In the scientific world, some terms and practices are universal. Look at botanical names that are uniform in all nations for example. I think global standardization should apply to research paper formatting too. It is very challenging and stressful to keep reformatting a research paper to suit each new journal you want to submit to. Some formats are very dissimilar that the effort is sometimes more than writing the paper. I propose the motion that there should be a universal format for all research papers to make it easier on authors and publishers.
I agree that a compromise between design and the quality of the paper must exist.
Not only to attract young people but to captivate older persons. Since life expectancy is increasing, it is very common that an individual will change the course of life in middle age. This is especially true for women who raised their kids and at 35+ decide to go back to school or starting a new career. Universities must be open to late talents. And designing alluring scientific pieces of work can help humankind.
I think it's a nice idea, but since there are several fields of study it might not be practical. It might also undermine creativity and ingenuity. I do agree with you, it is very stressful trying to change the format to different journal requirements.
I think it's a realistic proposition. There can be rules applying to different fields and resources.
Look, reading papers is not a piece of cake even when you love the topic.
Now, design plays a big role in attracting readers.
The parts that could benefit from standardization are the references and formulas. However, each format may have an advantage. I prefer seeing numbers with hyperlinks than a paper citation with surnames and dates. This becomes annoying when the surname is a common one because you may mistake an author by another. I always look at the paper title and, if it is the case, I will look for it.
Formulas pose another problem. Engineers, economists, mathematicians, and physicists have different habits and are used to several types of notations.
Greeks, for instance, tend to be extremely rigorous with formulas and Americans complain a lot about it... Once, I heard from a youngster that "his eyes were bleeding and he needed therapy" after reading a text by a famous researcher.
Contrary to what may look like, there are some practical issues that have to be considered before changing any standard: the cost vs benefit function.
If you change the format of a publication, you may incur in cost. Even an online publication will have to update its platform and this will demand time and man-hours.
When you talk about hardcopies, then this can be even worse.
I agree that a compromise between design and the quality of the paper must exist.
Not only to attract young people but to captivate older persons. Since life expectancy is increasing, it is very common that an individual will change the course of life in middle age. This is especially true for women who raised their kids and at 35+ decide to go back to school or starting a new career. Universities must be open to late talents. And designing alluring scientific pieces of work can help humankind.
When it comes to templates, you can use .dot files and just fill them in.
There are sites like
https://typeset.io/
That offer templates. If you work with EndNote, it may also help.
I have mixed feelings about using software for references because if you work with a group, everybody may not have the same working conditions.
In developing countries machines are expensive now. If you have too much software, you may end up without memory to run the program.
You have raised an important concern, however, in my opinion it is not practical to have a universal format. There is a possibility of having a standardized format within a certain discipline, but different nature of disciplines requires customized formats.
Hi
I think if all journals have same format....energy and time will be saved while publishing our papers in any journal...but i think the credibility and identity of journals will be lost...if any journal has NAAS rating of 8..9 or 12...they must have standardized and customized their format...their peer reviewers and oll....so essential to have all such criterias for maintaining their identity and credibility...
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