Style guide
Key points
- Times 12 pt text; Times 11pt references.
- Single quotation marks – double apostrophes only for quotes within quotes.
- UK English.
- Superscript reference numbers as opposed to putting them in brackets (although this is automatic in Word).
- Supply copyright permission for images alongside versions in separate file (300dpi for photographs/halftones and 1200dpi for line drawings.
- Supply tables and graphs separately.
- Follow the guidelines for references.
Style of presentation
• Give your name, address, and competing interest declaration on a separate cover sheet, as reviews are double-anonymous.
• Main text: Times, 12pt. Notes: Times, 11pt.
• Divide the text with sub-headings, centred and in bold.
• Do not use ALL CAPS.
Typographical Conventions
• Paragraphs should be denoted using an indent; do not leave a line space between paragraphs.
• Reference works, names of biological organisms, Latin words, etc. should be italicised.
• Use superscript for notes (automatic in Word), following punctuation. Do not use brackets or any other separators around endnote/footnote numbers, e.g. ...and had them killed.(12) as to find and replace these [brackets] would remove all legitimate brackets elsewhere.
• See References section for model notes.
Spelling
• Use UK English spellings – colour, flavour, defence, recognise, etc.
• Use -ise not -ize; ie. analyse.
Set your spellchecker to UK English to help with this – Tools > Language > UK English.
• Use capitals for First World War, Second World War.
• Use per cent in text, % with digits (see numbers below).
Dates
• 15 May 1840; May 1840; 1840–1903; 1843/4 (use for a term or period overlapping the years). Do not abbreviate months.
• mid-1940s; late 1960s, mid-sixth century; mid-sixth-century Bible; mid-century; AD; BC; May 1940; inter-war.
• Times: 7.30 or 8.00; 10pm.
• Sixth century, sixth-century Bible; late sixth-century Bible.
Numbers
• One to a hundred in words, 101 onwards in figures, except for round numbers, e.g. a thousand, a million, etc. There are exceptions to this, namely statistics – such as when the text is making a series of comparisons (e.g. ‘the numbers were 42, 58 and 64 respectively’) , ages (‘80-year-old’, but not ‘aged eighty’), and decimal places (8.25).
• Use hyphens – forty-four, sixty-five, eighty-nine.
• For statistics, use figures when an abbreviated quantity is used: 5cl, 98mg, 45mph, etc.
• If the statistic is a one-off (or at the beginning of a sentence), then use written number and the do not abbreviate quantity. Example: ‘Five centilitres of alcohol would be enough to make the man drunk.’
• Use as few figures as possible: 1252–4, 113–24, 24–5, 20–1, 500–1, 1850–1903 (but do not interrupt 11–19 as eleven to nineteen are whole words).
• Always write the number out in full at the start of the sentence.
Hyphens and dashes
• Use where grammatically appropriate. Examples: ‘30-year-old man’ but do not use hyphens for ‘male, 30 years old’, ‘good-looking’ but not in ‘good looks’, etc.
• Use to breaking up vowels in compound words, e.g. anti-alcoholism; micro-organism; co-ordination.
See also Dates above.
• For a parenthesis, use two en-dashes to separate the clause – like this – rather than a normal hyphen.
• Use closed up en-dash between words of equal weight, e.g. doctor–patient relationship, and in dates e.g. 1721–35.
Quotes
• Use single apostrophes for quotes, double apostrophes for quotes within quotes.
Examples: She said ‘yes’ and ‘We know that she said “yes”.’
• If quote runs to more than three lines, set out as separate paragraph. Quote marks to be removed later in final version.
• The full stop at the end of the quote falls either in or out of the quotation marks depending upon the emphasis of the quote in the sentence. For example, if the quote is a full sentence, punctuate within. If just a word or phrase is used, then punctuate outside.
• Use an ellipsis (three dots only, no spaces immediately following last letter of word) for missing portions of quote (...). However, if the missing portion is at the end, add a full stop. (....) For example, like this for an unfinished sentence...
