ACIAR GUIDE TO AUTHORS, EDITORS, PROOFERS AND DESIGNERS Last updated 7 May 2014
General ACIAR publishes in four main series—monographs, technical reports, proceedings and impact assessment series—and as a general rule both in paper form and electronically at
Authors and affiliations ACIAR prefers to respect the preference of authors and will therefore attribute authorship to given name (or initials) and family name. For those authors from countries with non- European naming conventions (i.e. China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan) ACIAR prefers to follow the family name – given name convention without contraction to initials. See also “Referencing Chinese/Vietnamese names” towards the end of this document. Authors with permanent email addresses are urged to give that address together with a mailing address for correspondence. Do not use abbreviations for states/provinces and countries in addresses, as ACIAR publications have a large foreign audience. Author contact details can be included in footnotes to multi-authored chapters (e.g. Proceedings and some Technical Reports) or can be included in an "Author contact addresses" section after the Contents.
Review process All papers and manuscripts must be checked by at least one independent reviewer before submission to ACIAR.
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Include abstracts for individual papers within multi-authored volumnes (especially Proceedings and some Technical Reports). Keep your abstract within 300 words or it will lose impact and will likely be rewritten by abstracting journals. Together with the title, the abstract of a paper reporting experimental work should cover: the objective of the paper and/or the study it reports; the methods used; the main results; and a succinct statement of the conclusions reached, including brief mention of any further work that might be needed to clarify findings. Abstracts of review papers need simply describe the objective of the review and the field covered by it. Do not cite references in abstracts, or use abbreviations unless first spelt out.
Foreword All ACIAR scientific publications are to include a 300–600-word foreword signed by the ACIAR Chief Executive Officer. This foreword is to be drafted by the liaising author/editor and submitted with the final manuscript.
Distribution list With submission of your manuscript (or at least shortly afterwards), authors must also submit a list of people’s names and addresses, to whom a complimentary copy of the publication will be sent. This is probably best prepared in consultation with the relevant ACIAR Research Program Manager. This list is to include all those involved in the project, the contributors of the publication, and anyone who the author believes will benefit from receiving a copy. After all, there is no point publishing unless people get to read it.
Acronyms and abbreviations Try to avoid the use of acronyms and abbreviations but where they are used, spell them out the first time they appear in the text, followed by their abbreviated form in brackets. (This applies to 'ACIAR' as well.) Abbreviations and acronyms should be spelt out the first time they are used in each chapter or paper. See ‘-ise, -isation’ in the word list (at the end of this document) for acronyms to watch out for. A list of acronyms and abbreviations can be included at the start if necessary (to be determined on a case-by-case basis). If so, do not precede heading with “List of…”; simply use “Acronyms” or “Abbreviations” or “Acronyms and abbreviations”—whatever is appropriate.
Glossary If you use technical or other terms that may be unfamiliar to some readers explain what they mean the first time each one appears in the paper. If you need to use many unfamiliar terms, a glossary may be helpful. Only proper nouns etc. to be capitalised.
Spelling/style ACIAR’s spelling style is based on the latest edition of The Macquarie dictionary. ACIAR’s style generally follows that set down in the sixth edition of the Style manual (John Wiley & Sons, 2002). See also ‘ACIAR Style Sheet’ at the end of this document. Title: Numbers
Headings Try to restrict the levels of headings/subheadings to three. Please use Word formatting styles to differentiate the levels. (This also facilitates the creation of fully accessible WCAG 2.0-compliant PDF files.) Use lower case letters, except for the initial word and for proper names. Do not use all caps. Headings for “How-to” manuals tend to be numbered (1, 1.1, 1.1.1 etc.), but not for Proceedings and Technical Reports. However, if there are too many numbering systems (for headings, boxes, figures, tables) it can get confusing so take a commonsense approach.
Page numbering ACIAR uses arabic numerals (1, 2, 3 etc.), not lower case Roman numerals, for all pages including preliminaries.
Scientific and common names Ensure accuracy of scientific names (editors should Google them if unsure and query any inconsistencies), and that common names, if used, are used consistently. Genus and species names are to be italicised. It is unnecessary to follow scientific names with ‘L.’, or to give authorship (the authority) of species, unless it is relevant. If it is necessary to give details of the person who described the species, separate the surname from the year of description with a comma (to distinguish it from a reference citation) and include in brackets if originally described in a different genus. (This is probably only useful for species checklists etc.) Spell out genera and species names at the start of sentences, e.g. "Dioscorea alata grows in PNG." (not "D. alata grows in PNG.") Some taxonomic rank conventions: tribes (end in –ae in botany, –ini in zoology), Roman (ie not italics) font, capital letter sections in italics, capital letter varieties, hybrids, races, groups in Roman, capital letter (e.g. rice variety Indica) plant cultivars in Roman, capital letter.
