User Guide for the Science Report Template

Overview

This user guide is designed for side-by-side use with the Simplified Author Template Version 1.2, required for submissions to the NPS Science Report Series. Because the NPS has a very small publishing team, we must ask report authors/submitters to do some document formatting prior to submitting report for publication. The best way to ensure your document is processed in a timely manner is to mirror the examples shown in the template and follow the requirements outlined in this user guide. Reports not meeting the formatting requirements will be returned to the author or submitter for correction.

First/Title Page

The content on the first/title page must occur in the order shown in the template and described below.

1. Report Title (required) (style Title). Please do not include a colon in the title.

2. Subtitle (optional) (style Subtitle). Please do not include a colon in the subtitle.

3. Cover Photo (style Image Line).

   1. Use the Insert tab to insert your cover photo.

   2. The cover photo must be a single raster image file (.jpg, .png, etc.).

      1. The photo should be sized to fit inside the page margins on a standard letter-sized page (up to 7.0 inches wide and less than 6.5 inches tall at 150-300 ppi).

      2. See the Image Requirements section for more information about image requirements.

4. Cover Photo Caption (required) (style Figure Caption).

5. Cover Photo Alternate Text (required) (style Alternate Text) (Section 508).

   1. Alternate text should not just match the text used for the caption.

   2. See the Alternate Text section for more information about writing good alternate text.

6. Cover Photo Credit(s) (optioinal) (style Normal).

   1. See the “credit lines in publications” section of the NPS HFC Editorial Style Guide webpage for more information about credit lines.

7. List of Authors (required) (style Normal).

   1. The syntax for each author is: FirstName. MiddleInitial. (if provided) LastName

   2. Open Research Contributor ID’s (ORCIDs) should be provided as available and to the left of any commas separating multiple author names.

   3. If authors hail from multiple offices, use superscript Arabic numerals for each office location placed just before any commas separating multiple author names.

8. Author Affiliation(s) (required) (style Normal).

   1. Provide affiliation and address, city, and state; office/unit name, street address and zip code are optional.

   2. If there are multiple affiliation locations, add a superscript Arabic numeral at the beginning of the affiliation address.

9. User Note (optional) (style Normal). Use this line to add a short special statement requested by external agencies or similar that are usually related to funding sources, specific disclaimer language, etc. This statement will be added to the official policy and related disclaimer page later.

Abstract

All reports must have an abstract written in paragraph format with 400 or fewer words. This will allow us to meet current publication policy requirements from the Digital Object Identifier Foundation (doi.org) and the Department of Interior. We will not accept anything but body text inside the Abstract (no numbered or bulleted lists, images or illustrations, tables, formulas, additional heading levels, etc.).

If a longer executive summary chapter is also desired, that content should be added as an additional front matter section (see the Additional Front Matter Sections and Content section below).

Keywords

When choosing keywords for your scientific report, focus on one-to-three word phrases that accurately describe the main topics of your research and are commonly searched for (style Normal).

Table of Contents

You do not need to include tables of contents, tables of figures, or tables of tables. These will be generated during production.

List of Terms or Acronyms (optional)

For lists of terms or acronyms, use a colon to separate the term or acronym from the definition. The items do not need to line up; this will be adjusted during layout (see template examples).

Additional Front Matter Sections and Content

Add additional front matter sections, that occur before the Introduction or similar, as appropriate for your document. Examples include an Acknowledgments chapter, a separate Executive Summary chapter (if you desire one in addition to the required Abstract), a Dedication chapter, etc. In printed copies, these chapters will come before the Introduction or similar, and have lower-case Roman numeral page numbers.

Headings

• Use the default headings styles built into MS Word for all headings (styles Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.).

• There can be no more than six heading levels in a report (per Section 508).

• Headings must always occur in logical numerical order (Heading 1 is always first, always followed by Heading 2, etc.; see template examples).

Numbered and Bulleted Lists

Don’t worry about using special styles for your lists. Just use the list tools built into the MS Word Home / Paragraph menu, and we will handle the rest for you.

Image Requirements

Images must consist of a single image for each caption. The only exception to this rule is images of equations (see the Formulas and Equations section).

Image Size

All images should be designed to fit inside the page margins and at least half the page width (Table 1).

Table 1. Recommendations for image by size and resolution for images (pixels per inch, or ppi).

Figure Width (inches)	Suggested for Images That Are	Raster Minimum Print Pixels Wide (150 ppi)	Raster Good Print Pixels Wide (300 ppi)	Print Pixels Wide (600 ppi)
6.5	Full-page width for letter-sized paper with portrait orientation.	975	1950	3900
9.0	Full-page width for letter-sized paper with landscape orientation	1350	2700	5400

Image Placement

Always use the MS Word Insert menu tools to add images directly to the pages of your MS Word files with no text wrapping (do not import them as MS Office objects or similar).