...or like this for one missing its beginning.
If the missing component starts the quote as a new sentence, omit the ellipsis and place the first letter in a capital in square brackets, like this: [F]or example...
Titles
• Capitalise proper words: ie. Galina Kichigina, The Imperial Laboratory (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009).
• Books, journals, TV series in italics; individual articles, chapters, episodes in single apostrophes.
• Do not abbreviate journal titles and periodicals – with the exception of the BMJ as that is its branding – full titles please.
• Please check whether the definite article is included in the title. Use definite article where grammatically correct but do not italicise if not part of title. Example: The Times, The Lancet, etc.
Foreign Titles
• Same as English titles, but only capitalise according to the conventions of the corresponding language.
• In text, please add English translation in square brackets afterward first use.
Illustrations, photos and graphs
• Please note that the maximum printable area on a page is 120(w) x 180(h)mm. This does impose a limitation on the information content in tables/graphs, etc. as the font size must be sufficiently large enough to be readable.
• Images should be supplied with captions detailing their origin and date, with a clear indication of the text to which they refer. Copyright/permission details should be provided.
• Line artwork (graphs) should be saved at 1200dpi and ideally saved as TIFF or EPS files.
Halftones (photographs) should be saved at 300dpi and ideally saved as TIFF files.
• Charges apply for all colour figures that appear in the print version of the journal. At the time of submission, contributors should clearly state whether their figures should appear in colour in the online version only, or whether they should appear in colour online and in the print version. There is no charge for including colour figures in the online version of the Journal but it must be clear that colour is needed to enhance the meaning of the figure, rather than simply being for aesthetic purposes. If you request colour figures in the printed version, you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink who are acting on our behalf to collect Author Charges. Please follow their instructions in order to avoid any delay in the publication of your article.
• Data for tables and graphs must be supplied separately in simple columns without table outlines or hyphens. Notes for tables must be separate from the main text of an article.
• Do not supply your images embedded in a Word Document.
See also Naming Files below.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Contractions do not require full stops but omissions do. For example, ‘eds’ for editors, ‘ed.’ for editor and ‘Dr’ for Doctor.
• Acronyms should be capitalised but should not be separated by full stops.
• Use of abbreviated measurements: no space, no full stop, such as 5cl, 25mg, 50cm, etc.
• Abbreviations: ch.; chs; Dr; BL; BN; DNB; ed.; eds; edn; eg.; US; USA; cf.; col.; cols; fo.; ff.; ie.; idem; ibid.; et al.; MD; etc., St; ms (but MS III); no.; nos; op. cit.; passim; pt 3; D.Phil.; IQ; t. 3; vol.; vols; (but Vol. 3); Mr; Mrs; Mme; NJ; NY; b.; d.; r.; s.v.; n.p.; n.d.; BMJ; fl; AD; BC; BSc; BA; (n.p., n.d); Suppl.; viz.; PhD.
• Never use an abbreviation (e.g.) at the start of a sentence.
• Use especially/university/dissertation/professor in full.
References
• The following style should be used for references:
1. James Johnston Abraham, Lettsom: His life, Times, Friends, and Descendants (London: Heinemann, 1933), 33.
[Full author name if available. Title in italics. Capitalise proper words for English titles, otherwise follow rule appropriate to language for foreign titles. Publication details in brackets in following order Location: Publisher, Year. Omit pp. and see numbers section for page ranges. References to multiple articles/books must be separated by a semi-colon.]
2. Ilina Singh, ‘Bad Boys, Good Mothers, and the “Miracle” of Ritalin’, Science in Context, 15, 4 (2002), 577-603.
[If initials only available, use no spaces in between. Article title in single quotes, journal title in italics. Do not abbreviate journal title, full titles please. Volume before issue number (where applicable). Please note the style when referring to specific pages within an article. No need to bold volume number.]
3. W.F. Bynum and R. Porter (eds), Medicine and the Five Senses (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 37–43.