Plant disease names: According to Scientific style and format: the CSE manual for authors, editors and publishers (Council of Science Editors, 7th ed., 2006, p. 390): all words are lower case unless the English language requires it (e.g. place names); and, if a scientific name of a plant pathogenic organism forms part of the disease name, write the scientific name in italics, and use an initial capital if it is a genus name. So it is Fusarium rot, Pythium rootrot etc. Common names of species are lower case unless a proper noun is involved (e.g. red gum, Sydney blue gum, white-faced heron, Antarctic beech). Soil names (e.g. Alfisol, Mollisol) are capitalised (see Scientific style and format: the CSE manual for authors, editors and publishers for more info on soil taxonomy.) Names of planets, including Earth, capitalised.
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ACIAR project numbers ACIAR project numbers start with a 2–4-letter program area code, followed by the year in full and a 3-digit number, each separated by a forward slash (e.g. FST/1994/016; not project 9416). If citing projects in text, provide the project number and, if necessary, the title in italics and brackets. (That way the reader knows how far to skip along to normal text if they choose not to read the sometimes laboriously long title!) Mention the relevant project number and title in Acknowledgments section (avoid citing project number in Foreword).
Commas, dot points and colons Please follow the rulings as set out on page 105 (commas) and pages 142–144 (dot points) in the Style manual (6th ed.). ACIAR does not believe in the ‘Oxford comma’ (comma before 'and') unless it is required for sense. Use a lower-case letter after a colon (e.g. for subtitles, lists etc.)
Units of measurement Use the metric/SI (Système International d’Unitès) system throughout for units of measurement, and use the abbreviation (m, kg, km, ha, °C, mL etc.), except for units of time (year, month etc.), which should be spelt out. There should be a non-breaking space (cntrl-shift-space) between the number and the unit of measurement (e.g. 1 kg, 35 ha, 28 °C, 120 kg N/ha). Note also L and mL (cap L) for litre and millilitre (to avoid typographic confusion with ‘l’ and ‘I’).
Numerals Spell out one to nine, except when followed by a measurement, in which case use the numeral (e.g. 1 year, 3 kg, 4 m). Use numerals when expressing numbers that are not whole (e.g. 3.5). Use a comma in all 4+-digit numbers (e.g. 1,984; 23,420) to avoid possible confusion with calendar years. (Note: this is different from the Style manual.) However, do not use the comma in 4+-digit page numbers in references (see "Reference list – journal articles"). Abbreviate last year in a span (e.g. 2003–04, 1996–97), except when spanning centuries (e.g. 1998–2006). In spans of page numbers, repeat all units (e.g. 930–933).
Currencies ACIAR tends not to use the three-letter international codes for currency (e.g. USD, AUD, SBD). Instead use US$, A$, SI$, ¥15,000, Rp650, with the symbol preceding the dollar sign. Chinese currency is the yuan (not Renminbi). Use the following conventions for Vietnamese (55 dong) and Lao (55 kip). Title: Numbers
Footnotes Avoid using footnotes in the text (except for authors’ addresses on first page of papers in multi-authored works). Footnotes in text are given superscript numbers (1, 2, 3 etc.); footnotes in tables are given superscript lower-case letters (a, b, c etc.).
Equations If equations or formulas occur in the manuscript, number them in sequence. Please give special care to the setting out of equations, which often cause problems for typesetters and proofreaders and therefore are more likely to be printed incorrectly. If any unusual or special symbols are used, spell out what they are in the margin of your manuscript next to where they appear. Refer to equations within text as “equation (1)” (i.e. lower case ‘e’ and the number in brackets). Italicise variables in the equation and in the text, but do not italicise the subscript, e.g. kcat.
Dates Use the following style: 30 May 2006.
Latin expressions Latin expressions, such as in situ, in vitro, ex ante, ex post, inter alia, et al. etc., in Roman type (not italics).
Split infinitives ACIAR supports splitting infinitives (‘to’ and the verb) when it makes the text more readable. For example, “Exporting countries will need to quickly convert to the new system.”
Tables Number tables consecutively and be sure to refer to all of them in the text. Provide a brief title for each table. Do not provide tables as embedded graphics because they cannot be edited. Instead, simply include them as part of the Word document. Keep column headings and descriptive matter in tables to a minimum. Ensure that all abbreviations are explained. Cite source of tables, where appropriate, in the following style: Source: Nigram et al. (2004). Designers should put the table source in smaller font beneath the table. Table legend should sit above table (not below as for figure captions). Figures in tables should be lined up vertically beneath decimal points, or like units (designers and proofers to check).
