1) Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural

Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada

2) Editor and Advisory Board CLEAN-Soil, Air, Water (International
Journal of Sustainability and Environmental Safety published by
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany)
1. Need to Sharing, Communicate, and Exchange of Ideas

Research is meaningless if the results are not shared

with and communicated to the scientific community
Scientific journal is one of the media through which
scientists exchange scientific and professional
knowledge
Information published in the journals forms an archival
record showing the scientific advancement of the
society in general
2. Writing Preparation

The content and the organization of a scientific paper

reflect the logical thinking in scientific investigation, and
the preparation of a scientific paper for journal is an
integral part of the individual research effort

Before preparing a scientific paper, an author should

evaluate his/her research outcomes and judge that they
give an important contribution to the field

The writing process initially requires a thorough review

and evaluation of previous related work in the literature,
which helps the author in acquainting whether his/her
idea is truly new and significant
3) Type of Publication for

(i) Research articles (Full Papers) consist of experimental and

theoretical work with new results describing completed studies
and should comprise about 28 000 characters (including
spaces). In addition, up to 8 figures or schemes, and 6 tables
may be included.
(ii) Communications describing results that are brief, timely and/or
of such importance that rapid release is warranted. These
manuscripts should be in the range of 18 000 characters
(including spaces) and 6 figures.
(iii) Review articles summarize information published on a certain
topic and are not limited to own results. Rather than an
assemblage of information with a complete literature survey, a
comprehensive critical description and selection of the material
is indispensable. These contributions should typically not
exceed 45 000 characters (including spaces); up to 15 figures
may be included.
The aim of this communication

Maximizing the probability of a research paper to

be accepted in international scientific publication
(journal) without neglecting the ethics of writing.

Ethics of writing scientific paper as a part of all

issues of ethics, should be developed base on the
basic moral principles.
Basic Moral Principles

Respect for others (person)

autonomy, dignity, integrity, privacy, self-
determination.
Beneficence
maximizing - benefits,
minimizing-risk, and
non-malfeasance/ do no harm
Justice
treat others (person) properly and is
accordance with what is morally right .
1. Not reporting contradiction observations
Different result from the original, it is in ethical not to
report it (kind of discrepancy).

2. Not reporting others related or contradicting work

Honest scholar would be ashamed to omit the
reference (s).
3. Changing hypothesis for the paper

Scientist is a good guesser.

Only data collected to test a hypothesis may be used
to support it.
Authors, commonly, dislike reporting a negative
result, editor dislike publishing them.
4. Violence the integrity of authorship

Authorship should be restricted to those who

designed the study, supervised the process of
data collecting and analyzing, responsible for the
content of the manuscripts.
Students or research assistants who work, credits
should be rewarded.
Students could be the first author.
5. Concluding cause and effect when only
correlation is demonstrated
Ethical behavior demands that the difference between
causation and correlation have to be acknowledged

6. Writing an abstract with no data

Abstract shows overall in brief.
Abstract shows and describes the overall but say
nothing about result, is clearly unethical.
7. Publishing the same data/result many time

Publish exactly the same paper in the two/more

different journals.
Data are published in series of articles/ piecemeal
not all together.
Parcel it into small units.

8. Subjective discussion
Ego of authors should be eliminated.
In comparing with the other similar studies should
be carried out ethically
9. Using the property of someone else without
permission
Illustrations, photos, and/or data are used under
permission of the owner.

10. Using data of someone else to draw conclusion

Use your own findings (data) to develop conclusion

11. Inappropriate acknowledgement

Acknowledgement should be delivered to all parties
who have right for that credits, e.g. to funding
agency and technicians, and also to research
participants.
1. General Style For Tenses

a) Present Tense
To report evidences as background that are already
established
b) Future Tense
To mention work that will be done
 Example:

Realizing the above disadvantage of alum as a coagulant,

this study reports the performance of Mg/Al layered double
hydroxides (Mg/Al LDH) as removal agents for dissolved
HA and FA from aqueous solution. As a layered double
Present hydroxide anionic material, Mg/Al LDH employs its net
positive charge to attract negatively charged HA and FA.
Among the functional groups possessed by HA and FA,
carboxyl is the main functional group responsible for the
negative charge [11]. The Mg/Al LDH will be synthesized
through direct precipitation of the mixed solution of
Future Mg(NO3)2 and Al(NO3)3 in alkaline solution as performed
for Zn/Al LDH by Santosa et al. [12] and Xie et al. [13].

