24 June 2013
EMA/560894/2012
Communications
Editorial style guide
For creators of the European Medicines Agency's
communications materials
Version 1.1
7 Westferry Circus ● Canary Wharf ● London E14 4HB ● United Kingdom
Telephone +44 (0)20 7418 8400 Facsimile +44 (0)20 7418 8416
E-mail [email protected] Website www.ema.europa.eu
An agency of the European Union
© European Medicines Agency, 2013. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Editorial style guide
For creators of the European Medicines Agency's communications materials
Document information
Always refer to the most recent version of this guide.
Originator
Communications, Directorate
Intranet location
Communication > Communications guidance > Editorial style
Dream link
EMA/560894/2012
Version number
Published
Changes since previous version
1.1 – CURRENT
24 June 2013
•
Croatia added to country names: Listing order.
•
Amended wording in When to use 'the Agency'.
•
Amended wording in Latin and other foreign words.
•
Glossary of Agency-specific terminology added to
Reference materials: Glossaries.
1.0
12 December 2012
•
Revised recommendation for judgement/judgment.
•
New term added: fetus.
–
Contact for questions and feedback
If you have any question regarding the contents of this guide, have suggestions on how to improve it,
or need help with any editorial issue not covered here, please send your request by e-mail to the
editors via: [email protected]
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Table of contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 5
2. A-Z listing of editorial conventions .......................................................... 6
3. Punctuation ........................................................................................... 51
3.1. Commas (,) ....................................................................................................... 51
3.2. Colons (:) .......................................................................................................... 52
3.3. Semicolons (;) ................................................................................................... 52
3.4. Full stops (.) ...................................................................................................... 53
3.5. Ellipses (…)........................................................................................................ 53
3.6. Dashes.............................................................................................................. 53
3.7. Hyphens (-) ....................................................................................................... 54
3.8. Brackets ............................................................................................................ 57
3.9. Apostrophes (') .................................................................................................. 59
3.10. Quotation marks ............................................................................................... 60
3.11. Spaces ............................................................................................................ 61
4. Numbers ................................................................................................ 62
4.1. General conventions on use of numbers ................................................................ 62
4.2. Dates and times ................................................................................................. 64
5. Lists....................................................................................................... 67
5.1. Lists in running text ............................................................................................ 67
5.2. Bullet lists ......................................................................................................... 68
5.3. Numbered lists ................................................................................................... 68
5.4. Multi-level lists ................................................................................................... 69
5.5. Further notes on lists .......................................................................................... 70
6. Grammar ............................................................................................... 71
6.1. Singular or plural verb forms? .............................................................................. 71
6.2. Verb tenses in reported speech ............................................................................ 72
6.3. 'Fewer' or 'less'? ................................................................................................. 72
6.4. 'Amount of', 'quantity of' or 'number of'? ............................................................... 73
6.5. Relative clauses ................................................................................................. 73
7. Scientific terminology ............................................................................ 75
7.1. Scientific names ................................................................................................. 75
7.2. Units of measurement ......................................................................................... 76
8. Correspondence..................................................................................... 80
8.1. Opening and closing phrases ............................................................................... 80
9. Editorial quality ..................................................................................... 81
9.1. Quality criteria ................................................................................................... 81
9.2. Tips for ensuring editorial quality ......................................................................... 81
9.3. Editorial quality-control ....................................................................................... 85
9.4. Who is responsible for editorial quality? ................................................................ 85
9.5. How to do an editorial quality-control ................................................................... 86
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10. Reference materials ............................................................................ 88
10.1. Dictionaries...................................................................................................... 88
10.2. Glossaries ........................................................................................................ 88
10.3. Style guides ..................................................................................................... 88
10.4. Grammar guides............................................................................................... 88
10.5. Quizzes ........................................................................................................... 89
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1. Introduction
One of the guiding principles of the European Medicines Agency is that we adhere to high professional
standards in all of our activities, and the production of our communications materials is no exception.
We aim to create all Agency communications materials to a consistently high professional
standard, in terms of both their content and their presentation.
We produce our materials — regardless of their subject, intended audience, format or dissemination
channel — with the understanding that their purpose is to communicate information that our readers
can easily digest, act on or reuse for their own professional or personal needs.
Our aim is that our materials:
•
benefit our audiences by providing them clear, accurate and useful information in a reader-friendly
and well-presented format;
•
reflect our professionalism and our commitment to best practices in meeting the needs and
expectations of our stakeholders.
These principles stem from our communications strategy 1 and help to promote our reputation as a
credible public authority working for the benefit of public and animal health in the European Union.
Purpose of this guide
The purpose of this guide is to promote a consistently high professional standard of editorial quality in
the Agency's communications materials.
It is intended as a practical reference tool for all Agency staff involved in the day-to-day production of
our materials, as well as for external service providers producing materials on our behalf.
This guide does not focus on the presentation (design and formatting) of our materials. Separate
guidance on this is available in the Communications guidance microsite on the Agency's intranet.
Definitions
Editorial style: A set of conventions adopted by the Agency to promote a high-quality and consistent
editorial standard for the written content of its communications materials.
Communications materials: All materials created by or for the Agency to communicate information
to its internal or external audiences, regardless of their format, content or method of dissemination.
Note, though, that when producing product information for human or veterinary medicines, you should
take into consideration the linguistic recommendations of the Working Group on the Quality Review of
Documents (QRD), which are available to consult through the QRD microsite on the Agency's intranet.
Audiences: All people to whom the Agency communicates its information, including staff, delegates,
partner organisations and the public.
1
'Corporate communications strategy' (EMA/394375/2012), to be published soon.
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2. A-Z listing of editorial conventions
What follows is an alphabetical listing of editorial conventions that should be respected in all
communications materials prepared by, or on behalf of, the European Medicines Agency.
Most of them are well-established conventions that apply universally to the English language, while
others are 'in-house' conventions that the Agency has adopted over the years.
There are few 'absolutes' in the English language, and for some of the conventions listed here,
alternatives exist that are perhaps equally justifiable. However, in the interest of ensuring a single and
consistent editorial style is used in its materials, the Agency has had in these cases to choose one
practice over another. For instance, it is not wrong to capitalise each major word in document titles, as
many organisations do, but it does not serve any real purpose either, so the Agency has adopted a
different practice. (See Titles of Agency publications.)
Decisions on which conventions to adopt have been based either on established practices that have
evolved at the Agency over time, or on the recommendations of the many widely respected reference
works consulted when compiling the contents of this guide, which include:
•
the 'Interinstitutional style guide', from the Publications Office of the European Union;
•
the 'English Style Guide', from the European Commission Directorate-General for Translation;
•
the 'Concise Oxford English Dictionary' (11th edition), from Oxford University Press;
•
the 'Style Guide', from The Economist;
•
other sources listed in the Reference materials section of this guide.
Navigation tip
Use the bookmarks panel on the left-hand side of this Adobe PDF document to navigate through the
alphabetical listing of conventions.
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—A—
a, an
See article (definite, indefinite).
abbreviations
The primary consideration when using any kind of abbreviation must be intelligibility: if there is any
chance that the intended reader may not be familiar with an abbreviation you use, write out the full
term at first mention and, if you intend to use its abbreviated form thereafter, place it in brackets
immediately after the first use (unless, like 'AIDS' and 'DNA', the abbreviated form is more widely
known than the full term).
A second important consideration is necessity: do you need to use an abbreviation? If the term is used
only once or twice in a text, you probably do not need to abbreviate it. Excessive use of abbreviations
just to save a few seconds of typing time can appear lazy.
Acronyms
Acronyms are abbreviations that can be pronounced as a word, such as:
NATO, NASA, EFSA, EFTA, AIDS, CAT, TRIPS, Benelux, Unesco
Acronyms of five or fewer letters are usually capitalised, while ones of six or more have an initial
capital only. But note the exception of some project names ('PROTECT'), IT terms ('FORTRAN',
'WYSIWYG') and acronyms with mixed upper- and lower-case letters ('BfArM', 'EudraPharm', 'ENCePP',
'Enpr-EMA').
Some acronyms have become common nouns, and have no capitals at all, such as 'laser', 'radar' and
'sonar'.
Initialisms
Initialisms are abbreviations formed from the first letters of a series of words, where each letter is
pronounced separately, as in:
EMA, CHMP, ECDC, EMCDDA, MHRA, FDA, GMP, SME, WHO, WTO, UNHCR, BBC
They are written without points, and are usually written in full capitals (whatever their length), unless
they include lower-case letters from the full term, such as 'PhD' (philosophiae doctor), 'MoD' (Ministry
of Defence), 'TfL' (Transport for London), 'plc' (public limited company) and 'GmbH' (Gesellschaft mit
beschränkter Haftung).
