EE Publishers General Style Sheet

15 October 2006

EE Publishers’ general style sheet

Consistency

·  Some of the “rules” below are not based on right or wrong practice, but are given to ensure a consistent and high standard within a news item, technical article, journal, and across all our journals

·  However many of the rules are in fact absolutely essential for correct technical, grammatical and aesthetic content

·  Style and layout consistency, correctness and production quality are very important factors to our readers who come from a technical and engineering background

·  The use of page, article and news item templates is critical to ensuring the required style and layout consistency and production quality

·  Therefore, every effort should be made to comply with these guidelines

Dates

Date format: Day Month Year

Correct examples:

25 May 2004

13 June

Incorrect examples:

25 May 04

25th May 2004

May 25th, 2004

25-5-04

25/5/2004

2004/05/25

Times

Time format: 24 hour format

Correct examples:

11h25

14h30

12h00

24h00

Incorrect examples:

11h25 pm

14H30

14:30

12 noon

2.30 am

Phone numbers

·  Do not split phone numbers on separate lines

·  Local phone numbers should include the area code (in round brackets), followed by a space, then the phone number with a hyphen in the right place e.g. (011) 659-0504

·  Avoid the use of international phone numbers (us email address instead). However, where used, international phone numbers should include the plus sign, followed immediately by the country code, then a space, then the city code without the preceding zero, then a space, then the phone number with a hyphen in the right place

e.g. +44 1 4340-1254

·  Cell phone numbers should not use any hyphens or brackets, instead use a space after the first three digits and again after the first 3 digits of the number itself e.g. 083290 0442

·  Toll free phone numbers should not use any hyphens, instead use a space after the first three digits and again a space after the first 3 digits of the number itself e.g. 0800 203199

·  In general do not use international phone numbers, rather use email address only

·  In general do not use cell phone numbers, rather use land line numbers only

Correct examples:

(011) 659-0504

+44 1 4340-1254

083290 0442

0800 203 199

Incorrect examples:

659-0504

011 6590504

0116590504

+27 (011) 659-0504

(+44 1) 4340-1254

09441 4340-1254

+44 (1) 4340-1254

(083) 290-0442

083-2900442

0832900442

0800203199

(0800) 203-199

0800-203-199

Email addresses

·  Do not split email addresses on separate lines

·  Use lower case throughout

Correct examples:

Incorrect examples:

Website addresses

·  Avoid the use of website addresses in the contact details

·  Do not split website addresses on separate lines, unless this is unavoidable

·  Use lower case throughout

·  In general, underline web addresses that go onto more than two lines

Correct examples:

www.eepublishers.co.za

http://www.eepublishers.co.za

Incorrect examples:

www.EEPublishers.co.za

Company names

·  Company names need to be used with discretion and not repetitively

·  Avoid capitalisation for effect – use capitalisation only when really part of the company name e.g. ABB, ALSTOM

·  Avoid use of lower case for effect e.g. do not use “the dti” but instead use “the DTI”

·  Avoid using the business form after the company name (e.g. do not use Ltd; (Pty) Ltd; Inc.; cc; Pvt, Plc, Gmbh, etc.)

·  Avoid company names in the title of an article for promotional purposes unless the company name is a vital part of the story (e.g. “ABB wins big contract” is not acceptable; “ABB acquires Siemens” is acceptable)

Brand names, product names and trademarks

·  Brand names, product names and trademarks need to be used with discretion and not repetitively

·  Avoid capitalisation for effect – use capitalisation only when really part of the brand name, product name or trademark

·  Avoid lower case for effect

·  Where possible, avoid using the copyright, trademark or registered trademark symbols (©,™, ®) symbols after brand names, product names or trademarks

·  Avoid brand names, product names and trademarks in the title of an article for promotional purposes unless the brand names, product names or trademarks is a vital part of the story

Use of names and titles

·  Generally always use the higher titles Dr. and Prof. (e.g. use Prof. Duncan Baker not Duncan Baker; use Prof. Baker, not Baker)

·  Generally avoid the common titles Mr., Mrs., Ms. or Miss. (e.g. use Chris Yelland, not Mr. Chris Yelland; use Yelland not Mr. Yelland)

·  In the first use of a name in an article, use the higher title (where applicable), first name and surname and thereafter just the higher title (where applicable) and surname (e.g. use Chris Yelland at first usage and thereafter just Yelland; use Prof. Duncan Baker at first usage and thereafter just Prof. Baker)

·  Where used without a first name, surnames like Van der Merwe, De Beer, De Villiers, etc., should start with a capital letter. But where used with a first name, the first letter of these surnames should not start with a capital letter e.g. us Jan de Beer, not Jan De Beer; use Piet van der Merwe, not Piet Van der Merwe; use Dr. De Villiers, not Dr. de Villiers; use Van der Merwe, not van der Merwe.

