Below is a a summary of our house style guide, which provides advice for Wiley authors seeking presentation guidance on the most common points of style. Please view our PDF, ACT Content Guidelines, for the full version of our guidelines.

Wiley’s typesetters and copyeditors will apply these guidelines as standard during the production of your title.

For any issue not covered by our guidelines, please present consistently in a style that is acceptable in your field or apply guidance from The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), 16e.

House Style Guide – Summary for Authors

Abbreviations

Abbreviations formed by omitting the end of the word or where words are followed by a period (e.g. Inc. not Inc, Co. not Co, Mass. not Mass).
Unless you are using Standard International (SI) units or chemical symbols, abbreviations should be spelled out in full at first use in each chapter with the abbreviation given in parentheses.
Time: a.m. and p.m. should be lower case with periods.
Do not use periods in abbreviations of academic degrees or professional and religious designations (e.g. MBA not M.B.A, PhD not Ph.D., RN not R.N.).
See References section for information on abbreviation of journal titles.

Acronyms

Plurals of acronyms do not take an apostrophe (e.g. ABCs not ABC’s).
Capitalized acronyms do not use periods (e.g. USA, US, UK not U.S.A, U.S., U.K.).
Lower-case acronyms do not use periods (e.g. bpm not bpm. or b.p.m.).

Ampersands

Do not include ampersands in the text, unless they appear in the name of a company or organization, e.g. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Marks & Spencer, Ernst & Young, etc.

APA style

We also support work presented in APA style and will retain that style during production on request. Please notify your project editor (or relevant Wiley contact) if APA has been consistently applied or you want it to be applied.

Appendices

Title

Each appendix must have a title and each must be listed in any contents pages. For example chapter-level appendices in the main contents and heading-level appendices in the detailed contents if these present in the prelims or chapter openers.

Position

Appendices either appear at the end of the chapter or at the end of the book.

End-of-chapter appendices

Occasionally chapters may have their own appendices at the end of the chapter. In this case, the number should appear as, e.g. Appendix 3.A, 3.B, etc. for appendices to Chapter 3. They should appear before the references and/or further reading sections.

Figures and tables in end-of-chapter appendices

Figures and tables within these chapter-end appendices should be numbered as follows: Figure 3.A.1, Figure 3.A.2, etc. (e.g. the first figure in the first appendix at the end of Chapter 3).

End-of-book appendices

Appendices should appear before the references and/or further reading sections.

Figures and tables in end-of-book appendices

Figures and tables within appendices should be numbered as follows: Figure A.1, Table C.2, etc.

Contractions

US style: Contractions (i.e. words minus their middle parts but still with their final letter) should end with a period (e.g. Mr. not Mr, Mrs. not Mrs, Ltd. not Ltd).
UK style: do not end contractions (i.e. words minus their middle parts but still end with their final letter) with a period (e.g. Mr not Mr., Mrs not Mrs., Ltd not Ltd.).

Cross-references

Where specific chapters, sections, figures, parts, tables, etc. are referred to in the text they should take an initial cap (e.g. Chapter 6, Section 1.3). Use lower-case “c” for references to chapters in other books (e.g. “As Chen says in chapter 4 of her…”).
Ensure any cross-references refer to a fixed element in the text (e.g. see Figure 1.1 or see Section 4.3 not see above, see below, or see page 000.

Dates

Order should be day/month/year without internal punctuation (e.g. 2 October 2007).
Where a named day is given before the date use a comma (e.g. Tuesday, 2 October 2007).
If year is not specified, follow same order (e.g. on 2 October he left for Madrid).
Do not use “st”, “nd”, “rd”, or “th”, except in quoted material.
For clarity – so as to not confuse US/UK readers – always use 2 October 2007 style in the text rather than 02/10/07 or any variant.
Spell out the names of centuries (no caps), e.g. the twentieth century not the 20th C., the 20th century, etc.

Decades

Do not include apostrophes in decades (e.g. 1920s not 1920’s) unless the apostrophe must be used to indicate possession (e.g. the 1960s’ cohort).
Do not abbreviate decades (e.g. 1960s not ‘60s).
Decades can be spelled out (e.g. sixties).

Figures and Tables

The rules below apply to tables as well as figures.

Numbering

Use double numeration – numbered through the chapter with Arabic numerals: Chapter number + Figure number (Figure 1.1, Figure 1.2, etc.).
Numbered figures must be cited within the text (e.g. see Figure 1.1).

Unnumbered figures

Figures do not need to be numbered unless they are captioned or cross-referenced in the text. It is acceptable to have a mix of numbered and unnumbered figures. You must make it clear, however, where the unnumbered figures should appear in the text.