Note that initialisms (and acronyms) of organisations are preceded by 'the' if the expression they stand
for usually is too, so write:
'The CHMP recommended …', 'It is possible the MHRA will …', 'According to the FDA …', etc.
but:
'He worked for GSK before joining the Agency', 'Second-quarter sales figures for BMW', etc.
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The definite article ('the') is dropped if the initialism is used adjectivally to describe non-specific plural
nouns, as in these examples:
'CHMP plenary meetings are held …', 'MHRA delegates often …', 'FDA officials announced …'
For use with indefinite articles, see article (definite, indefinite).
Truncations
Truncations are abbreviations that omit the end of the word, and sometimes other letters too, as in:
Oct., Tues., Prof., p., cf. ('compare', from the Latin confer)
They end in a point, to indicate that letters have been omitted.
Contractions
Contractions are abbreviations that omit letters from the middle of the word, but keep the final letter:
Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, Ltd
Contractions do not end in a point.
Other contractions combine two words together, omitting one or more middle letters:
it's [= it is], they're [= they are], didn't [= did not], hadn't [= had not], won't [= will not]
Note that this second type of contraction should not be used in formal Agency communications, but is
acceptable in the Agency's social-media feeds (e.g. on Twitter).
acquis
The acquis (always written in italics in English texts) means the body of European Union law in a broad
sense, including all EU treaties, regulations, directives and other pieces of legislation, as well as 'soft'
law, such as policies, guidelines and recommendations.
If used in a text intended for a general audience, include an explanation such as 'the body of European
Union law' after the first mention (perhaps in brackets).
The term 'acquis communautaire' should no longer be used, as the European Community has been
replaced by the European Union. See also European Union (EU): Note on 'Community'.
active substance
See capital letters: Active substances and invented names of medicines.
address
See contact details.
advise, advice
Take care with these two words: 'advise' is a verb; 'advice' is a noun.
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The doctor advised me to stay off work for three days. I was happy to take his advice.
adviser
This is the preferred spelling in British English, not 'advisor'.
Note, however, that the only correct spelling of the adjectival form is 'advisory', as in:
The committee acts in an advisory capacity.
The noun for an official announcement or warning is also written 'advisory', as in:
Tourists are advised to read the latest travel advisory issued by the Thai authorities before travelling to the
north of the country.
affect, effect
Take care with these words, as they have quite different meanings.
'Affect' (as a verb) is most often used to mean 'make a difference to' or 'have an influence on':
The medicine did not affect the patient's ability to drive [it had no effect (noun) on the patient's driving].
Good weather generally affects people's moods for the better [sunshine tends to make people happier].
His actions affected the course of history [his actions influenced subsequent historical events].
'Effect' (as a verb) means 'to accomplish' something or 'to bring about a result':
Our success was effected [accomplished] through excellent teamwork.
The new managers effected [brought about] radical changes to the hospital's organisational structure.
We can effect [achieve] major cost savings if we introduce more energy-efficient heating and lighting.
Agency, the
See When to use 'the Agency'.
altogether, all together
These have different meanings, and should not be confused. 'Altogether' is similar in meaning to
'completely' or 'wholly', as in:
Instead of wasting any more time on the discussion, we agreed to drop it altogether.
The team members were mostly in favour of resuming the work in the morning, but the project manager
was of an altogether different opinion: he said they should work right through the night, if necessary.
It can also have the sense of 'in total':
Altogether, the food and drinks for the four of us came to €195.
or 'on the whole':
It was an altogether successful event.
'All together' means all the people or items collectively:
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Since we are all together at the meeting on Thursday afternoon anyway, we might as well discuss it then.
Ewa put the documents all together in a single folder.
or all at the same time:
The visitors left all together, just before midnight.
amid, among
Prefer 'amid' and 'among' to the now rather dated 'amidst' and 'amongst'.
annex (annexes), appendix (appendices)
Use 'annex' rather than 'appendix' for additional material at the end of a document. (This is the
preferred practice within the EU institutions.)
One advantage of using 'annex' is that it can also be used as a verb:
The list of participants is annexed to the workshop report.
Note that 'annexe' (with an 'e' at the end) has a different meaning, namely "a building joined to or
associated with a main building, providing additional space or accommodation" (Oxford English
Dictionary).
article (definite, indefinite)
An indefinite article — 'a' or 'an' — is used to introduce a non-specific instance of a singular noun, as in
these examples:
You must fill in a form to apply for holidays.
Sandra ate an apple after lunch.
If the instance of the noun is specific, the definite article — 'the' — is used instead:
The form you need to fill in is available on our intranet.
The apple Sandra ate after lunch gave her indigestion.
'a' or 'an'?
Use 'a' before words that begin with a consonant ('a hat', 'a book', 'a careful analysis', 'a sketchily
outlined proposal'), and 'an' before ones that begin with a vowel ('an elephant', 'an umbrella', 'an
erratic performance', 'an elegantly formulated phrase'), unless the word begins with a vowel that is
pronounced like a consonant ('a union', 'a united front') or a consonant that is not pronounced ('an
hour', 'an honourable victory').
With abbreviations, the use of 'a' or 'an' is also dictated by how the first letter of the abbreviation is
pronounced, rather than necessarily by whether it is a vowel or a consonant:
an HMPC workshop, an FDA initiative, an ANSM document, an HTML file, an IT tool
a Unicef programme, a UK proposal, a PhD graduate, a CVMP decision, a WHO objective
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Article, Art. (legislation)
It is acceptable to write 'Art.' (with a point; plural 'Arts.') as an abbreviation for 'Article' in a table or
footnote, but in running text, write it out in full.
Running-text example
A final decision shall be adopted within six months, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article
87(3) of Directive 2004/27/EC.
Footnote example
² See Art. 87(3) of Directive 2004/27/EC.
Note that you should capitalise specific instances, e.g. 'in accordance with Article 12(1) of Regulation
(EC) No 726/2004', but not general references, e.g. 'in accordance with the relevant articles of the
legislation'. See also capital letters: Legislation.
Subdivisions of articles in EU legislation are written closed up to the article number, without spaces:
Article 12(a) of Directive 2004/33/EC
Article 34(4)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 726/2004
Articles 11(2) and 47(3)(a)-(d) of Regulation (EC) No 1901/2006
authorisation, authorise, authorising
Use these '-is' spellings, not '-iz' spellings.
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—B—
benefited, benefiting
Use these spellings, with a single 't', rather than 'benefitted', 'benefitting'.
benefit-risk
When we speak about the proportional benefits and risks of a medicine, we are describing a ratio. In
English, it is customary to describe ratios using a hyphen (-) as the equivalent of the word 'to', as in
'the male-female ratio of staff', and not a slash (/), which generally stands for the word 'or', as in
'most colleagues prefer coffee/tea to hot chocolate'.
Therefore, write 'benefit-risk balance (review/methodology/communication/etc.)', not 'benefit/risk
balance'.
bibliographies
If you wish to include a bibliography of articles, research papers, books or other publications cited in
your document, put it at the end of the document, either as a separate section or as an annex, under
the heading 'Bibliography' or 'References'.
List the bibliographic information for each cited publication in the order shown here, with each element
separated by a comma:
1. surname and initial(s) of the author(s);
2. title of the article, inside single, straight quotation marks, and in roman (not italic) script;
3. title of the publication (plus volume/edition/issue number, if relevant), without quotation marks, in
roman script;
4. publisher, place of publication, publication date (in the format 'D Month YYYY', e.g. '4 March 2012',
but ignore the day and month if not known) and relevant section/chapter/page(s).
Example:
Holm, L.-E., 'Setting targets for health 2020', Eur J Public Health, Vol. 22 (4), Oxford University Press,
Oxford, August 2012, p. 453.
Note that individual elements (author's name, article title, publication date, etc.) can be omitted if they
are unknown, not relevant or not applicable.
The listing order and punctuation shown above are as recommended in Section 5.5.4. Bibliographies of
the 'Interinstitutional style guide', with the exception that the Agency does not italicise publication
titles (this avoids the inconvenience of having to manually re-apply italics that are lost when pasting
copied text from one document to another, or from a document to an Agency web page).
When writing an article on behalf of the Agency for submission to a non-Agency publication (such as a
scientific journal), it is acceptable to adopt the publisher's own convention for referencing cited works if
it differs from the Agency's convention.
