Titivillus Editing for the Health Sciences: Text Styling Compared

Titivillus Editing for the Health Sciences

Preparing Ideas and Research Results for Publication

Timothy DeVinney, Author's Editor and Copy Editor

Titivillus Editorial Services

Procedures page: comparison chart of different styles for terms and units of measurement

How does one know what style to use?

The approach used for these few basic style points can help one to discern what general style is being applied. Note: publishers and journals often depart from these style guides and are not always consistent, so for the actual copyedit it is essential to refer to the details given in their own style guidelines or found in samples of their publications.

For a more complete checklist of style points to be decided in copyediting an MS, see the style checklist.

Key

-- en dash indicated by two hyphens
" " quotations indicate example as given in that style manual

Sources

AMA American Medical Association Manual of Style. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1998.

APA Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 2001. (Note: there is a Web site with FAQs and updates to APA style. Available at: http://www.apastyle.org/faqs.html. Accessed November 17, 2005.)

CBE Council of Biology Editors Style Manual Committee. Scientific Style and Format: CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 6th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1994.

CMS15 The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press; 2003.

Listing

abbrev., academic degrees

AMA
"Peter M. Forsythe, Jr, MD, performed..." (pp 203, 284)

APA
omit from byline and reference citations (p 11)

CBE
"Cassandra Levinson MD DPH" (pp 37, 186)

CMS15
"David H. Pauker, JD, attended" (p 564)

abbrev., countries

AMA
"US census data" (p 283)

APA
U.S. (p 110)

CBE
US, UK (p 239)

CMS15
UK; U.S. (or US) (p 568)

abbrev., personal titles

AMA
Dr Smith, Ms Jones (p 284)

APA
Dr. Simpson (pp 11, 411)

CBE
Dr (p 185)

CMS15
Dr., Ms. (p 562)

abbrev., scholarly abbreviations

AMA
Latin abbreviations may be used in all types of copy (p 203)

APA
replace "e.g." with "for example"; except in tables, notes, and parenthetical remarks (p 106)

CBE
in general, use English equivalents (p 191)

CMS15
use English equivalents, except in bibliographic references and scholarly apparatus (p 571)

cross-ref to parts with names or titles

AMA
"shown in Figure 2" (p 82)

APA
"as shown in Figure 2" (p 198)

CBE
"see sections 30.11 and 30.12" (note: raised decimal point used here; p 586)

CMS15
"See note 3 above." (p 601)

em dash, formatting in MS text

AMA
use 2 hyphens where em dash is unavailable, and close up (p 213)

APA
use 2 hyphens where em dash is unavailable, and close up (p 291)

CBE
in typescript use 2 hyphens and close up (p 53)

CMS15
close up (p 87)

en dash, uses of

AMA
"Winston-Salem--oriented group"
"post--World War I" (pp 33, 213); but use hyphen for range of numbers: "from the 1992-1997 Renal Study Group" (p 211; by example, not stated explicitly), and use hyphen for 2-name eponyms: eg, Mann-Whitney U test (p 213; by example, not stated explicitly)

APA
use "between two words of equal weight in a compound adjective" (p 291): eg, 2-name eponyms:
"Kruskal--Wallis test" (p 141; by example); and use for range of numbers: 1998--1999 (pp 124, 239, 291; by example)

CBE
use between 2 words of equal weight, and in 2-word concepts (eg,
"liquid--gas chromatography") or eponyms ("Michaelis--Menten kinetics") (p 195), and for reference in specifying page ranges (eg, "p 682--3"; p 647)

CMS15
"pp. 38--45"; "1968--70"; and to mean "to" (p 262)

numbers, spell out

AMA
always use numerals (AMA refers to them as "figures"); except common expressions; always spell out number that begins sentence ("Five milliliters was injected."); and use first through ninth (p 511-515)

APA
nine/10; except always use numerals with units of measurement; and always use numerals with mathematical or statistical functions ("multiplied by 5," "3 times as many," "the 5th percentile") (pp 122-128)

CBE
always used numerals, except for start of sentence, 2 adjacent numeric expressions (eg, "eight 50-g aliquots"), or numbers not involving counting or measurement (p 195)

CMS15
one hundred/101, and spell out any of those whole numbers followed by "hundred," "thousand"; except always use numerals with abbreviated units of measurement: five miles but 5 mi.

numbers, consistent style of number in the same list?

AMA
always use numerals (referred to as "figures" by AMA)

APA
use numerals for all numbers grouped for comparison, if any are 10 or larger (eg, "5 and 13 lines," but "15 traits on each of four checklists") (p 123)

CBE
always use numerals for counted items (p 195)

CMS15
use same styling throughout, giving preference to numerals: eg, only 5 of the 250 delegates (p 381)

numbers, inclusive ranges for dates and page numbers—repeat all digits?

AMA
repeat all digits for date spans, page ranges, or parenthetical material: eg, "from the 1992-1997 Renal Study Group" (pp 35, 211, 515-516)

APA
repeat all digits: "1372--1375" (p 259; by example)

CBE
use to or through and repeat all digits (pp 196f); but for reference page ranges, use en dash and repeat only digit that changes (eg, "p 682--3"; p 647)

CMS15
three possible approaches--use one consistently: 1192--1193 (repeat all digits); or 1192--93 (minimum of last two digits for 110--199, etc) and 101--8 (only digit that changes for 100--109) [preferred]; or 1192--3 (only digit(s) that change) (p 396)

numbers, digits more than 4

AMA
use space, not comma, after third digit of numbers of five or more digits either side of the decimal point: eg, 1452, 15 621 (p 512)

APA
4,500, 12,300; except for page numbers, binary digits, temperatures, frequencies (eg, "3071 °F") (p 129)

CBE
use space, not comma, after third digit of numbers of five or more digits either side of the decimal point: eg, 1452, 15 621 (p 196)

CMS15
normally separate with comma after third digit of numbers with four or more digits, except pages numbers, addresses, and years; sometimes in scientific text, spaces are used instead of commas (pp 394-395)

numbers, percentages

AMA
2%; except at start of title, then spell out: "Twenty percent to 30% of patients..." (pp 517-518)

APA
2%; except at start of title, then spell out: "Forty-eight percent of the sample..." (p 126)

CBE
"45%" (p 115)

CMS15
in humanistic copy, always use numeral plus word: "45 percent"; in scientific text, symbol is used: "10%-15% reduction" (p 384)

numbers, temperatures (space before degree symbol?)

AMA
close up: "40°C" (p 329)

APA
space before degree symbol: "3071 °F" (p 129); "12 °C" (p 131)

CBE
space before degree symbol: "25 °C" (by example, not stated explicitly; p 54)

CMS15
space before degree symbol: "10 °C"; except for humanities text, then spell out: "twenty degrees" (p 384)

units of measurement

AMA
always numerals ("figures"), except at beginning of sentence, title, or subtitle: eg, "Five milliliters was injected." (p 511)

APA
use numerals for "numbers that immediately precede a unit of measurement": "a 16-s interval" (pp 91, 123) except at start of sentence (p 126)

CBE
always numerals, except at beginning of sentence or title: eg, Five milliliters was injected. (p 195)

CMS15
numeral with abbreviated unit of measurement: eg, 3 mi, but five miles (p 384)

For the next step, go back to stage 3: reaching agreement with the copy editor.

URL for this page: http://www.HeathSciEdit.com/TESproc-style-text.htm
© 2003–2006 Timothy DeVinney. Page last updated June 21, 2006.