Figure parts

Parts of figures are to be designated (a), (b), (c), etc. in the caption – i.e. lower case letters within parentheses – not (1), (2) or *, †, etc. Parentheses enclose the letter that labels the separate parts of figures in captions and on the figures themselves, but not in the text citations of figures (e.g. see Figure 1.1b not see Figure 1.1(b). Separate the descriptions of the parts in the caption using semi-colons.

Cross-references

Cross-references within the text to figures must be upper and lower case, and never abbreviated (e.g. see Figure 1.1. not see Fig. 1.1).

Italics

Use italic for the title of a publication, play, musical, TV/radio program, film, video game, ship (e.g. The Lancet, Kiss Me Kate, The Godfather, SS Eisenhower).

Latinisms

Do not italicize the following Latinisms: i.e., e.g., via, vice versa, etc., a posteriori, et al., cf., c. (where c. signifies circa, rather than ca.).

Notes

Notes should be numbered 1-x throughout the chapter, never with the symbols *, †, etc.
End-of-chapter placement for notes will be applied as the house style. If it’s essential that positioning is at the foot of the page or at the end of your book, please inform your project editor when you submit your final MS to Wiley.

Numbers

Spell out numbers below 10 unless used in conjunction with a unit of measurement (e.g. 5 kg not five kg; Five children not 5 children).
Use numerals rather than words spelled out when used in conjunction with % (e.g. 5% not five percent or 5 percent).
For precise values of 10 and greater use numerals.
Where numbers are approximate words should be used (e.g. around five hundred).
However, where the number is approximate but more complicated, use numerals (e.g. about 2.5 million years ago not about two-and-a-half million years ago).
Use numerals for: mixed numbers (an integer and a proper fraction), fractions, ages, dates (except centuries), mathematical terms, probabilities, ratios, numbered items (e.g. pages, chapters, “type 1”, “step 2”, etc.).

Offensive, Defamatory, or Libelous Content

Please do not include disrespectful/dismissive/rude attitudes towards other beliefs, cultures, individuals or accusations or wrongdoing by groups/individuals.
Swear words (profanity) are acceptable in quotations from third-party material. For visual profanity please seek advice of your project editor.

Permissions

Source and credit lines

Provide a source, and a credit to the rightsholder, for all third-party material used in your work. This “attribution” ensures you conform to our publication ethics by making it clear wherever material is not original to you and that its use in your publication is authorized.
Always introduce source information using the wording “Source:” and place this after the description of the material being used. The source is the publication or location from which third-party material has been obtained. This will most usually be a book or journal, a photo vendor (e.g. museum, gallery, or dedicated image vendor such as Getty Images), or an individual/employer.
Credits are standardly placed following the source location. They act as an explicit acknowledgement to the rightsholder that they hold the rights to the content being used and have given permission for its reuse in the publication. The credit may also include a copyright line if requested by the rightsholder.
Never add a credit to the rightsholder unless you have obtained permission for reuse.
For transparency and absence of doubt, especially where a chapter has a mix of original and third-party assets, best practice is to self-attribute any original work being published for the first time as follows (Jane Smith being the author of the chapter in this instance): Source: Jane Smith. Alternatively, when you submit final content to your project editor, confirm that all material without attribution is original work by you or your contributors.
If no third-party source/credit information is provided for any third-party material, your Wiley project editor will ask for confirmation that this material is original to the author of the chapter.

How to present source and credit lines

Figures and tables: Use the author-date shorthand and the standard credit (i.e. “Reproduced with permission of X” – with X being the name of the rightsholder). The full citation must be included in the end-of-chapter referencesFor example:

Harvard system: Source: Smith 1990. Reproduced with permission of Elsevier.
Vancouver system: Source: Source: [17]. Reproduced with permission of Elsevier. Or, where you want to provide a more detailed reference to the original material: Source: Smith 1990, figure 12.2 (p. 198). Reproduced with permission of Elsevier. Source: [17], figure 12.2 (p.198). Reproduced with permission of Elsevier.

Photos: add the source and any image reference number/ credit/copyright line specified by the rightsholder. For example:

Source: Private Collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library, DACS 2011. Reproduced with permission of the Towner Museum, Eastbourne, and © Estate of Eric Ravilious. If no credit line is specified, generate photo credit in this form
Source: Shutterstock/Travis Smith. Reproduced with permission of Shutterstock.

For material used with the permission of a colleague/employer:

Source: Courtesy of John Smith.
Source: Courtesy of BASF AG.

For author’s original work being published for the first time:

Figure 2.7. Synergistic mutual effects through the food web and environment between hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus x O.aureus) and the bottom feeder common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Source: Jane Smith.

For material modified by the author with permission of rightsholders always indicate this modification using one of the following expressions: “Adapted from”, “Modified from,” or “After”. For example:

Figure 2.7. Synergistic mutual effects through the food web and environment between hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus x O.aureus) and the bottom feeder common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Source: Adapted from Smith 1990 (figure 3.17) and Jones 2016 (figure 17.2). Reproduced with permission of Elsevier.