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Illustrations/figures Number figures consecutively and refer to them in the text. For Proceedings and other publications, where papers/chapters are written by different authors, number sequentially within each chapter Fig. 1, 2, 3 etc. Graphs, figures, illustrations etc. may be copy-and-pasted into the Word document, however, please also submit the original files from which they were created (e.g. Excel, Illustrator, EPS etc.) so that we can edit the words if necessary. Digital photos need to have a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch). As a general rule, anything under about 600 kb will be unprintable. Please aim to provide digital images that are over 1 MB in size (the bigger the better). Please do not crop photos yourself. We require the full-sized image—whatever comes straight off the camera. For composite figures containing several images, please provide the individual high- resolution images separately. Do not compile them yourself and submit as a single image. Large files may need to be copied to a disc or memory stick, rather than emailed. Please label images clearly so that they can be married up with captions. Please also provide photographers’ names or source of images. If reproducing figures or photos from other sources, it is the responsibility of the authors to obtain permission to reproduce. Without such permission ACIAR is unable to proceed with publishing. When submitting photos of people/farmers, it is the photographer’s responsibility to gain permission from the subject to publish the image. Wherever possible, please include farmers’ names in the captions.
Captions for figures and headings for tables Do not use autonumbering (in Word) when numbering tables and figures. This creates problems when typesetting. The figures and tables, together with their captions, headings and legends, should make sense on their own, without referring to text. For this reason, avoid abbreviations unless spelt out. Captions should make a point. This may require an additional sentence to make them relevant to the manuscript. Make sure you clearly associate the figure/photo label with the caption. Use a fullstop only at the end of a full sentence. However, please try to be consistent with captions—either all full sentences or fragments of sentences. Captions for figures appear below figures; headings for tables appear above tables (for designers and proofers to check). When referring to multi-part figures (a, b etc.) in the text, please do not use brackets, even if (a), (b) etc. are used on the actual figure. E.g. “(see Figure 24a and b)”; not “(see Figure 24(a) and (b))”. This convention avoids the awkward use of double brackets. Consider including a list of abbreviated figures and tables at end of Contents (figures, then tables). In some less technical publications this may not be necessary, and should be determined on a case-by-case basis. If you need to cite a source for figures, use the same convention as for tables, i.e. "Source: Nigram et al. (2004)", but include after the caption (not in a smaller font below figure, because this may interfere with the caption). Title: Numbers
For photo credits, use the following convention after the caption: "(Photo: John Smith)".
Appendixes When more than one, appendixes are to be numbered consecutively (use numerals, not letters). Appendixes to appear after main text and before the references, as per Style manual. For publications such as Proceedings that contain discrete, stand-alone papers, the appendixes should come at the end of the chapter they are relevant to.
Reference list Make sure all references cited in text are listed in the Reference section at the end of the document. Every reference in the list must be cited (if not, delete it). ACIAR publications use the author–date system, with references listed alphabetically, according to the authors’ surnames. Except for authors’ initials or directly quoted material, do not use abbreviations in references. Spell out the names of journals in full, because abbreviated journal titles may be unfamiliar to readers in developing countries. Do not underline or type in italics the names of journals or titles of books. Include doi (digital object identifier) at the end of the citation, if one exists (this is useful especially in digital formats, e.g. html). For long lists of authors (more than six), give only the first six, followed by 'et al.'
Appropriate setting out for several common types of references is as follows: Journal articles Akram M., Ahmad S. and Forgash A.J. 1978. Metabolism of etrimfos in bean and corn plants. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 26(2), 1925–1931. [Note: do not use a comma in 4+-digit page numbers when used in journal and other references, to avoid confusion with too many commas.] Books Snelson J.T. 1987. Grain protectants. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research: Canberra. RSPO (Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil) 2007. [Title]. RSPO: [Place of publication]. Conference proceedings Champ B.R. and Highley E. (eds) 1986. Pesticides and humid tropical grain storage systems. Proceedings of an international seminar, Manila, 27–30 May 1985. ACIAR Proceedings No. 14. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research: Canberra. Articles in books Sieper H. 1972. Residues and metabolism of lindane. Pp. 79–112 in ‘Lindane–monograph of an insecticide’, ed. by E. Ulmann. Verlag K. Schillinger: Berlin. Articles in numbered conference proceedings (no need to include subtitle info) Magallona E.D. 1986. Developing-country perspectives and use of pesticides. In ‘Pesticides and humid tropical grain storage systems’, ed. by B.R. Champ and E. Highley. ACIAR Proceedings No. 14, 125–130. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research: Canberra.
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Articles in unnumbered proceedings (provide subtitle info about the proceedings) Miller C. 1980. Pesticides. Pp. 12–33 in ‘Agricultural practices. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of Farmers, Brisbane, 5 June 1980’, ed. by S. Masters. University of Oxford Press: London. Articles in current proceedings being edited (see below) In press references Smith L.P. in press. Title... For URLs, include within less than and more than symbols (
References cited within text If citing a paper from the current proceedings being edited, cite as you would any other paper (i.e. author and anticipated year of publication), and then list in references as for numbered conference proceedings, followed by "[These proceedings]" Unpublished data and personal communications should only be cited in the text (not reference list), as in the following examples: “…R. Smith (unpublished data)”; “…W. Jones (pers. comm.)”, or “(M. Rosegrant pers. comm. 2013) where entire citation is in parentheses. Do not cite ‘in prep.’ references; only ‘in press’ references to be cited as “Smith (in press)” or “...(Smith, in press)”, and these must be included in reference list. Give author’s surname and date; if more than one reference, arrange chronologically and separate with semicolons; do not italicise ‘et al.’. Example: …(White and Brown 1982; Cameron 1998a, b, 1999, 2010; Brown et al. 1992). List references in order of date (then alphabetical, if dates of two papers the same). When citing a title of a paper or book in the main body text, use lower case letters and put in single quotes. If citing an organisation with an accepted acronym, use the acronym and date; and, in reference list, start with acronym and include full name in brackets.