(Source: Santosa and Kunarti, Water Quality: Physical, Chemical and

Biological Characteristics, 2010)
c) Past Tense
To describe results and finding of a specific experiment of
especially your own

Example (Source: Santosa , Clean, 2013):

The concentrations of both Cd(II) and
dissolved HA-Cd(II) decreased with
increasing contact time and became
relatively constant at contact times of
more than 50 and 100 min for Cd(II)
and dissolved HA-Cd(II), respectively
(Fig. 2). On the other hand, the
concentration of solid HA-Cd(II)
continuously increased with
Fig. 2 The distribution of Cd(II) species in
increasing contact time and reached aqueous solution of Cd(II) containing HA
a maximum level at contact times of at pH 6.3 at various contact times.
more than 100 min.
2. Typical Captioning in a scientific paper
I. Title
II. Authors Names and Affiliations
III. Abstract or Synopsis
IV. Keywords
V. Body of Main Text
Introduction
Experimental or procedure (this may involve laboratory
investigations and/or field investigations)
Analytical investigation (this may involve development of
models and or verification of existing procedures)
Results
Discussion
Summary or Conclusions
VI. Acknowledgments
VII. List of Notations, Definitions, and Symbols
VIII. References
I. Title (Cargill and OConnor, 2009)
Clearly indicates the content of the paper. It can be
achieved in various ways such as:

a. Provide as much relevant information as possible, but

concise

b. Decide keywords which will capture the attention of

readers and place them near the front of the title.
Please examine
(x) The Use of Chitin-Humic Acid Hybrid to Adsorb
Cr(III) in Effluent of Tannery Wastewater
Treatment
(O) Chitin-Humic Acid Hybrid as Adsorbent for
Cr(III) in Effluent of Tannery Wastewater
Treatment (Source: Santosa et al., Appl. Surf.
Sci., 2008)
c. Choose strategic noun phrase which are
unambiguous . Please examine

Food for dogs and dog food

disturbance by herbivores and herbivore
disturbance
nodules on soybean roots and soybean root
nodules
Example :

Mechanism of the Removal of AuCl4- Ions from

Aqueous Solution by Means of Peat Soil Humin
(Source: Santosa et al., Ads. Sci. Technol., 2011)

High Performance Mg/Al Layered Double Hydroxide

Anionic Clay for Effective Removal of Dissolved
Humic and Fulvic Acids (Source: Santosa and Kunarti,
Water Quality: Physical, Chemical and Biological
Characteristics, 2010)

Synthesis and Utilization of Chitin-Humic Acid Hybrid

as Sorbent for Cr(III) (Source: Santosa et al., Surf.
Sci., 2007a)
Arsenic and Selenium Species Behavior during
Microwave-Assisted Conversion to Their Volatile
Hydride Forming Species (Source: Santosa, Anal. Sci.,
2001)
II. Author

Authorship should be restricted to those who

designed the study, supervised the process of
data collecting and analyzing, responsible for the
content of the manuscripts.
Students or research assistants who work, credits
should be rewarded.
Students could be the first author.

Examples:
1. Sri Juari Santosa, Dwi Siswanta, and Jumadi (Source: J. Ion
Exchange, 21(3), 206-211, 2010)
2. Uripto Trisno Santoso, Sri Juari Santosa, Bambang Rusdiarso,
and Dwi Siswanta (Source: Res. J. Chem. Environ., 15(2), 683-
689, 2011)
III. Abstract

Shows overall in brief

Is briefly present:
background information,
the principal activity or purpose
methods or experimental design,
a summary of observation and results
important conclusion(s) and/or recommendation
 Example (Source: Santosa et al., Surf. Sci., 2007b):
Hybrid of humic acid (HA) and chitin has been synthesized and the hybrid material (Chitin-HA)
Backg. was then applied as sorbent to adsorb Ni(II). The HA was extracted from peat soil of Gambut
Distric, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, according to the procedure recommended by IHSS
(International Humic Substances Society). The chitin was isolated from crab shell waste of sea
food restaurants through deproteination using NaOH 3.5 %(w/v) and followed by removal of
inorganic impurities using HCl 1 M. The synthesis of Chitin-HA was performed by reacting
gelatinous chitin solution in HCl 0.5 M and HA solution in NaOH 0.5 M. Parameters investigated
Act. & in this work consists of effect of medium acidity on the sorption, sorption rate (ks) and
desorption rate (kd) constants, Langmuir (monolayer) and Freundlich (multilayer) sorption
methods
capacities, and energy (E) of sorption. The ks and kd were determined according to a kinetic
model of first order sorption reaching equilibrium, Monolayer sorption capacity (b) and energy
(E) were determined according to the Langmuir isotherm model, and multilayer sorption
capacity (Q) was determined based on the Freundlich isotherm model.
Sorption of Ni(II) on both chitin and Chitin-HA was maximum at pH 8.0. The proposed kinetic
model has been shown to be more applicable than the pseudo first order sorption model. The
application of the proposed model revealed that the presence of HA increased the ks from
0.018 min-1 for chitin to 0.031 min-1 for Chitin-HA. As for ks, the value of b was also bigger in
the presence of HA, i.e. 7.42 x 10-5 mol/g for chitin and 9.93 x 10-5 mol/g for the Chitin-HA.
Unlike ks and b, the value of E slightly decreased from 23.23 to 21.51 kJ/mol for the absence
Results and presence of HA, respectively. It can also be deduced that the presence of HA on chitin
contributed more to the additional layer of Ni(II) sorbed on sorbent. Without HA, Q for chitin
was only 6.17 times higher than b, while with the presence of HA, the enhancement of the
sorption capacity from the multilayer (Q) to the monolayer (b) was 19.40. The increase of ks, b,
Q, and the decrease of E would be very benefit in the real application of Chitin-HA for the
recovery of Ni(II) from aqueous samples.
Recomd.
IV. Keywords