For material licensed under Creative Commons or similar you must always attribute fully by providing the author/originator name, a link to the online location, and the CC license information (with license number, e.g. 1.0, 2.0, etc., where available). There is no need to provide a link to the online CC license. For example:

Source: Jorgebarrios, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Valdivia.JPG. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

For public domain or fair use (as defined by Wiley) material that did not require permission to be obtained always indicate this after the source for clarity. For example:

Source: Smith 1864 (p. 198). Public domain.
Source: Best Movie Ever (2017). Directed by Steven Spielberg. Produced by Universal/Goldstar Productions/Rox Media, Inc. Fair use.

Copyright lines where required are expressed as follows: © 2017 Science Images. Use the copyright symbol without spelling out word "copyright".

Possessive for names ending in "s"

Make the possessive of singular names ending in "s" by using an apostrophe followed by a second "s" (e.g. Rawls’s philosophy not Rawls’ philosophy).

Quotation marks

US style: Use double quotation marks, except for quotes within quotes, which should take single quotation marks.
UK style: Use single quotation marks, except for quotes within quotes, which should take double quotation marks.

References

Click here for examples of different reference types and how these should be cited in the text.

Choice of Harvard or Vancouver

You can choose to use either the Harvard or Vancouver referencing system but ensure that you use one system consistently throughout.

Harvard references and in-text citations

References should appear in alphabetical order by author surname with multiple books by the same author(s) arranged in chronological order.
In-text citations are formed using the author’s surname and year of publication. The citation can take the form "Martin (1990)" or "(Martin 1990)" depending on context. Either is acceptable.
Where one author has published works with different co-authors order these alphabetically by second author surname and if necessary by third author.
Where two or more references are cited at the same point in the text, separate them with semi-colons, e.g. (Martin 1990; Blanc et al. 1992). Order by relevance/importance rather than alphabetically or chronologically.
Where two or three authors are present, e.g. "Adams, Knowler, and Leader (1992)" Wiley has no preference as to whether all authors are mentioned or just the first named. The order of the authors should follow that used in the original publication. Where there are four or more authors then change to first named follow by "et al."
If there are two or more references by the same author(s) in the same year they should be listed in the reference list in their (a, b, c) citation order. As it is impossible to determine which title was published first within any given year, the order is determined by first appearance in your content. Text citations should appear as, e.g. "Martin (1990a)" and "Martin (1990b)."
Where two authors with the same surname have works published in the same year, identify them in the text by their initial: J. Martin (1990) and S. Martin (1990). Only necessary to distinguish with regard to publications in the same year.
Always use "and" not ampersand (&) with Harvard references.
Text citations may or may not be made to specific points in the publication, e.g. "(Dunn et al. 1989, p. 390)" or "(Reynolds 1989, Table 42)". This does not need to be done consistently.
Cite more than one work by the same author as follows: "Blanc et al. (1988, 1992)".

Vancouver references and text citations

References should appear in numerical order in the text and be listed numerically in the reference list at the end of the chapter/book. Thus the order of the list matches the order of appearance of references in the text.
References first cited in a table or in a figure caption are numbered according to the location of the text citation of the table or figure.
Don’t leave any "in-between" numbers e.g. [97, 97a, 98] during the writing stage.
Numbers in the text should appear [1], [2], [3], etc. on the line rather than superscript.
Numbers in the end-of-chapter list should be "1. 2. 3.", not [1] [2] [3] or 1, 2, 3.
Use a comma (not an en dash) between two consecutive reference citations, e.g. [1, 2].
Use an unspaced en dash to indicate a numerical range within reference citation, e.g. [4–6].

Abbreviation of journal and journal article titles

Journal titles may be abbreviated if that is your preference or the standard in your field.
Where the title of an article is provided this should be given in full rather than abbreviated.
Consistent use of abbreviated or full forms of journal titles is essential throughout single-authored titles and within chapters in multi-authored (contributed) works.
When journal titles are abbreviated, abbreviations should include periods (full stops).

Bibliography

Use the term “Bibliography” only if your list contains both cited and non-cited references.

Casing conventions

Title case: Book Titles, Journal Titles, Conference Proceedings.
Sentence case: Chapter titles, Article titles, Conference presentations.

Completeness

All references listed must be cited in the text and all text citations included in the reference list (including references cited in tables, figure captions, and notes) except for personal communications and observations, unpublished results and manuscripts in preparation (see Bibliography).

Elision

Do not elide page numbers in references: 827–851 NOT 827–51.

Four, five or more authors

Where the author lists four or more authors (or editors) no more than three should be named in the reference list. Use "et al." after the third name.