Referencing Chinese/Vietnamese and other names Chinese and Vietnamese names consist of three elements, the family name being first (e.g. Ngo Dinh Diem, Vo Nguyen Giap), but people are politely referred to by the last part of their given name (e.g. Professor Diem, or Giap). As in English, the family name is used in alphabetising (so, in a reference list, Ngo Dinh Giap 2008 precedes Vo Nguyen Dien 2008). Text citations use either the full name or just the family name (Ngo Dinh Diem 2008 or Ngo 2008). Title: Numbers
Cambodian names are similar to Chinese and Vietnamese names (surname followed by given name), however Lao and Thai names follow the English tradition (given name followed by surname).
Indigenous Australian terminology Use Aboriginal (not Aborigine) as both noun and adjective. Always spell out Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (do not abbreviate to ATSI). 'Myths' and 'legends' are inappropriate terms; use Dreamtime stories for Aboriginals and creation stories for Torres Strait Islanders. 'Country', in an Indigenous Australian context, is a term that conveniently abbreviates all the values, places, resources, stories and cultural obligations associated with a particular area. Use capital I for Indigenous when referring to people or communities (for Australians and other nationalities), but lower case otherwise. The terms 'traditional' and 'contemporary' should be avoided in an Indigenous Australian context, because many Indigenous people continue traditional practices in contemporary situations. The term 'tribe' is not to be used in the context of Indigenous Australians. Use groups, peoples or communities instead.
Use English version of foreign place names in English documents Use the English version of foreign place names in English documents. For example, use East Nusa Tenggara (not Nusa Tenggara Timur) and West Nusa Tenggara (not Nusa Tenggara Barat) for the Indonesian provinces.
Country names Generally we follow what DFAT and the UN use, e.g. South Africa, Timor-Leste, with some exceptions (DAFT/ACIAR use Vietnam, not Viet Nam; and Burma, not Myanmar, unless referring to Myanmar Government).
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ACIAR STYLE SHEET (formatting, spelling, numbers) Formatting accents for foreign words Avoid use of accents when anglicised, e.g. Noumea (not Nouméa), beche-de-mer (not bêche-de-mer).
ACIAR project numbers LWR2/1988/013, FIS/1992/005 (include 2–4-digit program code, full year and 3-digit project number separated by slashes); use sentence case for full project titles
Australian Act names italicised, e.g. Forestry Act 1991 including the year; non-Australian Acts in Roman type (as per p.225 of Style manual) appendixes Appendix 1, 2, 3 etc. (not A, B, C). Appendixes to precede references. apostrophes, in expressions of Only use when reference is in the singular, e.g. a day's time journey, the year's cycle. Do not use when plural (six weeks time, ten years experience). commas either side to separate e.g. Aiyura, PNG, and… country from region capitalisation minimal (e.g. disease names lower case), but capitalise names of plant cultivars, planets (including Earth) colons to be followed by a lower-case letter
Contents not Table of contents; include a list of abbreviated figures and tables at end for the more technical publications dot or dash points; one level first level dots, second level dashes (spaced en rules); preferably formatting as per Style manual, full stop at end of last point only, except full punctuation for complete sentences email addresses Put < and > either side, e.g.
ranges or equivalent terms Wales agreement footnotes in text 1, 2, 3 footnotes in tables a,b,c except where confusion with superscript numbers (statistical significance annotations)
Foreword to precede Contents headings Caps for first word in heading only hyphenate compound adjectives unless ending in –ly, or consisting of a comparative or superlative (see pp.91–92 of Style manual) hyphenate north-eastern, south- western etc. numbered lists 1., 2., 3. Follow style manual, i.e. lower case for sentence fragments. For run-on lists preceded by colon, use (1), (2), (30, separated by semicolons, e.g. This example contains: (1) this item; (2) another item; and (3) a final item. page numbers arabic (1, 2, 3 etc.) for all; do not use Roman numbers for preliminary pages
Preface (if applicable) to follow Contents single quote marks not double quote marks, unless dialogue within quotation single space after fullstops not double space slash (/) without spaces unless separating non-simple terms; also, use / in expressions such as kg/ha (not kg ha-1). Nb: a slash should only be used when separating alternatives (yes/no; male/female), as a substitute for 'per' when units of measurements are abbreviated, and in web addresses. time: 7 am, 10.02 pm no dots, space after numerals no space between initials, full e.g. R.W. stops variables italicise in equations, footnotes etc. vertical type read from bottom to top on LHS, top to bottom on RHS; spine type top to bottom.
Websites and email addresses Enclosed in <>, e.g.
