Acronyms, abbreviations, initialisms:
Acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms are discouraged from use, except for well-known and accepted units of measurement and some well-recognized terms.
- If used, spell out at the first use, even if the acronym or initialism is well-known. Do not place periods between the letters of an acronym, abbreviation or initialism.
- State names should always appear as full names in the text of a manuscript. If included in references, use the two-letter abbreviation.
Numbers:
Numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) should be used in all writing, except when:
- The number begins the sentence or title
- Common fractions
- Ordinals: first through ninth
- Number spelled out in quotations or titles of works cited.
- One number may be spelled out, if the sentence requires multiple numbers to be placed next to each other. E.g., "If 12 16-year-olds had this reaction..." should be changed to "If twelve 16-year-olds..."
Time:
- To indicate a time of day, use AM or PM in small capitals.
- Conventional 12-hour clock time is preferred. However, 24 hour or military time convention can also be used to convey precise timing when needed, such as when describing drug dosage regimens.
Dates:
- When dates are provided in the text, use numerals for day and year, and write out the month using text. E.g., April 2, 1990.
- If using dates in a table, you may use numerals for the month (e.g., 4/2/1990).
Measurements:
- Use SI (Le Système International d'Unitiés) standards for writing measurements. Numbers are always written in plain text, there is a space after the number and prior to the unit, and never a period after the unit (unless it ends a sentence).
- Do not include commas in longer numbers (e.g. 1600 km, not 1,600 km).
The Web/Internet:
- Use email. Never capitalize the "e" unless at the beginning of a sentence.
- Internet and web should not be capitalized.
- Home page is two words.
- Web page or web site are two words. Most other compound words starting with "web" are one word and spelled lowercase: webmaster, webcast, webcam, etc.
