Journals Library

Abbreviations

Try to avoid using abbreviations in the title or headings within the report, except for common abbreviations (i.e. AIDS, CPR, CT scan) and RCTs. They may be used in the main body of the report, but must be defined at their first mention.  At the front of the report, please provide an alphabetical list of abbreviations used in the text.  To aid readability, please do not use any abbreviations in your abstract/plain English summary/scientific summary.  Commonly used abbreviations may be substituted at production stage, the final editorial decision rests with NETSCC. 

Whilst ‘versus’ should be used in the main text, the abbreviation ‘vs.’ can be used in figures, tables, their legends and in parentheses.

Eponyms

Non-possessive for syndromes; possessive for diseases and anything else, e.g. Down syndrome, Addison’s disease (von Willebrand disease OK), Barrett’s oesophagus, Raynaud’s phenomenon.

Cross-references

All cross-references are to be italicised if they are referencing the same report. Chapter and appendix cross-references should always be preceded by ‘see’; figure and table cross-references should be preceded by ‘see’ only if they are not the main citation (the citation that the figure/table will be placed next to). Use ‘and’ not a comma when more than one figure or table or parts thereof are cross-referenced.

  • e.g. see Appendix 1
  • e.g. see Chapter 1
  • e.g. see Chapter 4, Decision model
  • e.g. see Accounting for uncertainty
  • e.g. see Figures 5 and 6
  • e.g. see Figure 14 and Table 7
  • e.g. see Table 11a and b 

However, if a cross-reference is for another report, then it is in lower case and not italicised.

  • e.g. see table 1 in Myers et al.

Currency conversions

If a currency conversion is necessary to present comparative costs per QALY, then include the year for which the conversion was calculated and the type of dollar should be defined, i.e. CAN$, US$, SGD$, etc.

Dates

Inevitably, some of the information in your report will become out-of-date, sometimes even before your journal issue is published. To minimise these occurrences, please be thoughtful about how you convey information about future events, such as policy decisions by policy bodies. For example, ‘The NSC intended to consider the policy implications of X in 2012’ (rather than ‘A decision was still awaited in 2012’).

Glossary

If the subject area is highly specialised, please produce a glossary – an alphabetical list of technical or medical terms with accompanying explanations presented with the purpose of aiding a reader.

Italicisation

Latin terms (except et al.) and names of muscles are not italicised. All single letters that represent variables (x, y, z) should be in italics, for example x-axis and y-axis.

Plain language

We encourage the use of plain language where possible in report writing. Please see the Plain English Campaign website for further information. This includes examples about the principles (including report writing tips) and training courses.

Spelling

UK spelling. Use –ise spellings (rather than –ize) for words such as globalise/organise (except when such words appear in the titles of referenced papers).