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Listing order of bibliographic entries
Entries in the bibliography should each start a new line, and be listed in alphabetical order of authors'
surnames (or article titles or publication titles, depending on what elements are available):
Barnes, F., …
Everett, G., …
Holm, L.-E., …
Johannsen, L., …
Alternatively, where a reference number has been assigned to each citation in the document, the list
can be presented in numerical order:
1. Everett, G., …
2. Barnes, F., …
3. Johannsen, L., …
4. Holm, L.-E., …
In running text, citations should simply include the author's surname and year of publication,
optionally with a reference number in square brackets, as shown here:
Targets should aim to promote health and wellbeing by setting realistic goals and monitoring progress
toward those goals (Holm, 2012 [4]).
See also Referencing Agency publications and Referencing non-Agency publications.
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—C—
capital letters
The Agency's convention is to capitalise letters only when there is a proper reason to do so. If in doubt,
use lower case.
In brief, this means you should capitalise:
•
the first letter of a sentence, document title or heading (but not other key words, unless they are
proper nouns);
•
proper nouns (names of people, organisations, companies, products, political parties, religious
movements, countries, rivers, mountains, famous historical events, etc.).
See below for the Agency's conventions on capitalisation in specific areas.
Core Agency terminology
Most terms relating to the regulatory business of the Agency are generic in nature, and should not be
capitalised:
centralised procedure, marketing authorisation, assessment report, European public assessment report,
national competent authority, rapporteur, reference (or concerned) Member State, variation, scientific
advice, orphan medicine, maximum residue limit, guideline, reflection paper, list of questions, riskmanagement plan, product information, package leaflet, summary of product characteristics, opinion,
decision, good clinical practice, paediatric investigation plan, paediatric-use marketing authorisation,
advanced-therapy medicinal product, industry, academia
Some generic terms, however, have acquired a specific meaning within the context of the European
Union, and should retain capital letters to distinguish them from other senses. One example is:
Member State(s) [use this exclusively to refer to EU countries — use lower case for 'European Economic
Area countries', 'candidate countries', 'acceding states', etc.]
Active substances and invented names of medicines
The names of active substances should be written in lower case, e.g.:
orlistat, milnacipran, ganciclovir, dexmedetomidine hydrochloride
Similarly, international non-proprietary names (INNs) and common names should follow the usual
rules of capitalisation, i.e. all lower-case letters except for proper nouns or the first letter of a name at
the beginning of a sentence.
Invented names (trade names) should start with a capital letter. Some are registered as 'camel case'
(e.g. DepoCyte), which we should respect; however, if the name is registered in all capitals, only
capitalise the first letter, e.g. Avandia not AVANDIA. This is to aid readability and avoid inadvertent
promotion.
Further information is available on the Quality Review of Documents microsite on our intranet.
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Programmes and projects
It is acceptable to capitalise the main words in the title of a programme or project created by the
Agency if it is somehow distinctive or idiosyncratic, rather than merely descriptive:
Dream, Project 2014, Ask EMA, Operational Excellence, PROTECT
However, use lower case if the title simply describes what the programme/project is about:
corporate-identity project, template-rationalisation project, public-facing online information project
Titles of IT projects/systems that are purely descriptive should also be written in lower case:
regulatory affairs memory database, EU telematics controlled terms, electronic records management,
assessment reports repository, electronic application form
Conferences, workshops, etc.
Capitalise the first word and proper nouns only, e.g.:
Workshop on health-related quality of life in oncology
Conference on the operation of the Clinical Trials Directive and perspectives for the future
Focus groups: a model for fruitful interaction between the CAT and its interested parties
Organisational entities
Capitalise specific instances of organisational entities within the Agency, but not the type of entity
generally:
Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products [but scientific committees in general]
Immunologicals Working Party [but working parties in general]
Scientific Advisory Group on Antimicrobials [but scientific advisory groups in general]
Urology Drafting Group [but drafting groups in general]
Titles of office
Titles of office should be capitalised when the reference is to a specific person:
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
Guido Rasi, Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency
Luc Verhelst, Head of Information and Communications Technology
Christian Schneider, Chair of the Committee for Advanced Therapies
Mark Chambers, Chief Executive of PharmaIncognita Ltd
Titles of office should not be capitalised when their sense is generic:
The executive director is the legal representative of the European Medicines Agency.
The chairs and vice-chairs of scientific committees are elected for five years.
Each head of unit has at least one secretary.
A recruitment procedure for a new head of the Legal Service was published yesterday.
The Agency is writing to the director of the company concerned.
Generic descriptions of roles are also not capitalised:
rapporteur, applicant, spokesperson, authorising officer, reporting officer, line manager, secretary,
administrative assistant, temporary agent, contract agent
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Legislation
When referencing EU legislation, capitalise 'Regulation', 'Decision', 'Directive', 'Annex' and 'Article'
(followed by the relevant designation) if it refers to a specific act:
Regulation (EC) No 726/2004, Directive 2004/27/EC, Article 8(3)(h) of Directive 2001/83/EC
If the designation of a specific legislative act is not so important to the context, or has already been
referenced earlier in the text, it is acceptable to capitalise its informal title:
Paediatric Regulation, Variations Regulation, Clinical Trials Directive
Use lower case when referring to regulations, directives, decisions, etc. in general, or to draft
legislation:
a Commission decision is expected shortly; in accordance with the relevant directives; a draft regulation on
medical devices
Parts of a document
Capitalise the initial letter of the first word of a document title and of all headings in the document
(including table, chart and figure headings), but not other key words, unless they are proper nouns.
'Volume', 'Chapter', 'Section', 'Annex' and 'Article' should always be written with an initial capital when
followed by a number, as should 'Table' and 'Figure'. However, use lower case for 'page', 'paragraph',
'point', 'bullet' and 'line'.
Footnotes, endnotes and notes beneath tables, charts and diagrams should always begin with a capital
letter (unless the note begins with 'e.g.' or 'i.e.', which are traditionally written in lower case).
See also titles (publications).
Other Agency conventions on capitalisation
Avoid using all capitals ('full caps') unless there is a genuine and justifiable need for them. For
example, it may be justifiable to write surnames in full caps — e.g. Nicole HARTMANN — to highlight
them in minutes, a conference programme or similar document.
When citing the title of a non-Agency publication, programme, project, organisational entity or similar,
or when providing a verbatim quote from a non-Agency text, respect the capitalisation used in the
original.
Note that days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.), months (June, July, etc.) and holidays (Easter,
Christmas, etc.) have an initial capital, but seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter) do not.
For guidance on how to capitalise units, see Scientific terminology: Units of measurement.
citations
See bibliographies.
chair, vice-chair
These are the Agency's preferred terms, rather than '(vice-)chairman' or '(vice-)chairperson'. The
European Parliament and other EU institutions have also adopted '(vice-)chair' as the standard form.
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The terms should be capitalised when associated with a named individual:
In 2007, the Paediatric Committee elected Daniel Brasseur as its Chair and Gérard Pons as its Vice-chair.
but not when used generically:
The chair and vice-chair of the PDCO are elected for three-year terms.
combated, combating
Use these spellings, with a single 't', rather than 'combatted', 'combatting'.
commercially confidential information
You can speak of 'commercially confidential information' or 'confidential commercial information', but
avoid the formulation 'commercial confidential information'.
conflict(s) of interests
A single instance of conflicting interests is a 'conflict of interests'. Several instances are 'conflicts of
interests'.
You will sometimes see non-Agency sources using 'conflict (or conflicts) of interest (singular)', but logic
would dictate that, as there are always at least two parties' interests involved in such a conflict, only
the plural form 'interests' is correct.
contact details
The standard presentation of the Agency's contact details is as follows:
European Medicines Agency
7 Westferry Circus
Canary Wharf
London E14 4HB
United Kingdom
Tel. +44 (0)20 7418 8400
Fax +44 (0)20 7418 8416
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: www.ema.europa.eu
This standard presentation should in principle be respected for all printed and electronic materials
produced by the Agency. However, reasonable deviations can be accepted on grounds of technical
difficulty or impossibility, such as where a contacts database or other IT system in use at the Agency
requires that contact details be entered in a specific format.
Agency Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, business cards and certain other materials may present
Agency contact details differently. Refer to the relevant Agency templates for guidance.
See also e-mail addresses.
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continually, continuously
These are similar but not identical terms.
'Continually' means repeatedly, as in:
The photocopier is continually breaking down.
'Continuously' means an unbroken continuum, as in:
CCTV cameras continuously monitor the Canary Wharf estate.
cooperation, coordination
Prefer these non-hyphenated forms.
country names
Listing order
Protocol order
In very formal texts and in other situations where protocol must be observed (e.g. the positioning of
flags), the 27 Member States of the European Union should always be listed in protocol order
(alphabetical order of the short-form country names in the original language), as listed here:
Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia,
Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom
Where space is limited (e.g. in tables or charts), the two-letter country codes may be used instead, but
the same protocol order must be respected:
BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE,
UK
When listing non-EU countries or a combination of EU and non-EU countries, list them in alphabetical
order of their short-form names in English, e.g.:
Austria, Belgium, Germany, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom, United States
For up-to-date information on protocol order, see Interinstitutional style guide – 7.1. Countries.
