nanoHUB.org Style Guide 1.0

Style preferences are adapted from The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Ed. (CMS), and IEEE Standards Style Manual (IEEE). Please consult these references to resolve questions of style and usage on nanoHUB.org. For additional information on proper usage of field-specific terms, the NCN Editorial Team has compiled a nanoHUB Glossary.

Audience consideration and informational density of a document

• In drafting and revising documents/texts for nanoHUB.org, keep the intended audience in mind. If a document is intended for multiple or mixed audiences, such as readers of different competencies and literacy levels, then authors must take care to tailor sections for those multiple or mixed audiences. The following table offers a guideline.

• In relation to the taxonomy of materials here at nanoHUB based on undergraduate and graduate education, authors can demonstrate consideration of the audience by using the appropriate level of detail. For example, the composition of a “First-Time Users’ Guide for Undergraduates” will be most suited to the audience if the introduction of the document clearly states the relevance of the material to the readers’ interests. Mathematical models and equations are kept to a minimum, if not avoided entirely, any graphics are illustrative of points made clearly in the text, the detail level is kept simple and focused on providing a narrative, technical terms are carefully introduced by using the full English term at the first instance with a full description or definition, and only then using abbreviations.

Style Guide

Forecasting

• Authors can use forecasting to inform readers where they need to turn for specific information. The introduction of a document might indicate which readers should begin with a specific section, and which readers can avoid certain sections. For example, “The VEDA manual is comprised of three sections: Part one, for first-time users, introduces readers to the software and guides them through simulations. The second part, for expert users, provides discussions of the theoretical models used to perform the simulations. . . .”

Font suggestions

• Titles, subtitles, and headings: Arial or Helvetica
• Body paragraphs or table or figure descriptions: Times New Roman or Times
• Sections of code in papers or presentations: Courier or Courier New

Figures and tables

• Both figure and table labels should be in bold font to set the descriptions apart from other body text. Figure labels appear below the figure, and table labels appear above the table.

Paper Title

• In the paper title, capitalize the first letter of the first and last word and all the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions (If, Because, That, Which). Capitalize abbreviations that are otherwise lowercase (e.g., use DC, not dc or Dc) except for unit abbreviations and acronyms. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, or, nor), and most short prepositions are lowercase unless they are the first or last word. Prepositions of more than three letters (Before, Through, With, Without, Versus, Among, Under, Between) should be capitalized.

First Footnote

• The first footnote is made up of three paragraphs. This footnote is not numbered. All other footnotes in the paper are numbered consecutively.
• The first paragraph contains the received and (possibly) revised dates of the paper. When a paper has more than one revised date, list all the dates given.
• The second paragraph is made up of the authors’ affiliations. For two or more authors with different affiliations, use separate sentences and paragraphs for each, using all initials with a surname. Group the authors with the same affiliation together; list the affiliations according to the order of the authors in the byline.
• The third or final paragraph lists the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, assigned by the IEEE.
• All financial support for the work in the paper is listed next to the first paragraph and not in the Acknowledgment at the end of the paper.

Abstract

• Every published paper must contain an abstract. Abstracts appear in text in boldface type. By nature, abstracts shall not contain numbered mathematical equations or numbered references.

Index Terms

• All papers must contain index terms as provided by the authors. A list of keywords is available by sending a blank email to keywords@ieee.org. Index Terms appear in boldface type as in the abstract, in alphabetical order, and as a final paragraph of the abstract. Acronyms are defined in index ierms if they are defined in the paper.

Nomenclature

• Nomenclature lists (lists of symbols and definitions) generally follow the abstract and index terms and precede the introduction.

Text Section Headings

• Standard specifications have been established for Transactions text section headings. There are four levels of section headings with established specifications: primary; secondary; tertiary; and quaternary heads.
• Enumeration of section heads is desirable, but not required. The author’s preference may be followed. However, the choice must be consistent throughout the paper.
• Primary headings are enumerated by Roman numerals and centered above the text.
• Secondary headings are enumerated by capital letters followed by followed by periods, flush left, upper and lower case, and italic.
• Tertiary headings are enumerated by Arabic numerals followed by parentheses. They are indented one em, and run into the text in their sections, italic, upper and lower case, and followed by a colon.
• Quaternary headings are identical to tertiary headings, except that they are indented two ems, lower case letters are used as labels, and only the first letter of the heading is capitalized.
• Reference and Acknowledgment headings are unlike all other section headings in text. They are never enumerated. They are simply primary headings without labels, regardless of whether the other headings in the papers are enumerated.
• Appendix headings are a special case. The primary heading(s) in the appendix or appendixes (note spelling of plural) are set according to the usual style, except that there is flexibility in the enumeration of the heading. The author may use Roman numerals as heading numbers (Appendix I) or letters (Appendix A). The appendix heading is not preceded by a Roman numeral. If there is only one appendix in the paper, the appendix heading is unnumbered and unnamed.