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Spelling, capitalisation, hyphenation etc.
Aboriginal Not Aborigine; see main text for more on Indigenous Australian terminology. above-ground, below-ground, in- adj. hyphenated; 2 words otherwise ground academic degrees Do not capitalise when used generally, e.g. a bachelor of science degree, a master of arts degree, a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, but abbreviate when used after the full name to PhD, BA, BSc etc. without spaces and fullstops. acid-sulfate soils acknowledgment adaptation not adaption adviser (not advisor) aetiology not etiology
Afghan adjective for native of Afghanistan afghani Afghan unit of currency, lower case, plural afghanis abbreviated ‘afs’
African regions eastern, northern, western, southern Africa (not East Africa, North Africa, West Africa – to avoid confusion with South Africa the country). agriculture sector not 'agricultural sector'; elsewhere, when using agriculture as an adjective, use agricultural, e.g. agricultural development agroecological, agroecosystems, agroenterprise airfreight, airtight one word air-dry hyphenated although not 'though' (unless preceded in the expression 'even though') among not amongst
Appendix 1, 2, 3 (not A, B, C) Appendixes (not Appendices) pl.
Asia–Pacific region with en rule, lower case ‘r’ for region; note: ‘Asia– Pacific’ is a compound adjective (not a compound noun), and so expressions such as “He works in the Asia–Pacific” are not acceptable. It should be “He works
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in the Asia–Pacific region, or in Asia–Pacific countries”.
ASLP Australia–Pakistan Agriculture Sector Linkages Program (1 & 2). Note: use of en rule, and 'Agriculture' (not Agricultural)
Attorney-General’s Department Hyphenated
AusAID As of November 2013, AusAID became integrated within DFAT. So only mention AusAID if in reference to the past; otherwise replace with Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – Australian Aid, the Australian Government, Australia, an Australian aid initiative, Australian aid project. If you need to acknowledge an identity, use ‘Australian Aid’ or ‘Australian Government’.
Australian aid program, lower case used; but use upper case in this expression: Australia’s aid program, “DFAT – Australian Aid” Australia’s overseas aid program
Australian Government not Federal or Commonwealth Government. Nb: use of 'Commonwealth of Australia' may still apply when used to describe the entity established by the constitution or in a geographic sense.
Australian International Food Spell out in full at first mention, then refer to it with the Security Research Centre acronym or as ‘Food Security Centre’. Note the original (AIFSRC) url for the Centre remains
BBP2TP Indonesian Institute for Agricultural Technology Assessment and Development (the national parent institution for the BPTPs) beche-de-mer To describe dried sea cucumber; note that the circumflex above the first 'e' is not used.
BPTPs Assessment Institutes for Agricultural Technologies (BPTPs) benefit:cost ratio not benefit to cost ratio; note benefit comes before cost. See also cost–benefit analysis. benefited, benefiting bilateral (not hyphenated) biocontrol, biodiesel, Title: Numbers
bioeconomic, biofuel, biolubricant, biotechnology, bioinsecticide
-borne (e.g. soil-borne, leaf- hyphenated when used as adj. borne, tick-borne) brackish water / brackish-water noun / adj. brassica(s) (lower case, not italics) common name for members of the family Brassicaceae; Brassica (cap B, italics) is one of the many genera in the family break-even adj. broadacre, broadleaf broodstock one word; takes plural verb brussels sprouts buffalo (singular) / buffaloes (plural) build-up
Burma/Myanmar Australian Government uses Myanmar and Yangon (capital) in communications with and public statements about the Myanmar Government, but Burma (and Rangoon) in other contexts (e.g. internal documents, but always referring to Myanmar Government). For most of ACIAR’s purposes, Burma is the default (except if referring to Myanmar Government). You can use Burma/Myanmar in the same sentence: e.g. “The Government welcomes the President of Myanmar to Australia. Australia has good relations with the Burmese people and wants to strength ties with Burma and is talking to the Myanmar Government to this effect.” More detail, as per DFAT’s circular in March 2014: Use Burma/Rangoon, within Australian government and between countries that continue to use Burma (e.g.UK and USA), and in multilateral contexts (e.g. UN) Use Myanmar/Yangon, in dealings with Myanmar Government in Australia and overseas (including in-country), ASEAN parties (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam), China.
bycatch
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by-product
C3/C4 plants Use subscripts (not C3/C4).
CABI Not CAB International
Canarium nuts Italicise genus name capacity building / capacity- noun / adj. building carbon-sequestration potential hyphenated (when used as compound adjective) carcass not carcase
CD-ROM not CD-Rom
Central Plain (of Thailand) Not Central Plains
CGIAR Never spell out what CGIAR stands for; do not use 'the' in front of CGIAR, unless CGIAR is used as an adjective (e.g. the CGIAR system); never abbreviate CGIAR Research Programs to CRPs; CGIAR Centres (cap C) chapter/paper For Proceedings, refer to them as papers. For single- authored volumes, refer to them as chapters or sections.