Common order
In less formal texts, list Member States in alphabetical order of their short-form names in English:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
This also applies to lists that include both EU and non-EU countries, e.g.:
Austria, Belgium, Germany, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom, United States
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Country names with 'the'
In running text, retain the definite article for the names of those countries that require it, e.g.:
Xylostin 50 is currently authorised in Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain, the United
Kingdom and the United States.
Note that 'the' is lowercase except where it begins a sentence.
In isolated text, such as in lists, tables or document headings, omit the article.
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—D—
data
'Data' is a plural term (the singular is 'datum') and should be treated as such:
The data that have been collected in the most recent studies further support the claim that …
dependant, dependent
Take care with these two words: 'dependant' is a person for whom you are legally or financially
responsible (e.g. a child or elderly parent); 'dependent' is an adjective meaning 'conditional' or
'addicted' (e.g. dependent on the weather, or insulin-dependent diabetes).
digraphs
Keep the digraph (a letter combination that represents a single sound, such as 'ae' or 'oe') in words
like these:
aetiology, anaesthesia, caesium, gynaecology, haemophilia, leukaemia, oesophagus, oestrogen,
pharmacopoeia
Note, though, that it is now common in British English to spell the following without a digraph:
fetus, medieval
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effect, affect
See affect, effect.
e.g.
Means 'for example' (from the Latin exempli gratia), and is used to introduce a non-exhaustive list of
examples that illustrate a concept, as in this example:
The Agency will discuss the matter in detail with interested parties, e.g. patients' organisations, industry
stakeholders and academia.
It takes a point after each letter, and should be preceded by a comma in running text.
At the beginning of a footnote, it is traditionally written in lower case ('e.g.', not 'E.g.').
If 'e.g.' is used to introduce a list, do not end the list with 'etc.', since 'e.g.' already informs that the list
is non-exhaustive.
Consider using 'for example' or 'such as' instead, to avoid excessive use of abbreviations.
Compare with i.e.
EMA
An informal abbreviation for the European Medicines Agency.
Use only as explained under When to use 'EMA'.
e-mail
As with 'e-commerce', 'e-government', 'e-learning' and similar terms, 'e-mail' should be hyphenated.
e-mail addresses
E-mail addresses of Agency staff are written without capital letters, like this:
[email protected]
For the sake of consistency, adopt the same approach when writing e-mail addresses of non-Agency
contacts too.
The Agency's functional e-mail addresses should also be written in lower case, e.g.:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
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etc.
Means 'and the rest' (from the Latin et cetera), and is used at the end of a list of examples to indicate
that the list is non-exhaustive. It is always followed by a point (even in the middle of a sentence) and
preceded by a comma (unless only one example is listed), as shown here:
British English keeps the digraph in 'aetiology', 'caesium', 'oenology', 'oestrogen', etc., whereas US English
prefers 'etiology' etc.
Note that, if a list is introduced by 'e.g.', 'such as', 'as in' or a similar indication that it is nonexhaustive, it is not necessary to end the list with 'etc.'.
Note also that, in standard English practice, 'etc.' is followed by a single full stop (not three, as in some
other languages).
euro
The European currency is the 'euro' (plural 'euros'), written with a lower-case initial letter (as are
'pounds', 'dollars', 'yen' and other currencies).
For information on when to use 'euro', '€' or 'EUR', see Numbers with units.
European Medicines Agency, the Agency, EMA
This guidance is provided to promote consistent use of the name of our organisation in our materials.
When to use 'European Medicines Agency'
The official name of our organisation is 'European Medicines Agency', as set out in Regulation (EC) No
726/2004 of 31 March 2004. Only this name should ever be used to register the Agency with national
or international authorities, or given as the name of the employer in any official papers or application
forms filled out by Agency staff.
In all public communications issued by the Agency, the full name 'European Medicines Agency' must
appear at least once, to avoid any ambiguity about the originator of the communication.
The full name should appear early in the text, preferably within the first paragraph.
When to use 'the Agency'
As long as the full name 'European Medicines Agency' has been used towards the beginning of a text,
'the Agency' may be used in subsequent references, in the interest of brevity. In some documents
(particularly ones of a legal or politically sensitive nature), it is advisable to write, at first mention:
The European Medicines Agency (hereinafter 'the Agency') …
In texts where we are mentioned alongside another EU decentralised agency (e.g. ECDC, EFSA or the
EMCDDA), make sure it is always clear which agency is being referred to in each instance, by using
either the full name or the usual abbreviation of the agency concerned (in which case, 'EMA' is
acceptable — see below).
Note that we capitalise 'Agency' when used to refer specifically to the European Medicines Agency, but
not when its use is generic, as in 'An agency of the European Union'.
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When to use 'EMA'
Important note!
'EMA' is an informal, shorthand designation. It is not recognised in the founding legislation of the
Agency, nor does it have any other legal basis.
It must therefore never be given as the official name of the organisation in any document. Problems
were caused in the past when the former (also unofficial) abbreviation for the Agency, 'EMEA', was
given in official papers submitted to UK authorities, resulting in years of administrative problems.
To make sure this does not happen again, never give 'EMA' as the official name of the Agency.
Notwithstanding the note above, there are some situations in which it may be acceptable to use 'EMA',
for reasons of brevity or clarity, including:
•
in the title of a document, conference, workshop, etc. where it is important to identify the Agency
as author/organiser, but where writing out the full name would make the title excessively long:
Terms of reference of the joint EMA/FDA pilot programme on GMP inspections
Joint ECDC, EFSA and EMA scientific report on meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
EFPIA/EMA modelling and simulation workshop
•
in texts where two or more agencies are mentioned and it is necessary to clarify which of them is
concerned:
At the joint EFSA/ECDC/EMA scientific conference held in March, EMA representatives were of the opinion
that ….
Other uses of 'EMA':
•
Historically, the abbreviation has been used as part of the name of a working party or similar group
(e.g. EMA Human Scientific Committees' Working Party with Patients' and Consumers'
Organisations), or the name of an Agency-managed project (e.g. 'Ask EMA'). However, this is not
recommended practice and should be discouraged.
•
'EMA' is used in the Agency's document reference numbers, e-mail addresses and web addresses
out of technical necessity.
Note that if 'EMA' is used even once in a document, the abbreviation must be explained as early
as possible in the text, simply by including it in brackets after the first mention of the full name of
the Agency (e.g. "The European Medicines Agency (EMA) today announced …"). Do not, though,
explain 'EMA' if it is not subsequently used in the document.
European public assessment report (EPAR)
This is a generic term, so only 'European' takes a capital letter.
This term should always be written out in full at first mention, with the abbreviation added immediately
after, in brackets, if you wish to use the abbreviation subsequently.
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European Union (EU)
Although most readers of the Agency's communications will be familiar with the abbreviation 'EU' in
English, there are many for whom the European Union is abbreviated differently in their native
language, such as 'ES' in Latvian and Lithuanian, 'EL' in Estonian, 'EE' in Greek and 'UE' in several
languages.
To avoid any possible misunderstanding, always write European Union out in full at first mention in a
text, followed immediately by the abbreviation in brackets if you prefer to use only the abbreviation in
subsequent references.
Note on 'Community'
Under the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Union has legal personality in its own right, and absorbs
what used to be known as the European Community/Communities. Therefore, the latter terms should
be used only in a historical context.
Expressions such as 'Community procedures on inspections', 'in the interests of Community health' and
'Community herbal monograph' should be phased out and replaced by EU equivalents. Where such
terms stem from legislative acts, it may be preferable to wait until those acts have themselves been
updated.
Listing order of Member States
See country names.
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—F—
fax numbers
The standard presentation of Agency fax numbers is as follows:
Fax +44 (0)20 7418 8416
See also contact details.
fetus
Although the spelling 'foetus' is sometimes still found in non-technical contexts in British English, in
technical usage, 'fetus' is now the standard spelling throughout the English-speaking world, and should
be preferred in Agency materials.
focused, focusing
Use these spellings, with a single 's', rather than 'focussed', 'focussing'.
follow up, follow-up
Note that the expression 'follow up' is not hyphenated when used as a verb, but it is hyphenated when
used as a noun or an adjective:
The Board agreed to follow up [verb] on the matter at its next meeting.
The Board was of the opinion that any follow-up [noun] to the process would be too time-consuming.
