If you visit almost any country in the world, you’ll find someone who uses English well enough to help you during your stay. It’s one of the most predominant languages around the globe, and it’s also the most commonly found language of choice in scientific publishing. But just because it’s popular doesn’t make it “easy” to learn. Those who are new to it, whether they’re learning the rules in elementary school or adults who are approaching it as a second or third language, often find it difficult to determine the rules from the exceptions.

As a researcher, if you’re expected to write up your findings in English for publication, you need to know it like the back of your hand. It gets even tougher, though, since there are capitalization and grammar rules that exist only for scientific research, too! These tips will help you conquer some of the most common grammar rules scientific writers deal with on a regular basis.

English: The Most Common Publishing Language for Scientific Research

In a publish or perish society, this expectation is made even more difficult for those who aren’t native English speakers. The data shows that articles published in English are more likely to be cited by others, regardless of the topic, paper length, publication year, or other factors involved.

It’s possible that this occurs because English articles are usually available to a wider audience. Whatever the reason, many universities and research institutions are stepping up to provide better instructional opportunities for non-native English speakers to learn the language, particularly in natural sciences.

Learning the grammar and mechanics passably isn’t enough for an academic scholar, though. There are many scientific rules that have to be internalized and thoroughly understood to prevent a submitted paper from being rejected.

Capitalizing the Periodic Table

When it comes to capitalizing words, even native English speakers have trouble remembering all the do’s and don’ts. Simple sentence syntax and structure is complicated enough, but when you bring things like chemical compounds and their abbreviations into the paper, it gets even more confusing.

Capitalization of first words is usually a no-brainer. Except in very rare circumstances, the first word of a sentence is always capitalized, even with compounds and chemical elements. The rest of the rules are explained more comprehensively here:

●      Chemical names are never capitalized unless they’re the first word in a sentence. In those instances, you only capitalize the first letter of the syllable, but never the prefix or descriptor. Within the sentence, they are not capitalized at all, although the descriptor may be.

●      Chemical elements are not capitalized inside a sentence unless it’s the symbol. When the symbol is used, the first letter is always capitalized. For instance, aluminum’s chemical symbol would be capitalized as “Al.”

●      In chemical formulas, the first letter of every elemental symbol is capitalized, but the names of the compounds themselves are not, unless they start a sentence. Never mix a word and a symbol in the formula.

●      Amino acids are commonly abbreviated wrongly. The full name is not capitalized unless it starts a sentence. Abbreviations always have the first letter of each element capitalized.

Knowing these rules automatically will help you get your paper written much faster!

Other Grammar Rules You Need to Know

Knocking out the periodic table capitalization rules is a great way to save yourself time and headache. These other grammar rules will help prevent publishing rejections due to mistakes, too:

●      Numbers and units: Never write both of these as one word. Use a space between the number and its unit if they are an adjective/noun combination. Use a hyphen if they are a number-unit modifier.

●      Temperatures always need a space between the number and the unit.

●      Place a space between numbers and the equal sign on both sides of the symbol.

●      Never put a space between a number and the percent symbol.

●      Concentrations, like ratios, do have a space between the number and the unit.

●      Hyphenate compound adjectives and compound numbers

●      Write out numbers less than ten; use numeric form for larger numbers

●      Don’t hyphenate adverb-verb compounds

As with most things in the English language, you might find the occasional exception crops up in your writing and reading. For the most part, though, these grammar rules are consistently true and will help you as you master the language of scientific writing.