Chapter 1, Section X, Table 1, initial caps (singular or plural) when referring to figures Figures 1 and 2 within the publication; lower case (singular or plural) when referring to figures in another publication chickpea one word chilli (singular), chillies (plural)
CIP International Potato Center (Peru) clear-cut hyphenated close-up co-author, co-ancestry hyphenated cocoa pod borer 3 words, no hyphens, can be abbreviated to CPB colouration co-integrat/e/ation etc. common names for species lower case, unless they include a proper noun, in which case that word only is upper case
Commonwealth see Australian Government Title: Numbers
compare with/to use ‘with’ if highlighting differences; ‘to’ if highlighting similarities cooperate, coordinate cost–benefit analysis Use en rule (not hyphen) cost-effective country names If applicable, use the name used by UN (see www.un.org/en/members/index.shtml) cowpea one word crossbreed cross-section, cross-disciplinary, Note that multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary are one cross-fertilise word! cut-and-carry data plural database, dataset decision-making, decision-makers denutting development assistance program No hyphens; but if the expression is longer, e.g. international development assistance program, you may have to hyphenate to avoid confusion (so the reader doesn't read it as 'international development', as opposed to 'international development-assistance program') director-general hyphenated; plural director-generals direct seeding, direct-seeded rice disease names lower case, except for proper names used in the disease name, e.g. Newcastle disease, infectious bursal disease virus, Gumboro disease, Fusarium rot, fasciolosis district not District (same rule as for province) dryland dry-season / dry season hyphenated when used as adjective; 2 words otherwise
Earth / earth cap E for the planet / lower case e for soil
East Timor See Timore-Leste eco-forestry
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economic v. economical use 'economic' when relating to income, wealth or the economy; 'economical' only when you mean thrifty efficiencies water use efficiency, nitrogen use efficiency, fertiliser use efficiency—no hyphens used, despite being compound adjectives e.g. comma before in text (but not after) email lower case e, not hyphenated end-grain panels end user equation (1) not Equation (1), Equation 1 erodible (not in Macquarie dictionary) et al. not italics etc. ex-ante, ex-post (adj) / ex ante, not italics; hyphenated when used as adjective; not ex post (adv) hyphenated when used as adverb faba bean two words farmer field schools farm gate / farm-gate noun / adj. faeces, faecal Not feces, fecal
Federal See Australian Government fenceline fieldwork
Fiji islands lower case ‘i’; Fiji is the name of the country and Fiji islands should only be used when discussing the islands specifically fingerprinting firsthand fisher / fisherman Generally fisher, rather than fisherman, but depends on context. If the fishers are only men, then fisherman/men can be used. If in doubt, use fisher. fishery/fisheries Use plural in terms such as Fisheries Commission, aquaculture and fisheries management – except when the fishery refers to one stock, one species, e.g. Bluefin Tuna fishery in PNG. Title: Numbers
fishmeal flood plain / floodplain noun / adjective floodwater(s) focused/focusing one s focuses (plural) not foci foetus, foetal not fetus, fetal
-fold words rather than numerals for numbers, e.g. fourfold follow-up (adj., noun), to follow up (verb) foot-and-mouth disease forums not fora freeze-dry/dried/drying hyphenated fresh water / freshwater noun / adj. fruit fly, but fruit-fly bait, fruit-fly hyphenate fruit-fly only when used as a compound research adjective fuelwood full-time hyphenated further/farther use ‘farther’ with distance; ‘further’ with concepts gastrointestinal gene bank, gene pool germplasm one word government/Government Use cap G if part of formal title (e.g. Vietnamese Government, South Australian Government) but lower case when used generally (state government, Australian and NZ governments). grasspea grassroots greenhouse gases groundcover, groundwater for both noun and adj. groundnut Use peanut instead grow-out hyphenated, for both noun and adj.
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guinea grass lower case ‘g’ halfway handline (fishing), handtool, handwoven health care (n) / healthcare (adj) two words as a noun; one word as adjective hemispheres Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere (caps) highlands lower case h, e.g. PNG highlands high-value product not high-valued product the Hon. ACIAR uses the fullstop in abbreviations, including titles, in all its publications, even though PM&C doesn't. honey bee i.e. comma before in text hp abbreviation for horsepower (not HP or H.P.)
IARCs International Agricultural Research Centres (use caps when spelling out). Note that not all IARCs are CGIAR Centres, so be sure you are using the correct term. AVRDC (World Vegetable Center), for example, is not a CGIAR Centre. in-country index, indexes plural not indices
Indigenous/indigenous use cap I when referring to native human inhabitants of a country, but lower case otherwise
Indochina
Indonesia thin tail sheep lower case for common names of animal breeds infection/infestation internal/external infra-red hyphenated in-situ, in-vitro (adj.) in situ, in vitro (adv.) (no italics) interdisciplinary one word internal rate of return to be abbreviated IRR once first spelt out
International Agricultural Capitalised, but see IARC entry for more information Research Centres (IARCs) internet lower case i Title: Numbers
-ise / -isation endings not –ize / -ization endings (note world organisations WHO, WTO, FAO are spelt with a ‘z’; but OECD, OIE are spelt with ‘s’) jerib Afghan unit of area (not jarib, jareb or jirib) joint-venture noun judgement Only use judgment without an e if in a legal context.