·  Always use the correct abbreviations of the higher titles Dr. and Prof. and do not use the full words Doctor or Professor as titles (i.e. use Prof. Baker and not Prof Baker or Professor Baker)

Job descriptions

·  Avoid capital letters in a job description (e.g. use Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa, and not Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa; use Alec Erwin, minister of Public Enterprises, and not Alec Erwin, Minister of Public Enterprises)

·  Use a capital letter for titles (e.g. use President Thabo Mbeki and not president Thabo Mbeki; use Minister Alec Erwin, and not minister Alec Erwin)

·  Where possible use the abbreviations of common job descriptions given below (e.g. use Chris Yelland, MD of EE Publishers and not Chris Yelland, managing director of EE Publishers; use MD Chris Yelland, not managing director Chris Yelland)

Common job descriptions and their abbreviations are as follows:

MD managing director

CE chief executive

CEO chief executive officer

COO chief operating officer

CFO chief financial officer

DG director general

DDG deputy director general

GM general manager

Some common job descriptions (lower case) without abbreviations are as follows:

minister

deputy minister

chairman

president

vice president

deputy president

chairperson

director

general manager

manager

financial manager

chief engineer

engineering manager

sales manager

marketing manager

Capitalisation

·  In sentences, only use a capital letter for the first letter of the sentence and the first letter of proper nouns in the sentence (titles, first names, surnames, place names, countries, etc.)

·  For titles of articles and news items, only use a capital letter for the first letter of the title and the first letter of proper nouns in the title (place names, countries, etc.)

·  Avoid full capitalisation for effect of company names, product names, brand names, etc., unless this is really the correct usage (e.g. use Wika Instruments and not WIKA Instruments; use ABB and not Abb)

·  For our own EE Publishers brands, use EngineerIT, Energize, Vector and PositionIT

·  Avoid capital letters in a job description (e.g. use Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa, and not Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa). See above regarding capitalised abbreviations of certain job descriptions.

·  Use a capital letter for titles (e.g. use President Thabo Mbeki and not president Thabo Mbeki; use Minister Alec Erwin, and not minister Alec Erwin)

·  The words “internet”, “extranet’, “intranet” should not be treated as proper nouns, and should therefore not start with a capital letter

Numbers

·  In general, the numbers one to twelve, when not used in a scientific way, and when no units or decimal comma is involved, should be typed out as a word (e.g. use three apples, not 3 apples; use twelve apostles, not 12 apostles)

·  In general, numbers greater than twelve, when not used in a scientific way, and when no units or decimal comma is involved, should not be typed out as a word but typed as a number (e.g. use 15 apples, not fifteen apples)

·  Always use a decimal comma and not a decimal point (e.g. use 15,3 and not 15.3)

·  To make reading of the large numbers easier, always use a “hard” character space (not a comma) as a separator every three digits before and after the decimal comma (e.g. use 12 000,13 and not 12,000.13; use 12,00123 and not 12,00123)

·  Do not split a number onto two lines (use of a “hard” character space as a separator every three digits before and/or after the decimal comma will avoid this)

·  Do not use very large numbers with lots of trailing zeros. In scientific text, use the exponential form to shorten very large numbers (e.g. use 2,36 x 107 and not 23600000; use 4,556 x 1010 and not 45560000000)

·  Alternatively, in non scientific text, use the words million or billion to shorten very large numbers

(e.g. use 23,6-million and not 23600000; use 45-billion and not 45000000000)

·  Always use a hyphen between the number and the word million or billion (e.g. use 23,6-million and not 23,6 million; use 45-billion and not 45billion)