Initials or full first (given) names

Initials should have points and be closed up within author names, e.g. K.M.H. Lawrence NOT K. M. H. Lawrence.
A mixture of initials and full first (given) names may be retained within a chapter. However, for clarity,

Minimum consistency requirements: journal references

A journal reference should contain the following minimum information: first-named author (both last name and initial/first name), year of publication, journal title, volume number and first page in any page range.
Consistent inclusion of the final page number is preferred but not essential.
Consistent inclusion of the issue number is preferred but not essential.
Where a supplementary issue is quoted, ensure that it includes the issue number/name/letter.
The doi is preferred but not essential. If you do provide the doi there is no requirement to also include volume or page numbers.

Minimum consistency requirements: book references

A book reference should contain the following minimum information: first-named author/editor (last name and initials/first name), year of publication, book title and publisher.
Consistent inclusion of place of publication is preferred but not essential.
Where added, place of publication does not require any additional location information (e.g. state or country). Aim for consistency of approach.
Consistent inclusion of the page numbers is preferred but not essential.
Citations of book chapters should contain the following minimum information: first-named author (last name and initials), year of publication, chapter title, chapter first page, book title, editor (last name and initials), publisher.

Position of References section

All cited references should be listed together in a section headed "References" at the end of each chapter.

Wiley publications: correct form for references

Where Wiley references are listed, the correct publisher designation depends on the imprint, e.g. Wiley, Wiley Blackwell, or Wiley-VCH. Do not use John Wiley & Sons Ltd, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Blackwell Publishing.
Place of publication should always match the recorded registered legal office on the copyright page of our publications.
However as Wiley has/had a number of registered legal offices currently/historically, there is no requirement to make the place of publication consistent for Wiley or Wiley Blackwell publications. For example, both Chichester, UK: Wiley and Hoboken, NJ: Wiley could appear in the same references list, or, similarly, Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell and Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
New York (rather than Hoboken, NJ) can be retained in publication dates for Wiley titles before 2002.
Blackwell can be retained as the publisher name for Wiley Blackwell titles before 2007.
Wiley Blackwell (i.e. no hyphen) but Wiley-VCH (i.e. with hyphen) are the correct forms of the imprint names.

Scientific units

Symbols for scientific units are not followed by periods (e.g. kg not kg.).
Symbols for scientific units do not take plural s or ‘s or .s (e.g. 24 kg not 24 kgs, kg’s, or kg.s).

Sections and Headings

Part and subpart sections

Where the chapters of a book are organized into higher-level sections, these should always be called parts.
Parts can be numbered One, Two, Three, etc. or I, II, III, etc.
An individual part may be divided into two or more subparts.

Chapters

Chapters should be numbered using Arabic numerals: 1, 2, 3, etc.
Chapter numbering should continue through the book; it should not start at 1 again with the beginning of a new part.
If your discipline standardly numbers headings, prefix heading numbers with the chapter number, so for example:

1.1 Level 1 Heading

1.1.1 Level 2 Heading

1.1.1.1 Level 3 Heading

1.1.1.1.1 Level 4 Heading

Serial comma

For all material use the Oxford serial comma (e.g. apples, pears, and bananas).

Spelling Style

Follow the spelling style of your choice (US or UK) but please keep it consistent.
When using US spelling, please refer to Merriam-Webster for advice.
When using UK spelling, please refer to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for advice.

Subject-Specific Styles

As required, specific-style instructions for mathematics, chemistry, life sciences, computing, engineering, accounting, and finance can be found in the full K&L Content Guidelines (section 14 and the Appendix).

Trademarks and trade names

Trademarks and trade names should take an initial capital letter, (e.g. Xerox, Kleenex, Coca-Cola).
Verbs derived from trade names should take a lower case initial, (e.g. tippex out a mistake, hoover the carpet).
When using ® or ™ symbols, these should appear only at first instance in each chapter.

Web addresses/URLs

Do not use angle brackets <> with Web addresses.
Do not underline a whole web address/URL. Use of underscores within web addresses/URLs is fine.
Always provide the date on which the web material was accessed.

Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (1999). XML exchange table model document type definition. http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/tm9901.html (accessed 17 July 2015).

Ensure that the author or authoring organization, year, and document title are given in the reference, along with the web address/URL. If this information is not available or relevant the reference should be removed and only the web address/URL cited in the text.
Drop the "http://" from web address where the URL points to a domain, e.g.

www.wiley.com not http://www.wiley.com

Use "http://" etc. where the URL points to specific documents or web pages, e.g.

http://www.wiley.com/contentguidelines

Other Styles

Please inform your project editor (or relevant Wiley contact) if you have followed any other style (e.g. APA) that your readership will require be retained. We can then take this into account during production.