The Board appointed two of its members to research the need for follow-up [adjective] measures.
footnotes
Footnote references should be superscript and appear immediately after the chosen term, before any
punctuation, as in this example:
As announced in its latest meeting report1, the Paediatric Committee adopted a positive opinion on …
Footnotes should begin with a capital letter (except when they begin with 'e.g.' or 'i.e.') and end with a
full stop (except when ending with an e-mail or web address – see URL):
_________________________
1
Published on the European Medicines Agency's website here.
The same rules apply to endnotes and notes below tables, charts, figures, etc.
foreign words
See Latin and other foreign words.
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—G—
gender-neutral language
The gender-neutral forms 'he/she', 'his/her' and 'him/her' are clumsy and should be avoided where
possible (but could be acceptable in non-running text, such as in a form).
A better alternative is to use 'they', 'their' and 'them', as in this example:
If an applicant considers that they have been adversely affected by a decision, they can lodge an appeal
within three months. Their appeal will be considered and a response given to them within 30 days.
Gender can also be avoided by addressing the reader directly, as in this reworded version of the
example above:
If you consider that you have been adversely affected by a decision, you can lodge an appeal within three
months. Your appeal will be considered and a response given to you within 30 days.
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—H—
healthcare
Write this as a single, unhyphenated word, e.g.:
healthcare professional
[But respect the capitalisation of the statutory name 'European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines
& HealthCare' (EDQM).]
however
Use a comma after 'however' when it qualifies something said previously:
You are unlikely to attain perfection. However, it is worth striving for.
If the 'however' starts a clause, use a semicolon before and a comma after:
You are unlikely to attain perfection; however, it is worth striving for.
If the 'however' does not start the sentence (or a clause), use commas before and after it:
You are unlikely to attain perfection. It is, however, worth striving for.
Do not use a comma after 'however' when it is used to mean 'no matter how':
However hard you strive for perfection, you are unlikely to attain it.
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i.e.
Means 'that is to say' (from the Latin id est), and is used to give additional information about what has
just been mentioned, as in:
This project will help the Agency to achieve one of its main aims, i.e. providing better access to information
about medicines.
It takes a point after each letter, and should be preceded by a comma in running text.
At the beginning of a footnote, it is traditionally written in lower case ('i.e.', not 'I.e.').
Consider using 'namely' or 'that is' instead, to avoid excessive use of abbreviations.
Compare with e.g.
including, excluding
Note that 'including' and 'excluding' should always be preceded by a comma when used to introduce a
list of items:
Several colleagues, including Sylwia, Christos and Marco, are still on holiday.
The price is €120, excluding VAT.
international non-proprietary name (INN)
See capital letters: Active substances and invented names of medicines.
internet, intranet
Like 'e-mail' and 'world wide web', these terms are now so widely recognised that they no longer need
an initial capital letter.
invented name
See capital letters: Active substances and invented names of medicines.
'-is', '-iz' and '-ys' spellings
Use '-is' spellings, not '-iz' spellings:
authorise, authorisation, organise, organisation, harmonise, minimise, recognise, emphasise, centralised,
standardised, etc.
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However, respect '-iz' spellings if used in the statutory name of an organisation:
World Health Organization (WHO)
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
or in the title of a non-Agency document:
‘Harmonization of Information Management and Reporting for Biodiversity-related Treaties’
And note that, for the following words, only these spellings are correct in British English:
analyse, breathalyse, catalyse, dialyse, electrolyse, hydrolyse, paralyse, psychoanalyse
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—J—
judgement, judgment
Use the spelling 'judgement' (with an 'e' after the 'g') in general contexts, but prefer 'judgment'
(without the 'e') when referring to the decision of a law court or similar legal instrument.
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—K—
[No entries yet]
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—L—
Latin and other foreign words
Latin and other foreign terms and phrases that are commonly used in English are usually written in
roman script (not italics):
ad hoc, de facto, ex ante, ex post, in vitro, in utero, in situ, et al., per se, verbatim, status quo, vice versa,
versus, vis-à-vis, chargé d'affaires, en route, realpolitik, weltschmerz, tsunami, etc.
[Note that 'ad hoc meeting', 'in vitro fertilisation' and similar phrases where a foreign term is used
adjectivally are not hyphenated, unless the foreign term is itself hyphenated, as in 'laissez-faire attitude'.
Note also that German nouns generally lose their initial capital when used in English texts.]
However, less-commonly used foreign terms and phrases still tend to be italicised in English:
sic, acquis, ne plus ultra
Note also that, in the biological sciences, the names of genera and species are always italicised. [See
Scientific names.]
When writing for a general audience, avoid using a Latin phrase if a simple English equivalent exists:
among others (instead of inter alia)
a year (instead of per annum)
a day (instead of per diem; as a noun, this can be expressed as daily allowance)
a head or per person (instead of per capita)
levelled, leveller, levelling
Use these spellings, with a double 'l', rather than 'leveled', 'leveler', 'leveling'.
log in, login
To log in (two words) is an action; what you enter when logging in are login (one word) details.
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—M—
marketing authorisation, marketing-authorisation holder
These are generic terms and should not be capitalised.
After the first use, 'marketing-authorisation holder' may be abbreviated to 'MAH' if it appears many
times in a text. If using the abbreviation, make sure it is explained first, by including it in brackets
after the first instance of the spelled-out term.
Note that 'marketing-authorisation holder' is hyphenated, in line with standard English practice.
(See Use of hyphens in adjectival phrases.)
Member States
See country names.
meter, metre
Take care with these two words: 'meter' is a measuring instrument (e.g. thermometer); 'metre' is the
metric unit of measurement equal to one hundred centimetres.
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names
See titles (people).
national competent authorities (NCAs)
This is a generic description of what these bodies are — not a statutory designation — so it is not
capitalised.
This term should always be written out in full at first mention, with the abbreviation added immediately
after, in brackets, if you wish to use the abbreviation subsequently.
No (number)
Abbreviation of 'number' (from the Latin numero); plural 'Nos'. Both 'No' and 'Nos' have an initial
capital and neither is followed by a point.
Note that legislative acts of the European Union also use 'No' without a point:
Regulation (EC) No 1745/2003
Commission Regulation (EC) No 23/1999
Decision No 862/2010/EU
Exception
It may in some circumstances be acceptable to use 'No.' (with a point) to avoid potential confusion, as
demonstrated in the table below, but use 'Number of' instead, if space allows:
Italy
France
'No' = potentially confusing 
No treated chickens
1,778
1,820
'No.' = better option 
No. treated pigs
426
516
'Number of' = best option 
Number of treated cows
1,177
1,010
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—O—
ongoing
The word is 'ongoing', not 'on-going'.
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practice, practise
Take care with these two words: 'practice' is a noun; 'practise' is a verb.
It is my practice [noun = a habitual approach] to practise [verb = to exercise] wishful thinking when
visiting the dentist's practice [noun = the premises of a healthcare professional, lawyer, etc.].
principal, principle
Take care with these two words, as they mean different things.
'Principal' is similar in meaning to 'main' or 'most important', e.g.:
Good planning was the principal reason for the success of the project.
A 'principle' is a truth, proposal or theorem that underlies or guides a belief, behaviour, attitude or
system, e.g.:
Freedom of speech is one of the key principles of democracy.
program, programme
In British usage, 'program' has become the accepted spelling in information-technology contexts
('computer program', 'to program a computer', etc.).
In all other contexts, 'programme' is still the recommended spelling ('work programme', 'samplingand-testing programme', 'Seventh Framework Programme', etc.).
protocol order
See country names.
publicly
This is the correct spelling, not 'publically'.
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quotations
See Punctuation: Quotation marks.
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references (citations)
See bibliographies.
regard
Note that 'with regard to' and 'as regards' are acceptable alternatives to 'regarding', but 'with regards
to' is not correct.
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—S—
SmPC, SPC
Use 'SmPC' as the abbreviation for 'summary of product characteristics'.
Use 'SPC' as the abbreviation for 'supplementary protection certificate'.
stationary, stationery
Take care with these two words: 'stationary' means 'not moving' (e.g. a parked car is a stationary car),
whereas 'stationery' means pens, paper, envelopes, notepads, sticky notes and similar office supplies.
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targeted, targeting
Use these spellings, with a single 't', rather than 'targetted', 'targetting'.
telephone numbers
The standard presentation of Agency telephone numbers is as follows:
Tel. +44 (0)20 7418 8400
See also contact details.
that/which
Either 'that' or 'which' can be used as a relative pronoun introducing a clause that identifies a specific
instance of something, as in this example:
The press release that [or which] was published this morning said the company's director had resigned.
Here, the clause identifies that it was specifically the press release published this morning — not one
published yesterday or at some other time — in which the director's resignation was announced.