Important words or phrases for the purpose of

indexing and compiling subject index

Example:
1. Chitin, chitin-humic acid hybrid, Ni(II), sorption,
desorption (Source: Santosa et al., Surf. Sci.,
2007b)
2. Recovery, Cr(III), chitin-humic acid, continuous
system, tannery wastewater (Source: Santosa
et al., Advances in Environmental Research,
2012)
3. Cd(II); humic acid; humic acid-complexed
Cd(II); kinetics; sorption (Source: Santosa,
Clean, 2013)
V. Body of Main Text

V.1 Introduction

It is particularly important to answer the following

question:

Is the contribution new?

Is the contribution significant?
Is it suitable for publication?
Five stages to a compelling introduction (Cargill and
OConnor, 2009)

Fig. Five stages of an introduction to a science research article

(after Weisberg & Buker, 1990)
 Example (Source: Santosa et al., J. Ion Exchange, 2007):
Chlorine is the most common disinfecting agent used in
drinking water treatment in many countries in the world [1].
Stage Although chlorine possesses residual disinfectant activity, but it
1 reacts with naturally occurring organic compounds in the raw
water of the drinking water to form toxic trihalomethanes [2].
Prolong consumption of chlorinated drinking water containing
trihalomethanes increases risk of colon, rectal, and bladder
cancers [3]. This is why that the concentration of
trihalomathanes in drinking water of many developed countries
is now tightly regulated. In the USA, the permissible
Stage concentration of trihalomethanes set by the American
2 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was 100 g/L [4] and
then lowered to 80 g/L [5]. For Korea and European Union,
the permissible concentration is still 100 g/L [6,7]. For other
countries, the permissible concentration is recommended to be
100 g/L [1].
 Natural organic compound that is commonly found and abundant in
soil, sediments, surface and ground waters, as well as in marine aquatic
environment is primarily consisted of humic substances [8]. These
substances occupy 70 80% of organic material in nearly all-mineral soils
[9]. Humic substances can be fractionated into 3 fractions, i.e. (i) humic
acid (HA), fraction of insoluble humic substances in acidic water (pH < 2),
Stage but soluble in water having higher pH, (ii) fulvic acid (FA), fraction of humic
2 substances soluble in all pH range, and (iii) humin, fraction of humic
substances that are insoluble in in all pH conditions [10].
Since HA is dissolved at pH > 2.0 and FA soluble at any pH value,
both acids are ubiquitously spread out in any natural water. Indeed, soluble
natural organic compounds in natural water are mostly FA and HA [10].
Presently, alum Al2(SO4)318 H2O is frequently used as coagulant for
removing the organic compounds. The amount of alum added must,
however, be controlled carefully so as not to leave significant amounts of
toxic aluminum in the water. As a result, the use of alum becomes more
inappropriate for raw water enriching natural organic compounds such as
Stage FA and HA. Moreover, the use of alum results precipitate that settles very
3 slowly and therefore secondary settling tank is essentially important as an
integral part of the coagulant treatment.
 Realizing the above disadvantages of alum as a coagulant, this
study reports the performance of Mg/Al layered double
hydroxides (Mg/Al LDH) as removal agents for dissolved HA
and FA from aqueous solution. As a layered double hydroxide
Stage anionic material, Mg/Al LDH employs its net positive charge to
4 attract negatively charged HA and FA. Among the functional
groups possessed by HA and FA, carboxyl is the main
functional group responsible for the negative charge [11]. The
Mg/Al LDH will be synthesized through direct precipitation of
the mixed solution of Mg(NO3)2 and Al(NO3)3 in alkaline solution
as performed for Zn/Al LDH by Santosa et al. [12] and Xie et
al. [13]. The performance of the LDH will be evaluated in term
of its capacity, stability, and rate of sorption for both dissolved
Stage HA and FA. Capacity and stability of sorption are tried to be
5 determined based on the Langmuir isotherm model, while the
rate of sorption is calculated according to the assumption that
the sorption obeys first order reaching equilibrium[14].
V.2 Experimental

