Abbreviations are intended to make dense text more easily readable, but too many can be irritating. They are always dealt with separately in guidelines for text and for references; the instructions sometimes contradict one another or are not specific. So, how do we handle them in academic texts?

Here are some thoughts on what to do for abbreviations (including acronyms and initialisms) if there is no clear guideline:

Convenience

As a general principle, abbreviations (including acronyms and initialisms) are used for readers’ convenience. Readers of academic texts tend to skim parts of a document to see if they should read the whole thing. The parts they look at are usually the table of contents, the abstract, recommendations and conclusion. For this reason, abbreviations are avoided in the front matter.

I have heard that some institutions want abbreviations redefined or avoided in the discussion and conclusion chapters, but I could not find support for this.

If your client has abbreviated research terms just to avoid extra typing and the text of the chapter on findings is cluttered with abbreviations, then consider making it more readable by using Ctrl+h to ‘Find’ the abbreviations and ‘Replace’ them with the full terms – even if only in the tables or only in the text (do not select ‘Replace all’).

Full terms

Use full terms as often as necessary for readers to learn them, and for the research questions and objectives to be stated without abbreviations, before defining the abbreviations in the text.

In general, do not use the full term in the text after the abbreviation has been defined. However, some institutions (eg Stellenbosch University [Lotz 2023: 107]) want abbreviations to be redefined in every chapter of a long document.

Minimum number

Only define an abbreviation if it is used at least three times, not counting the list of abbreviations. To see how many times it is used, select the abbreviation and press Ctrl+f. The uses are shown in the ‘Results’ tab of the navigation pane.

List of abbreviations

If there are more than 10 abbreviations and they are not well known, define them in alphabetical order in the front matter after the list of tables and list of figures.

Abstracts, headings and captions

Do not use abbreviations in abstracts, headings or captions. This is so that people who have not seen the definitions can make sense of the items in the table of contents, list of tables and list of figures, which have to be exactly the same as the headings and captions in the text.

Abbreviations should also not be used in captions, so that people can copy and cite the relevant table or figure without having to add a note defining the abbreviation.

Tables and figures

When abbreviations have to be used in tables and figures to save space and when the tables and figures are likely to be cited, define them in a legend in a borderless row below the table so that the legend is included in the table when copied or when in a separate file (as often happens for journal articles). Explain this in a comment to your client (and in your style sheet) and ask them to check whether their supervisor has accepted this reasoning.

It is fine to abbreviate words such as number (No.) and versus (vs) in tables and figures to save column space – without defining them. Use a capital letter if it is the first/only word in the column heading.

Citations/sources in tables

When three or more authors have been cited previously and the referencing style says ‘et al’ should be used after the first citation, I follow that rule for citations and sources in tables and figures. However, the same argument could be used as for abbreviations that the full form should be used, so just be consistent and point out to your client in a Comment and in your style sheet what you have decided to do.

Author names

Use full author names in the reference list, even if they have been abbreviated in the text.

Abbreviations in citations

When you need to abbreviate an author name in citations, put the abbreviation in square brackets within round brackets the first time it is used, eg the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs ([COGTA], 2015) prescribes …

Consistency

When a term has been abbreviated before it is used in a citation, use the abbreviation in the first citation.

When a term has already been defined in a citation, don’t redefine it in the main text.

Pluralisation

Define the singular form of the abbreviation in the list of abbreviations, eg ‘NGO = non-governmental organisation’. However, it is not always possible to use the singular form when defining it in the text. When the text where you want to define the abbreviation uses the plural form, say ‘non-governmental organisations (NGOs)’. Thereafter, use NGO and NGOs grammatically so that it is easy for the reader to make sense of the sentence. For example, ‘An NGO working alone may be unable to survive difficulties that NGOs working together can overcome’.

Capitalisation

The full term should be in lower case if it is not a proper noun, even if the abbreviation is usually in upper case. GDP for ‘gross domestic product’ is an example.

Latin abbreviations such as eg, ie and et al are also in lower case. Always check the style guide to see whether to use italics and full stops with these abbreviations.

Conclusion

These are my thoughts; what you do with them is up to you. As always in editing, consistency is everything. Make your decision, record it in a comment and the style sheet, and stick to it throughout. Your decisions may differ from document to document and from institution to institution, but that’s fine – that’s what editors do.

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References

American Psychological Association 2022 APA Style abbreviations guide. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/abbreviations-guide.pdf

Caulfield, J 2023 APA writing style: Language & punctuation guidelines. Scribbr, October 3. https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-language-guidelines/#abbreviations

Lotz, S (ed) 2023 English style guide. Stellenbosch University. https://www.sun.ac.za/english/Documents/2024/SU_Language_Style_Guide_%28Oct%202023%29.pdf

Majumder, K 2019 Common errors in the usage of abbreviations in scientific writing. Editage Insights, November 20. https://www.editage.com/insights/common-errors-usage-abbreviations-scientific-writing

Murudkar, S 2020 All you need to know about abbreviations and acronyms. Enago Academy, April 29. https://www.enago.com/academy/abbreviations-and-acronyms/