However, if the clause does not indicate a specific instance, but simply provides extra information, you
must use 'which':
The press release, which was published this morning, said the company's director had resigned.
Here, the clause 'which was published this morning' just gives information about when the press
release was published, and could be removed altogether without affecting the sense. In cases like this,
there must be a comma before the clause and (unless the clause ends the sentence) after it.
See also Grammar: Relative clauses.
titles (organisational entities)
Organisations
Write out the full name (not the abbreviation) of an organisation at first mention in a text, and make
sure you give the correct, official title. If using an abbreviation subsequently, use the one normally
used by the organisation itself. Also, respect the spelling, capitalisation, hyphenation and special
characters of the official name (but use an English translation of names that use the Greek, Cyrillic,
Chinese or other non-roman alphabet):
European Commission Directorate-General for Health and Consumers [note that the abbreviation 'SANCO'
is strictly reserved for internal use within the EU institutions and bodies; see Commission directoratesgeneral and services: official titles]
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [respect the use of points in 'U.S.' here]
World Health Organization (WHO) [respect the 'z' spelling]
World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
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Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé (ANSM)
National Organization for Medicines [official English name of the Greek medicines agency; respect the 'z'
spelling]
General, descriptive references to organisations should not be capitalised as though they are official
titles, so write:
A delegation from the Greek medicines agency visited last August.
Implantable defibrillators are currently being reviewed by the French regulatory body for medical devices.
The conference was organised by the German health ministry.
Companies
For companies, write out the full, official name at first mention, including the abbreviation for the type
of business entity concerned, giving any abbreviation the company itself commonly uses immediately
after (in brackets) if this abbreviation is used in subsequent mentions:
Astellas Pharma Europe B.V.
Bayer HealthCare AG
GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK)
Novartis Europharm Ltd
Pfizer Inc.
Sanofi Pasteur S.A.
For guidance on how to write and punctuate the abbreviations of company types in various countries,
refer to the Wikipedia page on types of business entity. (But note that the accuracy of this information
is unverified.)
Agency units, sectors and sections
General conventions on writing the names of internal Agency entities:
•
Capitalise major words in the name, e.g.:
Patient Health Protection
Safety and Efficacy of Medicines
Training and Professional Development
•
Do not include the word 'unit', 'sector', 'section' or similar designation unless it adds clarity in a
particular context. For instance, including the word 'sector' (lower case) in the second of these two
sentences obviously improves the clarity:
Communications issues the Agency's press releases.
The Communications sector issues the Agency's press releases.
Note that some designations, such as 'Office' and 'Service' in the following examples, form part of
the official name of the entity, and are therefore capitalised:
Executive Office, SME Office, Legal Service
•
Organisational group denominators (H-SE-SUP, P-PV, V-VM-DEM, I-UA-QCT, A-IS, D-LS, etc.)
should be used in internal Agency documents only.
For up-to-date information on the Agency's organisational entities, see the Organisational structure
microsite on our intranet.
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titles (people)
Titles of office
'Executive director, 'head of unit', 'senior medical officer', 'chair' and similar titles of office should be
capitalised when used together with the office holder's name, e.g.:
Guido Rasi, Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency
Hans-Georg Eichler, Senior Medical Officer
When used to describe the function, rather than the person, write such titles in lower case:
Christina discussed the issue with her head of sector this morning.
A new chair and vice-chair will be appointed in October.
Note that this applies to non-Agency office holders too, e.g.:
John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy [but the commissioner]
President Obama [but the president of the United States]
Pope Benedict XVI [but the pope]
Queen Elizabeth II [but the queen]
Robert Weston, Chief Executive of Biocorps Inc. [but the chief executive of the company].
Agency staff
As a rule, the Agency does not identify its staff by their academic titles. Write simply 'Harold
Schreiner', rather than 'Professor Harold Schreiner', or 'Renata Mickiewicza', rather than 'Mgr. Renata
Mickiewicza'.
When referring to colleagues in public communications, use the form 'Guido Rasi, Executive Director',
'Patrick Le Courtois, Head of Human Medicines Development and Evaluation', etc. at first mention;
thereafter, use simply 'Mr Rasi', 'Mr Le Courtois', etc.
There are exceptions, though, where it is respectful to identify colleagues by their academic title, for
example in a public statement announcing the recruitment of a senior member of staff, or in an official
biography. In these cases, give the person's title, first name and surname at first mention:
The Agency has appointed Dr Robert Kimmel to serve as …
Thereafter, give their title and surname:
Dr Kimmel brings to this role twelve years' experience as a …
On Agency business cards, staff may include their most significant qualifications after their name, e.g.
'Camilla Andersen MD, MSc', as long as they fit in the space available.
Public figures
When referring to public figures, give them their full title at first mention, e.g. 'John Dalli, European
Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy', and use only their surname in subsequent mentions,
e.g. 'Mr Dalli'. ('Commissioner Dalli' would be acceptable in a news headline.)
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Further notes on titles
•
Do not include a point after contractions that contain the final letter of the spoken version, e.g.
'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Ms' or 'Dr', but do include one for truncations, such as 'Prof.', which do not include the
final letter.
•
Use 'Ms' if you are unsure whether the woman referred to is a 'Mrs'.
•
Respect the special characters, hyphenation and capitalisation of names such as Grybauskaitė,
Potočnik, Wallström, Jean-Charles de la Vallée Poussin, Klaus von Klitzing and Hans van der Meer.
titles (publications)
Titles of Agency publications
Follow the guidelines below when giving an Agency publication a title.
•
Capitalise only the first letter and any proper nouns (names of organisations, projects,
people, etc.), as in these examples:
General information for sponsors of orphan medicinal products
Reflection paper on level of purification of extracts to be considered as herbal preparations
Monitoring of centrally authorised medicines using EudraVigilance data
Guide to the European Medicines Agency
•
Short, descriptive titles work best. Try to give a title that accurately describes the subjectmatter of the document without using any unnecessary words, as in this example:
Rules of procedure of the Management Board
However, the nature of the Agency's work means that some of its publications necessarily have
quite long titles, so the following example is also acceptable:
Reflection paper on the data requirements for intravenous liposomal products developed with reference to
an innovator liposomal product
The general rule should be: keep it as short as possible, but not at the expense of accuracy.
•
Leave out unnecessary information.
A document published in December 2011 had this title:
Outcome of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) office survey on the implementation of the SME
regulation - Commission Regulation (EC) No 2049/2005
A better title would have been:
Outcome of the SME Office survey on the implementation of the SME Regulation
It is not necessary to explain what 'SME' means, or to give the regulation number, in the title. This
information would be better placed elsewhere in the document, such as in an introduction.
•
Make use of subtitles.
The Agency's Microsoft Word templates contain a line immediately below the title, reserved for the
optional inclusion of a subtitle. Use this subtitle line to provide additional relevant information, as
in these examples:
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Road map to 2015
The European Medicines Agency's contribution to science, medicines and health
Trends in the sales of veterinary antimicrobial agents in nine European countries
Reporting period: 2005–2009
Applying for EU marketing authorisation
For medicinal products for human use
•
The name of the originating entity should not (normally) be included in the title.
The Agency's Microsoft Word templates contain a three-line reference section above the title, which
is where the name of the originating entity — the committee, working party, unit, sector, etc. on
whose behalf the document is authored — should be identified (along with the date of the
document and its Dream reference number).
Similarly, all documents published by the Agency display its logo prominently, clearly identifying
them as originating from the Agency.
For these reasons, it is not usually necessary to include the name of the Agency or of any of its
organisational entities as part of the document title itself, so the names should really have been
omitted in these recent examples found on the Agency's website:
European Medicines Agency information and communications technology standards
EMA preparations for the impact of the 2012 Olympic Games
EMA mid-year report 2011 from the Acting Executive Director (January–June 2011)
PDCO monthly report of opinions on paediatric investigation plans
Exceptions
An exception to this rule is made for press releases, which always start with 'European Medicines
Agency ...', to ensure journalists receiving them via e-mail subscription (or social media) can
readily identify the Agency as their source. It is also sometimes acceptable to use 'EMA' as part of
the title, as explained under When to use 'EMA'.
Referencing Agency publications
In running text, the preferred way to reference documents published by the Agency is (at first
mention) to give the full title, enclosed in single, straight quotation marks, followed immediately after
by the Dream reference number in brackets, as in this example:
As highlighted in its 'Road map to 2015' (EMA/299895/2009), the Agency is likely to be confronted with
challenges stemming from a reappraisal of the device legislation in the EU.