1. State all materials and methods used

2. Describe important procedure(s)
3. Report methods in chronological order in a
narrative form
4. It is usually more effective to present them under
subheadings devoted to specific. In most case,
use identical or similar to subheadings in
Experiment and Results
Use Active or Passive Verbs in Experimental Section

1. It is recommended to use active voice verbs instead of

passive voice verbs.

Active verbs make the writing more direct and less

wordy
Example:
The toxin polluted the food
The food was polluted by the toxin

We is frequently used as personal pronoun subject

Example:
We collected the sample for as long as three
years
2. Passive voice may be the option in case:
the information of who or what carried out the
action is unimportant
Example:
The researchers collected data from all sites
daily
Data were collected daily from all sites
It sounds repetitive or immodest to use personal
pronoun subject
Example:
We employed Langmuir isotherm model to
determine sorption capacity
Langmuir isotherm model was employed to
determine sorption capacity
Notes in Using Active Voice in Experimental Section

It is very uncommon to use I as personal pronoun

subject in single-authored paper

Example:
I employed Langmuir isotherm model to determine
sorption capacity
Notes in Using Passive Voice in Experimental Section

To make our writing easier to be understood, take

particular care not to write sentences with very long
subject and a short passive verb right at the end

Example:
Brown coal and peat soil collected from Rawa Pening,
as well as crab shell waste collected at traditional
market in Semarang, were used
Three samples were used, i.e. brown coal and peat
soil collected from Rawa Pening, and crab shell waste
collected at traditional market in Semarang
Example of Experimental Section

2. Experimental (Source: Santosa and Kunarti, Water Quality:

Physical, Chemical and Biological Characteristics, 2010)
2.1. Materials
Mg/Al LDH was prepared by adding drop-wise of
decarbonated NaOH 0.5M into a decarbonated solution containing ...

2.2. Procedures
2.2.1. Stability of Mg/Al LDH
One hundred milligrams of Mg/Al LDH was added to a series
of 50 mL of decarbonated destilled water and the acidity

2.2.2. Effect of medium acidity on the sorption

A series of 50 mL of HA 150 mg/L was prepared and their
acidity was adjusted to pH 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 13 by using

2.2.3. Effect of interaction time on the sorption

Experiment s were carried out using a batch-type reactor of a
50 mL Erlenmeyer in a water bath at .
V.3 Results and Discussion
Do not present the raw data unless they are needed to
give evidence for specific conclusions which can not be
obtained by looking at an analysis
Present the data in a converted form such as in the form
of figures (graphs), tables, and/or description of
observation
Describe the relationship of each section of converted data
to the overall study
Interpret the data in the discussion
Decide whether each hypothesis is supported, rejected, or
cannot be decided with confidence
Distinguish data generated by our own studies from
published information
Use past tense to work done by specific individuals
(including ourselves)
Use present tense to general accepted facts and
principles
Examples:
1. Figure

Figure 1. Effect of medium acidity on the stability of Mg/Al LDH and

that on the sorption of humic acid (HA) and fulvic acid (FA) on Mg/Al
LDH (Source: Santosa and Kunarti, Water Quality: Physical, Chemical
and Biological Characteristics, 2010)
2. Table

Table 2 Capacity (b), affinity (K), and energy (E) for the sorption of
humic acid (HA) and fulvic acid (FA) on Mg/Al LDH

Sorption parameters
Sorbed species
b (10-4 mol/g) K (mol/L)-1 E* (kJ/mol) R2
HA 1.17 91972 28.32 0.9918
FA 8.46 9701 22.74 0.9473

*E = RT ln K

(Source: Santosa and Kunarti, Water Quality: Physical, Chemical and

Biological Characteristics, 2010)
3. Work done by Specific Individuals (Including
Ourselves)
The sorption profile of HA and FA on Mg/Al LDH as a
function of their concentrations at equilibrium is given in
Figure 4. The sorption was non-linear, abruptly increased
at low level of equilibrium concentration of HA from 0 to
0.04 mmol/L and then followed by small increased and
continued to relatively constant at higher equilibrium
concentration of HA.