4. Smith, op. cit. (note 4), 235–67.
[When cross-referencing to an earlier note, op. cit. and the note number in brackets must be used. Additionally, use only the author’s surname, omitting initials – do not use idem to avoid confusion. If there are multiple references to the same author in the earlier note, add an abbreviated version of the article’s title to which you are referring - Smith, Previous Book, op. cit. (note 4)...]
5. L. Granshaw, ‘The rise of the modern hospital in Britain’, in A. Wear (ed.), Medicine in Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 197-218.
6. Ibid., 25.
[Use idem for cross-referencing within a note; ibid. for the previous note and op. cit. for notes further away - always put full details in the first instance and refer to an earlier note (rather than ‘below’).]
7. W. Wundt, Principles of Physiological Psychology, E. Titchener (trans.), 5th edn (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1910), 11.
[If necessary additional details after the title.]
8. ‘Title of Thesis’ (unpublished PhD thesis: University of London, 2005).
[For unpublished theses, titles in apostrophes, not italicised, with details of university and date above.]
• More than three authors/eds – use the first name followed by et al.
• Omit p. and pp.
Naming Files
• Name files with your surname.
• For images, surname and by order of appearance within an article:
Jones-1.tif
Jones-2.tif
Author affiliations
Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.
For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.
Competing Interests
All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their title page. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.
Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations.
If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.
Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
ORCID
We encourage authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration with key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:
- Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you have authored.
- Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
- Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.
See our ORCID FAQs for more information. If you don’t already have an iD, you can create one by registering directly at https://ORCID.org/register.
ORCIDs can also be used if authors wish to communicate to readers up-to-date information about how they wish to be addressed or referred to (for example, they wish to include pronouns, additional titles, honorifics, name variations, etc.) alongside their published articles. We encourage authors to make use of the ORCID profile’s “Published Name” field for this purpose. This is entirely optional for authors who wish to communicate such information in connection with their article. Please note that this method is not currently recommended for author name changes: see Cambridge’s author name change policy if you want to change your name on an already published article. See our ORCID FAQs for more information.
Policy on prior publication
When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.
Supplementary materials
Material that is not essential to understanding or supporting a manuscript, but which may nonetheless be relevant or interesting to readers, may be submitted as supplementary material. Supplementary material will be published online alongside your article, but will not be published in the pages of the journal. Types of supplementary material may include, but are not limited to, appendices, additional tables or figures, datasets, videos, and sound files.
Supplementary materials will not be typeset or copyedited, so should be supplied exactly as they are to appear online. Please see our general guidance on supplementary materials for further information.
Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools
We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content.
In particular, any use of an AI tool:
- to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s).
- to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements.
- to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript.
- must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission.
Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.
Acknowledgements
Authors can use this section to acknowledge and thank colleagues, institutions, workshop organisers, family members, etc. that have helped with the research and/or writing process. It is important that that any type of funding information or financial support is listed under ‘Financial Support’ rather than Acknowledgements so that it can be recorded separately (see here).
We are aware that authors sometimes receive assistance from technical writers, language editors, artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication. Such assistance must be noted in the cover letter and in the Acknowledgements section, along with a declaration that the author(s) are entirely responsible for the scientific content of the paper and that the paper adheres to the journal’s authorship policy. Failure to acknowledge assistance from technical writers, language editors, AI tools and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication in the cover letter and in the Acknowledgements section may lead to disqualification of the paper. Examples of how to acknowledge assistance in drafting manuscripts:
- “The author(s) thank [name and qualifications] of [company, city, country] for providing [medical/technical/language] writing support/editorial support [specify and/or expand as appropriate], which was funded by [sponsor, city, country]."
- “The author(s) made use of [AI system/tool] to assist with the drafting of this article. [AI version details] was accessed/obtained from [source details] and used with/without modification [specify and/or expand as appropriate] on [date(s)].
Author Hub
You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.