Kharif cap K (season) ladybird/ladybug Australian term is ladybird, but in PNG they call them ladybugs. landcare lower case l, one word landholders, landmass, one word landowners
Lao PDR / Laos / Lao / Laotian Use “Lao PDR” (not “the Lao PDR” or “Laos”) when used formally and in titles; otherwise “Laos”. Adjective: use “Lao” (not “Laotian”) land use / land-use noun / adj. leaf spot two words learned not learnt life cycle; life span; lifestyle liver fluke two words (when used as a compound adj. and noun) liveweight one word (n. and adj.) longline(r) two words longstanding one word
Luang Prabang (a province in Laos), not Luang Phabang. macro-economic
Maldives Use (the) Republic of Maldives in first instance, then abbreviate to (the) Maldives. Include 'the' if it sounds better (in most cases). mandate / mandated noun / adj. mangoes mega/million abbreviated M, no space between M and unit, e.g. Mha (millions of hectares), Mt (megatonne). See million... merino lower case for names of animal breeds
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marketplace
Mekong Delta caps meta analysis microclimate, microcredit, one word microfinance, micronutrient micro-organism hyphenated mid 1990s mid-summer / mid summer adj / noun million dollars $2 million; or $2m (unspaced) in tables etc. Abbreviation only to be used with monetary units (otherwise can be confused with metres). modelling mollusc not mollusk monocropping motorbike, motorcycle multidisciplinary, multidonor, multifaceted, multilateral, multipurpose, multisite, multistage, multitrace mungbean one word
Myanmar/Burma See Burma/Myanmar
National Agricultural Research not National Agriculture Research Institute Institute (PNG) natural resource management no hyphens net present value to be abbreviated NPV once first spelt out
NGO non-government organisation (spell out first time expression used). Nb: this diverges from Macquarie Dictionary treatment (= non-governmental organisation). nitrogen use efficiency nonlinear (one word)
North-East Thailand a designated geographic entity no-one Title: Numbers
north-west number (the/a) 'A number' takes plural verb; 'the number' singular verb.
Nusa Tenggara Use 'East Nusa Tenggara' and 'West Nusa Tenggara' for the Indonesian provinces (not the Indonesian spelling, Nusa Tenggara Timur and Nusa Tenggara Barat) on-farm, ongoing, online, onshore on-site / on site adj. / adv. outcompete overestimate, overexploitation, overfishing, oversupply, overripe, overmature, overuse
% not per cent
P < 0.05 italicised P for probability
Pacific islands, Pacific islanders, lower case ‘i’ Pacific island countries
Pacific region Use 'Pacific region' instead of 'the Pacific' (see notes for Asia–Pacific region) to refer to countries in the Pacific Ocean; only use 'the Pacific' if it's clumsy to repeat 'region'.
Pan-Africa(n) Cap P and hyphen
Parliamentary Secretary for Mr Richard Marles – use both titles spelt out in full (not Pacific Island Affairs; Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs and Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs). Foreign Affairs partner-country / partner country hyphenated when used as a compound adj. (e.g. partner-country researchers), but not otherwise (research carried out by partner countries…) parts per million to be abbreviated ppm once first spelt out part-time hyphenated
Pashto Afghan language (not Pashtu or Pushto) pawpaw one word pay-off hyphenated
Peninsular Malaysia people's lives
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pers. comm., pers. obs. per se not italics pH
PhD, MSc no dots the Philippines Include ‘the’ (unlike in the case for Solomon Islands), except if it's the first word in a heading or table entry. Note: Philippine is the adjective (but Philippines program, ie the program in the Philippines). Use Filipina and Filipino for female and male Philippine nationals. planthopper plateau (singular), plateaus not plateaux (plural) policymaker, policymaking postgraduate postharvest, preharvest / post- one word for the adjective / hyphenated for the noun harvest postlarvae, postlarval post-mortem noun / adj. present-value terms proactive program not programme province(s) lower case ‘p’, e.g. Punjab province, except when 'Province' is part of the province name, e.g. Eastern Province and Northern Province in PNG pulp mill purebred purse seine quality not to be used as an adjective without a qualifier. Need to define the quality, e.g. high-quality
Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
Queensland, New South Wales in text etc.
Qld, NSW etc. in tables Title: Numbers
R&D no spaces; also note that it is treated as a singular concept, even when spelt out (e.g. Agricultural research and development is considered important.)
Rabi cap R - Indian dry (winter) season rainfed, rainwater reef-fish noun AND adj. region lower case (e.g. Mekong region) real-life adj. re-create to create again, not recreate reinfest, reinvent
South Africa Not Republic of South Africa (following UN and DFAT conventions) resource use respecification re-treat to treat again, not retreat re-use rhizobia common name for species of Rhizobium and other genera of soil bacteria right-hand adj.
