Idiot things that we we do in our papers out of sheer habit

Could not agree more…

Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week

Is there any justification for any of these practices other than tradition?

• Choosing titles that deliberately omit new taxon names.
• Slicing the manuscript to fit an arbitrary length limit.
• Squeezing the narrative into a fixed set of sections (Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion).
• Discarding or combining illustrations to avoid exceding an arbitrary count.
• Flattening illustrations to monochrome.
• Using passive instead of active voice (especially in singular: “we did this” may be acceptable but not “I did this” for some reason).
• Giving the taxonomic authority after first use of each formal name.
• Listing institutional abbreviations at end of the Introduction section, several pages into the paper.
• Using initials for names in the acknowledgements.
• Refusing to cite in-prep papers, dissertations and blogs (while accepting pers. comm.)
• Using numbered citations instead of Author+Date.
• Using journal abbreviations such as “J. Vertebr. Paleontol.” in the references.
• Formatting references
• Having references at all, rather…

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