An appropriate, shortened version of the title may be used in subsequent mentions in the same text,
as long as it is clear what you are referring to, e.g.:
The road map goes on to say that the Agency will assume a more proactive role in advising the European
institutions on any gaps in medicines development.
Note that neither quotation marks nor capital letters are necessary in such shortened references.
See also bibliographies.
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Referencing non-Agency publications
Articles, reports, guidelines and other documents published by non-Agency authors should be
referenced in the same way as Agency ones, as described above (together with their reference
number, where relevant).
Newspaper and journal titles should be referenced without quotation marks, and in roman script (not
italics):
The Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Le Monde, Corriere della Sera, etc.
British Medical Journal, The Lancet, Animal Pharm, New England Journal of Medicine, etc.
For all publications issued by non-Agency bodies, respect the original capitalisation and spelling used
by the author/publisher (do not apply the Agency's conventions), and always give the exact title.
See also bibliographies.
training
'Training' is a non-countable noun, so it is correct to write or say:
We are organising a training course (or a training session, training module, etc.).
We are organising training.
But it is not correct to write or say:
We are organising a training.
We are organising trainings.
travelled, traveller, travelling
Use these spellings, with a double 'l', rather than 'traveled', 'traveler', 'traveling'.
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—U—
United Kingdom, UK
Write out 'the United Kingdom' at first mention and use 'the UK' (without points) thereafter.
Note that the UK comprises Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland.
See also Country names with 'the'.
United States, US
Except in very formal contexts, write 'United States', rather than 'United States of America'.
Abbreviate it to 'US' (without points) on second mention. Note, however, that if the official name of an
organisation uses points, e.g. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, write it with points.
As an adjective, use 'US', not 'USA', as in 'US inspection practices'.
See also Country names with 'the'.
URL
Abbreviation for 'uniform resource locator', more commonly known as a web address.
Take care when inserting URLs in your documents, as some website links only work if the appropriate
elements ('http://', 'https://', 'www', etc.) are included. It is best to visit the site and copy its URL
directly from the browser's address bar, then paste it into your document.
If you need to provide a full URL in your document, it is generally best not to include it in the body
text, but to insert it as a footnote instead (with no full stop at the end), like this:
1
World Health Organization: http://www.who.int
Alternatively, link from meaningful words in the body text, like this:
This information is available on the World Health Organization website.
References to pages on the Agency's website
Pages on our website have URLs like this:
http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp?curl=pages/special_topics/landing/diabetes_disease_area.jsp&
murl=menus/special_topics/special_topics.jsp&mid=WC0b01ac058034ed08
Because of their length, it is better not to cite them in full, but to link to the relevant page from
appropriate words in your sentence instead, like this:
Available on the Diabetes page of the Agency's website.
In print-only materials (e.g. a poster), describe the user's path from the Agency's homepage, like this:
Home (www.ema.europa.eu) > Special topics > Disease areas > Diabetes
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—V—
[No entries yet]
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—W—
web, website
These terms are now so widely recognised that they no longer need initial capitals.
Note that 'website' should be written as one word, and so should 'homepage'. However, 'web page'
should be written as two words.
For information on referencing web addresses, see URL.
wellbeing
Write this as a single, unhyphenated word.
what/which
In phrases such as the following, use 'what' when the number of possibilities is unlimited, and 'which'
when the possibilities are limited:
What would be a good day for us to meet? [Unlimited possibilities.]
I can meet you on Tuesday or on Friday. Which day would you prefer? [Only two possibilities.]
We need to find out what the problem is. [Unlimited possibilities.]
We found three problems, and now we need to decide which to tackle first. [Only three possibilities.]
What book are you reading? [Unlimited possibilities.]
Which of Victor Hugo's books do you like best? [Possibilities limited to the number of books he wrote.]
which/that
See that/which.
while
Prefer the spelling 'while' to the now somewhat dated 'whilst'.
who/whom
There is much confusion about the correct use of these two words. The thing to remember is that
'who' is the subject form (corresponding to 'I', 'he', 'she' or 'they') and 'whom' is the object form
(corresponding to 'me', 'him', 'her' or 'them').
With this knowledge, which of the following sentences is correct?
(a) Whom did you give your pen to?
(b) Who did you give your pen to?
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Since the hypothetical answer 'I gave my pen to her (object)' would be correct, but 'I gave my pen to
she (subject)' would not be, you need the object form (whom), so sentence (a) is correct.
However, many people now consider the 'whom' version to be excessively formal, so it has in most
contexts become acceptable (though not strictly grammatically correct) to write sentences such as:
Who did you see at the conference?
Who are you going to Spain with?
The lady who I met this morning spoke Greek.
I was not told who the information had come from.
The patients who the treatment was developed for are diabetics.
Note, though, that you must use 'whom' if it comes directly after a preposition, as in these examples:
To whom did you give your pen?
With whom are you going to the cinema?
For whom was the speech prepared?
I was not told from whom the information had come.
The patients at whom the message is targeted are diabetics.
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— X, Y, Z —
'-ys' spellings
See '-is', '-iz' and '-ys' spellings.
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3. Punctuation
Punctuation marks can be considered as equivalents of the tools we use to express ourselves clearly
when speaking: stress, intonation, volume, rhythm, pauses, repetition and similar devices. If we did
not use these, our speech would probably sound dull and — even worse — might confuse our listeners.
The same is true when writing. To demonstrate this, read the following example of a poorly punctuated
sentence and see if its meaning is clear to you:
There is one problem only Sandra knows we face insolvency.
Now see how the same sentence can have five subtly different meanings, depending on how it is
punctuated:
There is one problem: only Sandra knows we face insolvency.
There is one problem only: Sandra knows we face insolvency.
There is one problem only, Sandra knows: we face insolvency.
There is one problem only Sandra knows: we face insolvency.
There is one problem only Sandra knows we face: insolvency.
As this example demonstrates, punctuation is not a minor issue that can be ignored. The correct use of
punctuation adds to the clarity and precision of your text, which in turn improves the overall quality of
the communications materials you create.
What follows is a brief overview of the most common uses of punctuation in English, which you are
encouraged to refer to when writing Agency materials.
3.1. Commas (,)
A comma is the typographic equivalent of a pause in speech. The general rule to follow with commas is
to insert one in those places in your text where you would naturally pause, briefly, if reading it aloud.
Use commas in these instances:
•
To separate list items in running text, as in these examples:
Otto has lived in Denmark, Spain, Venezuela and the United States.
The £20 lunch menu includes a starter, main course and dessert.
See also Lists in running text.
•
To separate adjectives in a series, if the comma serves to replace 'and':
This is a bright, spacious office.
but not if the first adjective simply qualifies what comes after it:
She is an experienced clinical practitioner. [You would not write 'experienced and clinical practitioner'.]
•
Before a conjunction ('and', 'or', 'but', 'although', 'yet', 'while', 'so', etc.) that joins two clauses into
a single sentence:
Mr Koli's flight was delayed, so we had to start the meeting later.
The committee agreed on a date, but not on the time.
Sophie says she will make the hotel reservations, and book the restaurant too.
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•
After short introductory phrases:
In 2010, the number of applications received was 14% greater than in the previous year.
After he graduated, Marco took an internship at a local hospital.
Despite the bad weather, the event was a great success.
•
To separate additional, parenthetical information from the main sentence:
The draft guideline, released for public consultation in March, was finalised and published in August.
We agreed, having analysed participants' feedback, to review the quality of our training materials.
The press release, which was published this morning, said the company's director had resigned. [But see
also that/which.]
3.2. Colons (:)
A colon is used to introduce further information about what comes before it.
Its most common use is to introduce a list of items, as in this example:
Objectives: improve performance, reduce costs and save time. [See also Lists.]
A second use of the colon is to introduce information that explains or elaborates on the first part of the
sentence, as in these examples:
We have yet to discuss the most important item on the agenda: the location of our new offices.
The situation is clear: we cannot solve the problem by ourselves.
Magda was sure of one thing: she was going to miss her flight.
Colons can also be used to separate the main and secondary parts of a title or document heading:
From genes to gene medicines: recent advances in nonviral gene delivery
[Note the lower-case initial letter after the colon.]
3.3. Semicolons (;)
A semicolon represents a pause that is longer than one represented by a comma, but shorter than one
represented by a full stop.
Semicolons are used in these instances:
•
To separate items in complex lists in running text (where use of commas instead might cause
confusion), as in this example:
The aims of the initiative are to: save resources without compromising on quality; reengineer processes
and reallocate resources to deliver on core activities; improve efficiency to better handle the workload; and
demonstrate European best practice. [See also Complex lists.]