River/rivers Murray River, Murray and Darling rivers (lower case r when used in the plural) rootrot, rootstock
Rp Indonesian rupiah runaway, run-off
Saint and Street, both no fullstops abbreviated to St salt water / saltwater noun / adj. sandfish one word; refers to Holothuria scabra
Savu (Islands, Indonesia) not Sabu seabass sea cucumber two words; refers to the live animals (cf. bêche-de-mer, which is dried)
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sea-farming sea level / sea-level noun / adj. sea water / seawater noun / adj. seedbank, seedlot seed stock / seed-stock noun / adj. self-aware, self-concept, self- employed, self-esteem, self- sufficient, self-worth sensu not italics set-up hyphenated for both the noun and adjective shelf life / shelf-life noun / adj. short-term (adj.) but ...in the short term shrimp/prawn; shrimps/prawns shrimp (general term), black tiger shrimp (Penaeus (plural) monodon), white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). In Australia ‘shrimp’ refers to freshwater spp. and ‘prawn’ only for edible marine spp. and a few large freshwater species. In most of Asia the opposite terminology is used. side-by-side
Simbu province (PNG) not Chimbu (a former name) sizeable not sizable smallholder Nb: refer to 'smallholders' or 'smallholder farmers', not 'small farmers' sp., spp. (pl), sp. nov., subsp. (subspecies) socioeconomic, sociocultural
Solomon Islands (not the Solomon Islands, and cap I for Islands)
South-East Asia
South-East Sulawesi, South (provinces) Sulawesi soybean spillover state/territory generally lower case, unless an abbreviation for the NT (the Territory) Title: Numbers
stemborer stingray sub-basin subequal, subcommittee, subcontinent, subdistrict, subdivision, subfamily, subprogram, subproject, subregion, subspecies, subtropical
Sub-Sahara, Sub-Saharan Africa May be abbreviated to SSA after first being spelt out. sundry (v), sundrying (n), sun- drying (adj), sun-dried (adj) sugarcane sulfur, sulfate f (not ph) surface water sweetpotato one word (unlike Macquarie Dictionary) t-test targeted test tube two words the University of Queensland etc. lower case t for 'the'
Tibet Autonomous Region
Tibetan Plateau
Tibet province tilapia lower case t for the common name time frame timescale
Timor-Leste/East Timor Use Timor-Leste (following practice of referring to a country by the name it uses at the UN). Adjective “Timorese”. If necessary East Timor can follow in parentheses. Note, it is correct to use East Timor for references before 20 May 2002 (date of independence). tine not tyne trade-off, tradeable
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trans-boundary, trans-disciplinary hyphenated tranship not transship travelled trialled tuber v. root Sweetpotato is not a tuber, but a modified root. Use ‘root’ or ‘storage root’ when referring to sweetpotato. turnaround underdeveloped, underused underway always one word up-front adj. / adv. usable not useable value-add value chain (two words as noun) value-chain (hyphenated as compound adj.) versus if abbreviated, use ‘vs.’
Vietnam not Viet Nam, even though it is listed as such on UN website; DFAT also uses Vietnam wastewater water bodies waterbirds, watercourse, waterlogged, watertable water resource management water use efficiency See also ‘efficiency’ wellbeing well-developed adj.; but ...is well developed wet season / wet-season noun / adjective whale shark which/that Use ‘which’ in a clause separated with commas when info is not necessary for sense of sentence (parenthetical situations); use ‘that’ with no comma when info is essential for sense of sentence. while not whilst Title: Numbers
woodchip(s) workplace
WorldFish Center worldwide one word
WWF World Wide Fund for Nature year-round adj. year's / years' See Formatting section, 'apostrophes in expressions of time' zero till, zero-till system, zero tillage
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Numbers arithmetic symbols = ; > ; + spaces either side numbers spelled out nine and under, except when followed by a measurement (1 year, 3 kg, 4 m); 10 and over as digits large numbers with commas, before last 3 digits, e.g. 4,000; 25,000
2000–01 and 1998–99 but 1999– en dash, not hyphen; not 2000–1 2000 ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) no superscripts, but spell out in general text for numbers up to 100 and for large round numbers page number spans, e.g. 930– Repeat all units 933
30 June 2000 in general text not 30 June, 2000 or June 30th 2000 etc.
1990s; 2000s
5-year-old boy three-fifths; one-half; one-quarter twofold time do not abbreviate units (year, month); use "am" and "pm" (no dots, preceded with a space) units as 0.5 m, with non-breaking space currencies US$, A$, SI$ (not USD, AUD, SBD etc.)
21st century, 23rd, 19th ordinals not with superscripts
% always use % with numbers (e.g. not 70 per cent)
For further advice and assistance Contact Georgina Hickey, ACIAR Publications Manager, GPO Box 1571, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Phone +61 2 6217 0534; fax +61 2 6217 0501; email: [email protected]