. For example, the in-text citation format is shortened so that the citations are easier to read for people who, for example, use screen readers or have cognitive disabilities. Running heads are used in papers that follow APA Style. The running head is an abbreviated version of the paper title that is included in

3504-399: The following: Scientific journal articles are not usually read casually like a person would read a magazine. Whereas magazine articles can be read in a more casual manner, reading an article in a scientific periodical requires a lot more concentration. Reading an article in a scientific journal usually entails first reading the title, to see if it was related to the desired topic. If it was,

3577-502: The gap between articles and books by publishing thematic volumes of chapters from different authors. Many journals have a regional focus, specializing in publishing papers from a particular geographic region, like African Invertebrates . In the 17th century, scientists wrote letters to each other, and included scientific ideas with them. Then, in the mid-17th century, scientists began to hold meetings and share their scientific ideas. Eventually, they led to starting organizations, such as

3650-515: The header of professional papers along with the page number. In student papers, the page number is placed in the header but the page title is not, unless otherwise stated by the course instructor or educational institution. The manual has hundreds of reference examples, including formats for audiovisual media, social media, and webpages. There are many sample tables and figures, including basic student-friendly examples such as bar graphs. There are also sample papers for professionals and students. Since

3723-624: The ideals of egalitarianism , social inclusion and equity. Its aim is bias-free communication , that attempts to be equally inclusive of people of all ethnicities , gender identities , sexual orientations , religious affiliations , abilities, and ages by communicating in a way that makes no assumptions about the receiver of such communication. Its supporters argue that language is often used to perpetuate and spread prejudice and that creating intention around using inclusive language can help create more productive, safe, and profitable organizations and societies. The term " political correctness "

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3796-479: The issuing of a new edition only eight years after the fifth edition by pointing to the increased use of online source or online access to academic journals (6th edition, p. XV). The sixth edition is accompanied by a style website as well as the APA Style Blog which answers many common questions from users. Sample papers in the first printing of the sixth edition contained errors. APA staff posted all of

3869-419: The latest research and more obscure topics are only accessible through scientific articles. In a scientific research group or academic department it is usual for the content of current scientific journals to be discussed in journal clubs . Public funding bodies often require the results to be published in scientific journals. Academic credentials for promotion into academic ranks are established in large part by

3942-576: The manual has continued to foster that ideology, even as it has influenced many other fields. According to the American Psychological Association, APA format can make the point of an argument clear and simple to the reader. Particularly influential were the "Guidelines for Nonsexist Language in APA Journals", first published as a modification to the 1974 edition, which provided practical alternatives to sexist language then in common usage. The guidelines for reducing bias in language have been updated over

4015-713: The methodology, the results, a discussion, and references. In addition, formatting of abstracts and title pages must be as per the APA manual of style. Level 2 specifies the style of writing. It must be clear and formal without slang, pop culture references, biased language, and humor. It must minimize literary devices, use technical terms appropriately, and be direct. Level 3 specifies the mechanics such as double-spacing, using title case for headings, using numerals for numbers 10 and above, hyphenating compound adjectives, using in-text citations for sources, left aligning all tables and figures, and using footnotes sparingly. The seventh edition of

4088-450: The most important or most-used titles. There is usually a delay of several months after an article is written before it is published in a journal, making paper journals not an ideal format for announcing the latest research. Many journals now publish the final papers in their electronic version as soon as they are ready, without waiting for the assembly of a complete issue, as is necessary with paper. In many fields in which even greater speed

4161-467: The next step is to read the abstract (or summary or conclusion, if the abstract is missing), to see if the article is worth reading. Then, if it seems like reading it would be worthwhile, the reader would then read the whole article. Publishing research results is an essential part of helping science to advance. If scientists are describing experiments or calculations, they should also explain how they did them so that an independent researcher could repeat

4234-423: The number and impact of scientific articles published. Many doctoral programs allow for thesis by publication , where the candidate is required to publish a certain number of scientific articles. Articles tend to be highly technical, representing the latest theoretical research and experimental results in the field of science covered by the journal. They are often incomprehensible to anyone except for researchers in

4307-663: The past (see list of scientific journals ) . Most journals are highly specialized, although some of the oldest journals such as Science and Nature publish articles and scientific papers across a wide range of scientific fields. Scientific journals contain articles that have been peer reviewed , in an attempt to ensure that articles meet the journal's standards of quality and scientific validity . Although scientific journals are superficially similar to professional magazines (or trade journals), they are actually quite different. Among other things, scientific journals' papers' authors are experts who must cite everything (and have

4380-532: The point is crystal clear and the speaker is trusted. In French, a reference to a mixed-gender group of friends would traditionally be written as "amis", but a gender-neutral variation changed its spelling to "ami·e·s." However, in May 2021, the Minister for Education wrote to schools across the country to say that "so-called 'inclusive' writing should be avoided, which notably uses the midpoint to simultaneously reveal