Abbreviations, acronyms, initialisms, and portmanteaus

• Abbreviation is an umbrella term that covers acronyms, initialisms, and portmanteaus. Acronyms and initialisms are close cousins, with an acronym referring to terms drawn from the first letters of their parts and read as a single word (AIDS, NATO), and initialisms referring to terms that you read as a series of letters (NPR, ATM, AT&T). Portmanteaus are blended terms, combining the forms and meanings of two words (spin and electronics=spintronics). On the nanoHUB, abbreviations typically appear capitalized and without periods. The exception to this non-use of the period in an abbreviation is any lowercased abbreviation, such as, et al., p.m., or e.g. The use of portmanteaus on nanoHUB.org often takes the form of a tool name (e.g., MATLAB).

Use of abbreviations

• nanoHUB users come from a variety of educational backgrounds and levels of expertise. To aid novice users, abbreviations should be defined with the initial use. Also, as nanoHUB serves many scholars and researchers whose primary language is not English, abbreviations for non-field-specific terms (e.g., misc., ASAP, and FYI) should be avoided whenever possible.
• Acceptable: “Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have interesting, structure-dependent electronic properties. In particular, CNTs can be a metallic or semiconducting depending on the way in which the carbon atoms are arranged in the CNT walls.”
• Unacceptable: “The program CNDO/INDO is a general purpose combination of the CNDO/S, CNDO/2, INDO, and INDO/S programs. It does RHF (open and closed shell) calculations only, no geometry optimizations, and does Multi-Reference CI. Transition metals are included.”

Formatting

• Abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms typically appear capitalized and without punctuation. Abbreviations for non-English terms are not italicized. Portmanteaus typically appear either entirely lowercase or with the initial letter capitalized, as is the case with tool names.

Capitalization

• A few general rules for capitalization throughout the site and in supporting documents appear below. Field-specific terms that appear on nanoHUB are sometimes derived from proper nouns and sometimes not, so correct capitalization requires an understanding of these terms’ origins. For a list of terms that need to be capitalized, as well as the rationale for capitalization, see the Glossary below.

Proper names

• Words derived from proper names should be capitalized (e.g., Green’s function). Common terms like capacitors and transistors should not be capitalized. See field-specific names and terms for further elaboration. Tool names are proper names and should thus be capitalized.

Colons

• The initial word after a colon should be uppercase if what follows the colon is a complete sentence; otherwise, the initial word after a colon will be lowercase

Citations

• All citations should conform to IEEE guidelines. See

Footnotes

• Bracketed footnote indicators should follow a space: e.g. “transport 7“ rather than “transport7.”

Commas

• Commas should generally be used
  1. at the end of a dependent clause (or introductory clause) preceding a main clause
  2. between items in a list of three or more items, including before the conjunction “and” or “or”
  3. surrounding interjections and descriptive phrases
  4. separating two or more adjectives modifying a noun

Dates

• The style of dates “month day, year” requires a comma between the date and the year.

Clauses and use of commas

• Commas should not be inserted before a restrictive subordinating clause. If the subordinating clause is essential to the meaning of the main clause, commas preceding the subordinate clause are not needed. need example

Font choice

• Because sans serif fonts can lead to confusion of characters 1, l, and I, content of body paragraphs and text-heavy explanations should appear in a serif font, preferably a readily available on like Times New Roman or Times. Titles and headings can appear in sans serif font (Arial or Helvetica) so as to indicate a clear distinction between titles and headings and body content. Sections of code that appear in presentations and user guides should appear in a monospaced font (Courier) to distinguish examples of code from other sections of the document.
• Commonly used fonts are discussed in a brief overview at

Author names

• Digital technologies allow for the inclusion of characters that could not be produced on a typewriters, so when possible, individual’s names should appear as they have been entered. This means attention to spelling and the inclusion of non-English alphabet characters, such as umlauts, tildes, and accents. Authors are allowed to use initials instead of a full name, but initials should be capitalized and followed by a period and a space.

University names

• Spacing and punctuation conventions in university names are determined by state legislatures and universities, not popular convention. Be aware that faculty, students, and alum often incorrectly format university names, so err on the side of caution when relying on user-submitted content for examples. See university websites to determine proper formatting for university names.

Spacing guidelines

• Newer print and online publishing styles indicate a preference for single spacing where of double spacing used to be the standard. Chicago guidelines also stipulate that there should be one space between sentences instead of two. The same holds true of spacing following colons and semicolons.

Commonly Mistaken

• “Band Structure” / “band structure” are always two words. Capitalization depends upon context/usage as there is a proper noun and a common noun usage.
• “Towards” is not a word, but “toward” is.
• “Available resource” or “Available resources” should be used instead of “Exercise” or “Exercises”
• “Sponsored by” lines should omit “NSF” from before Network for Computational Nanotechnology. (NSF will remain if a specific grant number is listed.)

Created on 24 Nov 2009, Last modified on 22 Jul 2010