• For raster images (.jpg, .png, etc.) and vector images (.svg), use the Insert / Pictures menu tools to add an image to the page.

• For dynamic MS Word data-driven charts (bar charts, scatter plots, etc.), always create the chart in MS Word using the Insert / Chart menu tools.

• For dynamic MS Word flow-charts or organizational charts, always create the chart using the Insert /SmartArt menu tools.

• Please do not import dynamic MS Office Object charts or images created in MS Excel, R, etc. Instead, export those images to either vector (.svg) or raster (.jpg,.png, etc.) formats and use the MS Word Insert tools to add them to the page as described above.

Image Styling

• Do not apply border lines to the outside of your images.

• White space around the outside of the visible parts images with white or transparent backgrounds, especially with charts, should be narrow and consistent (we suggest a small band on all sides).

Image Accessibility

Alternate Text

Each image must have alternate text (alt-text) that can be read by screen readers. Alternate (Alt) text should be focused on what information the reader should gain from the image. Do not repeat the caption as alt text.

• What are the main points in a graph? Don’t just describe what is shown on the axes, legend, etc. What is the purpose of adding that graph? You do not have to be concise, and sometimes longer alt text is necessary (e.g., graph results, flow diagrams). However, if you have discussed the key points of your graph or flow diagram in your body paragraphs or figure caption, you can use less alt text. The key is to make sure that the reader can get all the content without having to see the graph.

• Why did you add that photograph? What do you want the reader to know?

• Don't start alt text with "a photo of" or "an image of."

• Do start with "a line graph" or "a pie chart" or similar for graphs.

• Don't include copyright information or photo credits.

• Write alt text in full sentence form with correct punctuation.

• Automatic alt text should be checked as it is frequently not correct.

Text Labels

All text labels and similar inside images should be readable by people with normal vision when printed (recommend a minimum of 6 pt effective font size on printed pages), unless the text is not meant to be read.

Color Contrast

It is important to check for color contrast to make sure that images are Section 508 accessible. We suggest that you check your images using one of the following online color and contrast simulators and checkers.

• Pilestone, Color Blind Experts webpage (free online color blindness simulator for raster images).

• Coblis—Color Blindness Simulator webpage (free online color blindness simulator for raster images).

• WebAim Contrast Checker webpage (free online color contrast checker—all vector text in your images should pass the WCAG AA standard when compared to the background).

Informative Images (Figures)

Figure Numbering and Placement

• All images that provide contextual information or are mentioned in the text must be (see template examples).

  • added to the report as sequentially numbered figures using whole numbers (no letter or decimal designations),

  • referenced in the text in the first paragraph before they occur,

  • placed immediately below the first paragraph where they are first referenced, and

  • added to the page using the MS Word Insert tool (see the Image Placement section).

• Do not reference specific figures within the main body of the report if they are located in an appendix; instead, refer to the relevant appendix.

• The only exceptions to these rules are for images that provide contextual information are the image found on the cover page (See the First/Title Page section ) and images of equations (see the Formulas and Equations section),

Captions and Alternate Text of Figures

The following paragraphs must always occur beneath each numbered figure.

• Figure Caption: The full figure caption that you want to see on the page (style Figure Caption).

• Please craft the first sentence of your caption to appear in the Table of Figures in the final PDF version of your report (everything to the left of the period that ends the first sentence of that caption).

• Alternate Text: Alternate text that will be read by screen readers used by people with visual and certain cognitive impairments (Section 508, style Alternate Text, see the Figure Accessibility section).

Decorative Images

Numbering of Decorative Figures

Decorative images must never be referenced in the text, and their captions must never be numbered.

Placement of Decorative Images

The following paragraphs must always occur beneath each purely decorative image:

• Figure Caption: The full figure caption that you want to see on the page (style Figure Caption).

• Alternate Text: Alternate text that will be read by screen readers used by people with visual and certain cognitive impairments (Section 508, style Alternate Text, see the Figure Accessibility section).

• Use the MS Word Insert tools to add the image directly to the page with no text wrapping (see the Figure Placement section).

Formulas and Equations

• Formulas and equations must be referenced in the text, placed immediately below the first paragraph where they are first referenced, added as either single images or using the MS Word Insert / Symbols / Equation tool.