4. General Accepted Facts and Principles

At high medium acidity (low pH), the hydroxide groups in
the Mg/Al LDH are protonated, their bonds to Mg and Al
are broken and therefore the dissolution of metal cations
occurs.

(Source: Santosa and Kunarti, Water Quality: Physical, Chemical and

Biological Characteristics, 2010)
V.4 Summary or Conclusions

State the important finding and results

Describe the advantage and disadvantage of the
approach used
Enlist the remaining unanswered question(s)
Explain the presence of any new approach to further
address the main question
Do not repeat the abstract
Use past tense in common
Example
Mg/Al LDH was successfully able to be synthesized from its
precursor Mg(NO3)2 and Al(NO3)3 through precipitation at pH 10.1.
The synthesized Mg/Al LDH had basal spacing 7.67 with nitrate
and carbonate as the main anions in the interlayer space. The
application of the synthesized LDH for the sorption of HA and FA
only yielded very small basal spacing expansions, i.e. 0.02 and 0.08
, respectively. Therefore, the sorption of both FA and especially
HA was prefer to occur mainly on the outer surface through first
order sorption reaching equilibrium with relatively high sorption rate
constant of 5.50 x 10-3 min-1 for HA and 6.72 x 10-3 min-1 for FA.
The more ability of FA to intercalate into the interlayer of Mg/Al
LDH should be supported by its smaller in size than HA, but this
ability could not be maximized due to the significantly lower sorption
energy. With the sorption capacity of 1.17 x 10-4 mol/g (69 mg/g)
for HA and 8.46 x 10-4 mol/g (182 mg/g) for FA, the Mg/Al LDH
became as one of the most effective sorbents for those two organic
compounds.
(Source: Santosa and Kunarti, Water Quality: Physical, Chemical and
Biological Characteristics, 2010)
VI. Acknowledgments

Contain information regarding:

Funding sources
Individuals helping the execution of experiment,
data analysis, etc.
Individuals providing research facility, materials, etc.

VII. List of Notations, Definitions, and Symbols

Contain list of notation, definitions, and symbols

especially the nonstandard of them
Example of Acknowledgments

The first author would like to acknowledge the financial

supports from the International Foundation of Science
(IFS) Sweden, through the Research Grant No.
W/3552-3 (December 19, 2008) and Fundamental
Research Program No. LPPM-UGM/749/BID.I/2011
(April 14, 2011) provided by Universitas Gadjah Mada,
Indonesia.

(Source: Santosa et al., Advances in Environmental

Research, 2012)
VIII. REFERENCES

List the references cited in the body of the paper !!!

Book:
Cargill, M. and OConnor, P. (2009). Writing Scientific Research Articles :
Strategy and Steps, Wiley-Blackwell, Chicester, UK.
Chapter in a book:
Santosa, S.J. and Kunarti, E. (2010). High Performance Mg/Al Layered Double
Hydroxide Anionic Clay for Effective Removal of Dissolved Humic and Fulvic
Acids, In Water Quality: Physical, Chemical and Biological Characteristics
(Eds. K. Ertuo and I. Mirza), Nova Science Publishers Inc., New York, Chap. 7,
187-200.
Journal:
Santosa, S. J., Siswanta, D., Kurniawan, A. & Rahmanto, W. H. (2007b). J.
Surf. Sci., 602, 5155.
Journal in press:
Santosa, S.J., Siswanta, D., Sudiono, S., and Utarianingrum, R. (2011). App.
Surf. Sci., in press (doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2011.02.103)
Online source:
International Humic Substances Society, http://www.ihss.gatech.edu/.
1. Units and Symbols
The use of SI Unit is generally mandatory
Nomenclature and symbols as recommended by
ASTM and IUPAC are generally accepted

2. Abbreviations
Standard abbreviations should be used throughout
the paper including title and keywords
Nonstandard abbreviations should be define when
first used in the abstract as well as in the body of the
paper
Abbreviations should be restricted to a minimum and
be introduced only when repeated use in forthcoming
Abbreviation used only in a table or a figure may be
defined in the legend
Example of Abbreviations

AAQS, ambient air quality standards; ADB,

Asian Development Bank; AQM, air quality
management; GDP, gross domestic product;
PM, particulate matter; TSP, total suspended
particulates; UAQi SDP, Urban Air Quality
Improvement Sector Development
Program

(Source: Santosa et al., Clean, 2008)