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The Economist - Style Guide - Abbreviations

Unless an abbreviation or acronym is so familiar that it is used more often than the full form (eg, BBC, CIA, FBI, HIV, IMF, NATO, OECD), or unless the full form would provide little illumination (eg, AWACS, DNA) write the words in full on first appearance: thus, Trades Union Congress (not TUC). If in doubt about its familiarity, explain what the organisation is or does. After the first mention, try not to repeat the abbreviation too often; so write the agency rather than the IAEA, the Union rather than the EU, to avoid spattering the page with capital letters. There is no need to give the initials of an organisation if it is not referred to again.

If an abbreviation can be pronounced (eg, EFTA, NATO, UNESCO), it does not generally require the definite article. Other organisations, except companies, should usually be preceded by the (the BBC, the KGB, the NHS, the UNHCR and the NIESR). Except in the Britain section, use MP only after first spelling out member of Parliament in full (in many places an MP is a military policeman).

Abbreviations that can be pronounced and are composed of bits of words rather than just initials should be spelt out in upper and lower case: Cocom, Frelimo, Kfor, Legco, Mercosur, Nepad, Renamo, Sfor, Unicef, Unisom, Unprofor, Trips (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights). There is generally no need for more than one initial capital letter, unless the word is a company or a trade name: MiG, ConsGold.

Do not use spatterings of abbreviations and acronyms simply in order to cram more words in; you will end up irritating readers rather than informing them.

In bodymatter, all such abbreviations, whether they can be pronounced as words or not (GNP, GDP, FOB, CIF, A-levels, D-marks, T-shirts, X-rays), should be set in small capitals, with no points—unless they are currencies like Nkr or SFr, elements like H and O or degrees of temperature like °F and °C. Brackets, apostrophes and all other typographical furniture accompanying small capitals are generally set in ordinary roman, with a lower-case s (also roman) for plurals and genitives. Thus IOUs, MPs' salaries, SDRs, etc. But ampersands are set as small capitals, as are numerals and any hyphens attaching them to a small capital. Thus R&D, A23, M1, F-16, etc. Abbreviations that include upper-case and lower-case letters must be set in a mixture of small capitals and roman: BPhils, PhDs. Prefer chief executive or boss to CEO.

Do not use small caps for roman numerals.

In headings, rubrics, cross-heads, footnotes, flytitles, captions, tables, charts (including sources), use ordinary caps, not small caps.

Use lower case for kg, km, lb (never lbs), mph and other measures, and for ie, eg, which should both be followed by commas. When used with figures, these lower-case abbreviations should follow immediately, with no space (11am, 4.30pm, 15kg, 35mm, 100mph, 78rpm), as should AD and BC (76AD, 55BC), though they should be set in small capitals. Two abbreviations together, however, must be separated: 60m b/d.

Most scientific units, except those of temperature, that are named after individuals should be set in small capitals, though any attachments denoting multiples go in lower case. Thus a watt is W, whereas kilowatt, milliwatt and megawatt, meaning 1,000 watts, one thousandth of a watt and 1m watts, are abbreviated to kW, mW and MW (k, m and M are standard international metric abbreviations for thousand, thousandth and million).

The elements are not scapped. Lead is Pb, carbon dioxide is CO₂, methane is CH₄. Chlorofluorocarbons are, however, CFCs, and the oxides of nitrogen are generally NOX. Different isotopes of the same element are distinguished by raised prefixes: carbon-14 is ¹⁴C, helium-3 is ³He.

Most upper-case abbreviations take upper-case initial letters when written in full (eg, the LSO is the London Symphony Orchestra), but there are exceptions: CAP but common agricultural policy, EMU but economic and monetary union, GDP but gross domestic product, PSBR but public-sector borrowing requirement, VLSI but very large-scale integration.

Initials in people's names, or in companies named after them, take points (with a space between initials and name, but not between initials). Thus F.W. de Klerk, V.P. Singh, E.I. Du Pont de Nemours, F.W. Woolworth. In general, follow the practice preferred by people, companies and organisations in writing their own names.

Do not use Prof, Sen, Col, etc. Lieut-Colonel and Lieut-Commander are permissible. So is Rev, but it must be preceded by the and followed by a Christian name or initial: the Rev Jesse Jackson (thereafter Mr Jackson).

Always spell out page, pages, hectares, miles. But kilograms (not kilogrammes) and kilometres can be shortened to kg (or kilos) and km. Miles per hour are mph and kilometres per hour are kph.

Ampersands should be used (1) when they are part of the name of a company (eg, AT&T, Pratt & Whitney); (2) for such things as constituencies where two names are linked to form one unit (eg, The rest of Brighouse & Spenborough joins with the Batley part of Batley & Morley to form Batley & Spen. Or The area thus became the Pakistani province of Kashmir and the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir); (3) in R&D and S&L.

Remember that EFTA is the European Free-Trade Association, the FAO is the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the FDA is the Food and Drug Administration, IDA is the International Development Association, the MFA is the Multi-Fibre Arrangement, NAFTA is the North American Free-Trade Agreement, the OAU was the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union), the PLO is the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Remember, too, that the V of HIV stands for virus, so do not write HIV virus.

Members of Parliament are MPs: of the Scottish Parliament, MSPs; and of the European Parliament, MEPs (not Euro-MPs).

Spell out in full (and lower case) junior and senior after a name: George Bush junior, George Bush senior.

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