·  Similarly, do not use very small numbers with lots of preceding zeros after the decimal comma. Use the exponential form to shorten very small numbers (e.g. use 2, 36x10-7 and not 0,000000236; use 4,556x10-10 and not 0,0000000004556)

Currency values

·  Always use the relevant currency symbols followed immediately by the number, without a space between the currency symbol and the number (e.g. use R234 and not R 234; use R124,36 and not R124,36)

·  Do not include the two digits after the decimal comma if these are zeros (e.g. use R23 and not R23,00)

·  Where cents are involved, always use a decimal comma and not a decimal point or hyphen

(e.g. use R15,30 and not R15.30 or R15-30), and use no more than two digits after the decimal comma

·  If no cents are involved, do not use a decimal comma followed by two zeros (e.g. use R124 and not R124,00; use R6 and not R6,00)

·  To make reading of large currency values easier, always use a “hard” character space (not a comma) as a separator every three digits before the decimal comma (e.g. use $12000,00 and not $12,000.00; use $122001,23 and not $122001,23)

·  Do not split a currency value onto two lines (use of a “hard” character space as a separator every three digits before the decimal comma will avoid this)

·  Use the words million or billion to shorten very large currency values (e.g. use £23,6-million and not £23600000,00; use £45-billion and not £45000000000)

·  Always use a hyphen between the number and the words million or billion (e.g. use £23,6-million and not £23,6 million; use £45-billion and not £45billion)

Common currencies and their symbols are as follows:

Currency symbol Currency Country

R Rands South Africa

$ Dollars USA

£ Pounds UK

¥ Yen Japan

€ Euros European Union

Use of SI (metric) units

·  Standard International (SI) metric units are used almost universally in scientific, technical and engineering circles throughout the world. These days, even in the USA and UK, SI metric units are very widely used.

·  South Africa adopted SI metric units many years ago and SI metric units are well established here

·  The older Imperial units (pounds, miles, yards, feet, inches, etc.) must be avoided wherever possible

·  The usage of SI metric units is well documented and standardised, and we have a copy of the relevant SABS standard for detailed usage advice

·  However, the details given below cover the vast majority of the usage of SI metric units in our journals

·  On occasion you may have to refer to Chris Yelland, for assistance on the usage of SI metric units, and thereafter for more obscure usage, the editors may refer to the relevant SABS standard

Usage of units

·  Except as indicated below, always use a “hard” character space between a number and its units (e.g. use 66 kV and not 66kV; use 80 Mvar and not 80Mvar)

·  Do not leave any character space between a number and its units for the following: º, ºC, ºF, ºK

and % (e.g. use 33,4ºC and not 33,4 ºC; use 90º and not 90 º; use 80% and not 80 %)

·  Do not split a number and its units onto two lines (use of a “hard” character space between a number and its units will avoid this)

·  Always use the abbreviation of the unit and its associated scaling prefix (where applicable) (e.g. use 100 km and not 100 kilometres; use 25 Ω and not 25 ohms; use 25% and not 25 percent; use 90º and not 90 degrees; use 33,4ºC and not 33,4 degrees C)

·  Where necessary to scale the unit value suitably, a unit scaling prefix abbreviation may be used directly before the unit abbreviation (without any space), as indicated in the list of unit scaling prefixes and units below. This saves lot of zeros before of after the decimal comma in the case of very large or very small numbers, and also avoids the exponential notation in most cases.

(e.g. 1000 m = 1 km; 10 Mbps = 10 000 000 bps; 2 µs = 0,000 002 s)

·  Please note that the word “meter” is a measuring instrument (e.g. an electricity meter, while the word “metre” is a unit of length or distance (e.g. one metre or 1 m)

Unit scaling prefixes

Abbreviation Short for Scaling factor Exponent

p pico 1/1 000 000 000 000 10-12

n nano 1/1 000 000 000 10-9

µ micro 1/1 000 000 10-6

m milli 1/1000 10-3

c centi 1/100 10-2

d deci 1/10 10-1

D deca 10 101

H hecto 100 102

k kilo 1 000 103

M mega 1 000 000 106

G giga 1 000 000 000 109

T tera 1 000 000 000 000 1012

Common units in our journals

Abbreviation Short for Measurement Common usage