4453-482: The public fear that the findings of science are not real" (Schmidt & Oh, 2016). In the APA reference list, the writer should provide the author, year, title, and source of the cited work in an alphabetical list of references. If a reference is not cited in the text, it should not be included in the reference list. The reference format varies depending on the document type (e.g., journal article, edited book chapter, blog post, webpage), but broadly speaking always follows

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4526-772: The rapid dissemination capability, and availability, on the Internet. In tandem with this is the speeding up of peer review, copyediting, page makeup, and other steps in the process to support rapid dissemination. Other improvements, benefits and unique values of electronically publishing the scientific journal are easy availability of supplementary materials (data, graphics and video), lower cost, and availability to more people, especially scientists from non-developed countries. Hence, research results from more developed nations are becoming more accessible to scientists from non-developed countries. Moreover, electronic publishing of scientific journals has been accomplished without compromising

4599-462: The reader's computer will need to be integrated. Many journals are electronically available in formats readable on screen via web browsers , as well as in portable document format PDF , suitable for printing and storing on a local desktop or laptop computer. New tools such as JATS and Utopia Documents provide a 'bridge' to the 'web-versions' in that they connect the content in PDF versions directly to

4672-589: The receiver. According to Locker, "Bias-free language is language that is sensitive to people's sex, race, age, physical condition and many other categories. Bias-free language does not discriminate and therefore includes all readers in a fair and friendly manner." Bias exists everywhere, even if it is not always acknowledged. If a verbal or written communication includes any of the following, it may be biased: These sources should be questioned for their bias because it could impact their validity in their points. Therefore, avoiding bias in all communication will ensure that

4745-475: The results under the same conditions described in the paper or at least similar conditions and produce similar results with similar measurements of the same measurand or carried out under changed conditions of measurement. While the ability to reproduce the results based only on details included in the article is expected, verification of reproducibility by a third party is not generally required for publication. The reproducibility of results presented in an article

4818-553: The revision based on published critique; user comments; commissioned reviews; and input from psychologists, nurses, librarians, business leaders, publishing professionals, and APA governance groups. To accomplish these revisions, the Task Force appointed working groups of four to nine members in seven areas: bias-free language , ethics , graphics , Journal Article Reporting Standards, references , statistics , and writing style (APA, 2009, pp. xvii–xviii). The APA explained

4891-701: The ruling. The governor of Buenos Aires province, Axel Kicillof , rejected the authority of the Royal Spanish Academy, citing the Argentine War of Independence as a reason. Darío Villanueva Prieto, from the RAE, clarified that the RAE does not use the slang of Spanish language from the Iberian peninsula, but that it receives input from all countries in the world where the language is spoken. In December 2021, Uruguay's public education agency issued

4964-604: The same pattern of author, date, title, source. If the source is undated, the abbreviation n.d. (no date) is used. Group Author. (year). Title of page . URL Scientific journal As of 2012 , it is estimated that over 28,100 active scientific journals are in publication, covering a broad spectrum of disciplines from the general sciences, as seen in journals like Science and Nature , to highly specialized fields. These journals primarily publish peer-reviewed articles, including original research , review articles , and perspectives , each serving distinct purposes within

5037-407: The seventh edition, APA also provides an APA Style website and APA Style blog to help people with APA style and answer common questions. The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association was in effect from 2009 to 2019, after four years of development. The Publication Manual Revision Task Force of the American Psychological Association established parameters for

5110-411: The standards of the refereed, peer review process. One form is the online equivalent of the conventional paper journal. By 2006, almost all scientific journals have, while retaining their peer-review process, established electronic versions; a number have moved entirely to electronic publication. In a similar manner, most academic libraries buy the electronic version and purchase a paper copy only for

5183-455: The writer should cite the author and year of the work, either by putting both in parentheses separated by a comma (parenthetical citation) or by putting the author in the narrative of the sentence and the year in parentheses (narrative citation). Example narrative citation: Schmidt and Oh (2016) described a fear among the public that the findings of science are not real. Example parenthetical citation: "In our post-factual era, many members of

5256-412: The years and presently provide practical guidance for writing about age, disability, gender, participation in research, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality (APA, 2020, Chapter 5). A typical APA-style research paper fulfills 3 levels of specification. Level 1 states how a research paper must be organized by including a title page, an abstract, an introduction,

5329-407: Was seen as a way of enabling researchers who were not as well-known to have their papers published in journals that were more prestigious. Though it was originally done by mailing copies of papers to reviewers, it is now done online. The authors of scientific articles are active researchers instead of journalists; typically, a graduate student or a researcher writes a paper with a professor. As such,

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