=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= EDline Vol. 5, no. 28 (23 July 2000) Editorial mailing list (digest version) Published by the Electric Editors =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Contents: Q & A [2lw] Space or no space after p. [2lx] Figure / Fig. [2ly] Abbreviated names for journals [6] Just for fun [8] Administration =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ---[2] Q&A ----------------------------------------------------- ** [2lw] Space or no space after p. Date: Tues, 18 July 2000 From: Judyth Mermelstein, espresso@e-scape.net Robyn de Jong-Dalziel wrote: > Can anyone quote me chapter and verse on the use or omission of > a space after the abbreviations p./pp.? > > I have always automatically used a space but am now confronted > with a request to close up: p.35. I've trawled through the > various style guides on my shelves but can find no actual > statement on the issue, merely indirect confirmation for my > feeling that p. 35 is the 'generally accepted' style. There is no single rule for such things -- just a choice of style based on the type of material and the destined readership, somewhat influenced by technology and economics. When I started out many years ago, most style sheets called for "pp. 123-24". No doubt influenced by paper and printing costs, the (then-) high cost of data storage in computerized databases, they gradually moved towards greater brevity in references. _Scientific Style and Format_ [CBE Guide, Cambridge: 1994] calls for "p" with a space but without a period, regardless of whether the reference is to a single page or several. Kate Turabian's _A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations_ [University of Chicago Press, 1996], which corresponds to the 14th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style_, provides a fairly complicated set of rules which depend on whether the item is in the author-date or reference-list system, in a parenthetical reference or note or numbered list, and what type of source is being cited. Grossly oversimplifying here, it drops the "p" entirely and uses ", #-##" for books and ordinary magazines but "<volume number>:#-##" (that's a colon not followed by a space) for journal articles, which is what one sees all the time in North American medical literature. Ultimately, except in the scholarly world where people actually learn to read the code well enough to locate the sources from it without looking it up in the style manual, it's up to the individual publisher to decide which style to use. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2lx] Figure / Fig. Date: Tues, 18 July 2000 From: Neville Hankins, nevhankins@compuserve.com An author can't understand why 'Figure' should be abbreviated to 'Fig.' - it only saves two characters. I can't either, though I suspect historical convention. Anybody know better? ------------------------ Date: Tues, 18 July 2000 From: Jane Kerr, bywater@zetnet.co.uk Off at a tangent to the Figure/Fig. thing, I recently read an article on the internet that commented on the convention of abbreviating the genus part of the binomen in biological science (i.e. using _Escherichia coli_ the first time it's mentioned, and _E. coli_ thereafter). The article claimed that this convention arose as a space-saving device at a time when production costs were higher than they are today, and should be abandoned now that we all have cheap dtp at our fingertips and vast acres of cyberspace in which to publish the final result. I would have thought, though, that except for the most heavily binomen-ridden texts, this practice could hardly save more than a page or two - and it begs the question of why we don't abbreviate other commonly used terms etc. ------------------------ Date: Tues, 18 July 2000 From: Josephine Bacon, bacon@langservice.com Yes, two characters can be vital in a design, take it from a veteran Quark user. ------------------------ Date: Tues, 18 July 2000 From: David Ibbetson, ibbetson@idirect.com Fig. occupies about half the space that Figure takes. This is a consideration when one is trying to squeeze the picture's title as well as its number into a limited space. "Historical convention", when followed back far enough, means the practice of scribes. ----------------------- Date: Wed, 19 July 2000 From: Naomi Laredo, Naomi@smallprt.demon.co.uk Jane Kerr commented on ... > the convention of abbreviating the genus part of the binomen in > biological science (i.e. using _Escherichia coli_ the first > time it's mentioned, and _E. coli_ thereafter). The article > claimed that this convention arose as a space-saving device and David Ibbetson similarly remarked that ... > Fig. occupies about half the space that Figure takes. This is a > consideration when one is trying to squeeze the picture's title > as well as its number into a limited space. No doubt, but surely there's also a gain in readability from abbreviating something that recurs frequently and whose meaning is obvious. In the case of "Figure" it's too trivial to bother reading in full; in the case of "Escherichia", it's so difficult to read that it's better omitted. Don't we do the same in other ways, not necessarily involving the abbreviation of individual words? A character might be introduced as "Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington", for example, but referred to thereafter as "Wellington". +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ** [2ly] Abbreviated names for journals Date: Thurs, 20 July 2000 From: Jo Bostock, jo.bostock@talk21.com I am looking for a reliable list of the accepted abbreviated names (or nicknames) for journals especially in the economics and business management fields. I am involved in compling Who's Whos in these fields and I find that the abbreviations submitted by contibutors (mainly in academia) are not consistant. The only other alternative would be to contact each journal - a long and difficult process. I have asked at my local County Reference Library but drew a blank there. Any suggestions will be gratefully received! ----------------------- Date: Fri, 21 July 2000 From: Nick Round-Turner, wordwork@xtra.co.nz Try a website called 'All That JAS' at < http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/JAS.htm > It looks like a good jumping off point for Internet information of the type you're looking for. Journal Abbreviation Sources (JAS) is a registry of Web resources that list or provide access to the full title of journal abbreviations. ----------------------- Date: Fri, 21 July 2000 From: Michele Clarke, Michele.Clarke@btinternet.com I can't believe that the Library couldn't help. What about Ulrich, or is that only for scientific journals? ----------------------- Date: Fri, 21 July 2000 From: Diana Boatman, Boatmans@compuserve.com I have BS 4148:1985 (ISO 4-1984) Abbreviation of title words and titles of publications which is doubtless now superseded by something better, but - again - one would expect your library to be able to advise. ---[6] Just for fun -------------------------------------------- Units of measurement, no. 9 Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = knot-furlong ---[8] Administration ------------------------------------------ EDline provides the opportunity for an online discussion of matters editorial and editorial business. To post to the mailing list via ListBot, use the following address: ee_edline@listbot.com For digest subscribers, please post your EDline messages to: bywater@zetnet.co.uk Topics might include areas such as Grammar, Spelling, American English or Punctuation. 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