• Formulas inserted as images

  • can be imported as either a single raster (.jpg, .png, etc.; usually generated in MS Office) or vector (.svg, usually generated in R or similar) image,

  • must be followed immediately by alternate text that describes that equation in paragraph format (see template examples),

  • set to be the size that you want to see on the printed page, and

  • can have much narrower widths than standard figures or graphic images added to a report, but they also need to fit inside the printed page margins (Table 1).

• All equation symbols added to text lines should use Cambria Math font face where the font size for the baseline symbols (not superscript, or subscript, or over-sized, etc.) is 11.5 pt when printed.

• If formulas and equations do not use black text over a white background, it is important to check for color contrast to make sure that they are Section 508 accessible. We suggest that you check your images using one of the online color and contrast simulators and checkers listed above.

• White space around the outside of the visible parts of the formula should be minimized (suggest zero to five pixels on all sides).

Table Requirements

Table Size

Tables must fit inside the page margins (width) on a printed page (Table 2). Consider splitting tables that have too many columns to fit on a printed page.

Table 2. Maximum table widths and recommended maximum number of columns for tables.

Page Size (inches)	Page Orientation	Absolute Maximum Table Width (inches)	Recommended Maximum Number of Columns
Letter (8.5x11)	Portrait	6.4	5-7
Letter (8.5x11)	Landscape	8.9	8-13
Legal (8.5x14)	Landscape (only)	13.9	14-18
Tabloid (11x17)	Landscape (only)	16.9	19-23

Table Placement and Numbering

• All tables must be (see template examples)

  • added to the page using the MS Word Insert / Table tool,

  • added to the report as sequentially numbered tables using whole numbers (no letter or decimal designations),

  • referenced in the text, and

  • placed immediately below the first paragraph where they are first referenced.

• Do not dynamically add tables from external files or programs as MS Office Objects.

• Do not reference specific tables within the main body of the report if they are located in an appendix; instead, refer to the relevant appendix.

Table Styling (see template examples)

• Tables must consist of multiple columns ad multiple rows (use lists in the text for content with just one column or one row).

• Use the template styles for all table content.

  • Use style Table Header for the header row(s) (top one to two rows).

  • Use style Table Cell for all data cells (located beneath the header row(s)).

• Do not change the font face, size, or text direction (horizontal, vertical, etc.) of alphanumeric symbols found inside table cells.

• All text-based content should have left cell justification.

• All number-based content should have either right cell justification or center cell justification (pick one document-wide).

• Consider removing any tables that span vertically for more than three printed pages. Instead, you can

  • distribute them as separate stand-alone spreadsheets (.xlsx or similar) or delimited text (.csv or similar) files, and

  • reference them in your report like you would any other external reference.

Table Accessibility

The following rules allow us to make the tables in your reports more accessible to people with certain visual and cognitive impairments in a timely manner, per NPS and related policies stemming from Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 508).

• Merged table cells must (see template examples)

  • only occur on the top-most row (only when there are two header rows) and the left-most column, and

  • never span all table columns or rows.

• Unless you stick with black text over a white background for your table cells, it is also important to check for adequate color contrast to make to be readable by people with color-blindness and other visual impairments.

  • Use the free online WebAim Contrast Checker webpage tool to make sure that the alphanumeric content inside your cells meet the WCAG AA standard when compared to the cell background color.

• Always use superscript table note markers and corresponding table notes located below the table to provide additional information or definitions related to cell content (see template examples).

  • Do not use visual-only treatments to denote information inside table cells (bold fonts, colors, etc.).

  • However, you can combine the use of visual treatments (bold fonts, colors, etc.) with superscript table note markers and corresponding table notes.

• Do not have blank cells in your tables. Instead, you can

  • use an endash (–) to denote a null result,

  • a zero to denote none detected, or

  • N/A for “not applicable” as needed.

• To denote presence or absence in a table, please do one of the following (in order of preference).

  • Use whole words (Yes or No, Present or Absent, etc.).

  • If you use single letters (X, Y, etc..), endashes (–), or other symbols to denote presence or absence, either

    • add descriptions about what the symbols are supposed to mean in the caption, or

    • add super-script table note markers to the column header or text and create a corresponding table note that defines each letter or symbol used.

References

Citation style follows a modified author-date system outlined in The Chicago Manual of Style, as found in the journal Ecology. The author-date system combines a reference list at the end of the article with brief text citations of the author’s last name and the year of publication within the article, which serves as a pointer to the source in the full list. The list should be in alphabetical order without subheadings. Whenever possible a digital object identifier URL should be provided (See template examples).

Appendices

Treat appendices like you would any other major chapter in the report, but always place them after the References chapter. Lengthy appendix content, such as many page tables and content originally written as separate stand-alone documents, should be published separately and referenced in the report. Additionally, figures, tables, and page numbers must be numbered sequentially document wide.