•
To end items in bullet lists or numbered lists that form part of a continuous sentence, as
demonstrated here:
If the items in a list complete an introductory phrase (like this one), you should:
1.
introduce the list with a colon;
2.
begin each list item with a lower-case letter;
3.
end each list item with a semicolon;
4.
end the list with a full stop.
See also Numbered lists or Bullet lists.
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•
To combine two clauses into one sentence without using a conjunction (such as 'and', 'or', 'but',
'although', 'yet', 'while' or 'so'), as in these examples:
The committee agreed on the date; they did not agree on a time.
All colleagues will have an opportunity to express their views; no voice will go unheard.
3.4. Full stops (.)
Note the following uses of full stops:
•
A full stop comes at the end of a complete sentence. It is followed by a single space if another
sentence follows it, or by no space if the sentence ends a paragraph. [See also Spaces.]
•
When quoting text, do not include an additional full stop after the closing quotation mark if the
quoted phrase already contains one, as demonstrated here:
In his closing remarks, Mr van Beuren said, "Much has been achieved; much is left to do."
[See also Quotation marks.]
•
Include a full stop at the end of all footnotes and notes beneath charts, tables and figures (unless
they end with an e-mail or web address: see URL).
3.5. Ellipses (…)
Ellipses (also known as 'omission marks') are formed by pressing the full-stop key three times
(Microsoft Word will usually convert these stops to a single character), and are used to indicate that
part of a text has been intentionally omitted, as in this example:
The article states that "adverse effects caused by interactions between medicines … are a significant cause
of hospital admissions", particularly in older people.
There should be a single space both before and after the ellipsis, as in the example above.
An ellipsis can also be used (in less formal texts) to indicate that a list 'trails off':
The service was excellent, the atmosphere was welcoming, the food was delicious… Everything was
perfect.
In this example, the ellipsis should not have a space before it, and, if it ends the sentence, should not
be followed by a (fourth) full stop.
3.6. Dashes
en dash (–)
The en dash (–), named after the width of the letter 'N' in traditional typesetting, is longer than a
hyphen (-) but shorter than an em dash (—).
Use an en dash to indicate spans between times, dates and other numbers, as in these examples:
15:00–16:30
17–19 July 2012
€10–20 million
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In Microsoft Office programmes, insert an en dash by using the key combination Alt + 0150 (press the
'Alt' key while typing 0150 on the numeric keypad). In Microsoft Word, you can also insert it by
simultaneously pressing the 'Ctrl' key and the minus key (-) on the numeric keypad.
em dash (—)
The em dash (—), named after the width of the letter 'M' in traditional typesetting, is approximately
twice the width of the en dash (–).
In Microsoft Office programmes, insert an em dash by using the key combination Alt + 0151 (press the
'Alt' key while typing 0151 on the numeric keypad). In Microsoft Word, you can also insert it by
simultaneously pressing the 'Ctrl' key, the 'Alt' key and the minus key (-) on the numeric keypad.
Em dashes can be used in the way commas or brackets are used to add parenthetical information to a
sentence, but they create a stronger break, which strengthens the emphasis.
A pair of em dashes, with a single space on either side of each one, can be used in the middle of a
sentence, as in this example:
We need to take the views of our stakeholders — not least those of industry representatives — into
account when redesigning our website.
Alternatively, a single em dash can be used to add information at the end of the sentence:
The cost of the project is certainly a factor to consider — possibly the most important one.
Em dashes used in this way can be effective, but overusing them interrupts the flow of a passage of
text, so use them sparingly.
3.7. Hyphens (-)
Rules on when to use hyphens in English are quite loosely defined, but editorial guides tend to agree
on the uses recommended below.
Use of hyphens in compound terms
Words joined to form compound terms often take a hyphen to indicate a close relationship between the
words:
cross-reference, decision-maker, directorate-general, end-user, fact-check, policy-maker, quality-control,
quality-management, risk-management, risk-minimisation, self-assessment, user-friendly, vice-chair
Often, compound terms start out as two separate words, then become a hyphenated word, and end up
as a non-hyphenated word as they become more established in everyday use:
web site > web-site > website
data base > data-base > database
home page > home-page > homepage
Note that compound nouns formed from phrasal verbs are often hyphenated:
the roll-out of a new system [but 'to roll out a new system']
to conduct follow-up [but 'to follow up on the work begun last week']
a check-in time [but 'to check in on time']
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Some compound nouns formed from phrasal verbs have become so common that they are now
generally written as a single word:
backup, callout, feedback, handout, rollover, setup, takeover
Use of hyphens in adjectival phrases
Hyphenate word-groupings appropriately whenever they are used adjectivally, i.e. to describe what
follows, as in these examples:
aspirin-like properties
best-possible outcome
clinical-trial participants
cost-effective programme
decision-making process
eight-year-old child
food-producing animals
foot-and-mouth disease
health-related concerns
in-depth analysis
life-threatening condition
long-term strategy [but 'a strategy for the long term']
marketing-authorisation holder
mutual-recognition procedure
pandemic-influenza preparedness [but 'preparedness for pandemic influenza']
question-and-answer document
risk-management plan
short-term benefits [but 'benefits in the short term']
state-of-the-art technology [but 'this technology advances the state of the art']
twenty-first-century neuroscience
up-to-date report [but 'a report that is up to date']
well-established use [but 'a use that is well established']
well-thought-out plan [but 'a plan that is well thought out']
Avoid excessive hyphenation
If possible, avoid a long 'train crash' of hyphenated words by rewriting your sentence. For example,
instead of writing:
marketing-authorisation-holder-preparatory-meeting invitation
write:
an invitation to the marketing-authorisation holder to attend a preparatory meeting
This is a bit longer, but a lot clearer.
Note on adverbs ending in '-ly'
Adjectival phrases comprising an adverb ending in '-ly' should not be hyphenated:
centrally authorised medicines, commonly misspelled words, recently established procedures, eagerly
awaited announcement
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Use of hyphens with prefixes
Some terms that include a prefix are hyphenated, others are not; there are no firm rules to determine
why. As a guide, though, here are some examples of common practice.
Usually not hyphenated
Usually hyphenated
antisocial, antibiotic, antihistamine, antiseptic
anti-bullying, anti-inflammatory, anti-arrhythmic
codecision, coexist, cooperate
co-chair, co-funded, co-opt
interdisciplinary, interinstitutional, intermediate
inter-agency, inter-regional
intraocular, intrauterine, intravenous
intra-abdominal, intra-aortic, intra-arterial
multilingual, multicultural, multipurpose
multi-site, multi-user, multi-ethnic
nondescript, nonentity, nonsense
non-linear, non-payment, non-specific
Take special care with words that use the prefix 're-', as they can have different meanings, depending
on whether they are hyphenated:
I re-sent the message from Sophia [I sent Sophia's message again]
I resent the message from Sophia [I feel aggrieved by Sophia's message]
Petra will re-present the patients [Petra will present the patients again]
Petra will represent the patients [Petra will speak/act on behalf of the patients]
Similar pairings to watch out for include 'recover/re-cover', 'reserve/re-serve', 'resign/re-sign',
'return/re-turn', 'resort/re-sort', 'repress/re-press' and 'redress/re-dress'.
Note that a prefix joined to a proper noun usually takes a hyphen:
anti-Darwinian theory, intra-EU trade, mid-June deadline, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, post-Lönngren era,
pre-Newtonian physics, pro-European literature
Exceptions
transatlantic, transpacific
Use of hyphens to avoid ambiguity
As the following humorous example of a newspaper headline demonstrates, a missing hyphen can give
a phrase a very different meaning from the one the author intended:
Doctor helps dog bite victim
Unless this story was genuinely about a doctor who helped a dog to bite somebody, the headline
should have been:
Doctor helps dog-bite victim
Here are some more examples of how inclusion or absence of a hyphen changes the sense of a phrase:
public health data [publicly available data about health]
public-health data [data about public health (which are not necessarily publicly available)]
quality management policy [a management policy that is of good quality]
quality-management policy [a policy on the management of quality]
the need for more accurate statistics [the need here is for a greater quantity of accurate statistics]
the need for more-accurate statistics [the need here is for statistics that are more accurate]
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The positioning of hyphens is also important. The following example demonstrates how a simple phrase
can have three different meanings, depending on where the hyphens are placed:
twenty-five-year-old cars [means an unspecified number of cars that are twenty-five years old]
twenty five-year-old cars [means twenty cars that are five years old. For greater clarity, you could write
this as '20 five-year-old cars']
twenty-five year-old cars [means twenty-five cars that are one year old. This could be written more clearly
as '25 one-year-old cars']
For an example related more directly to the Agency's work, consider the following sentence:
The European Medicines Agency confirms that the benefit risk balance of trimetazidine containing
medicines used as second line, add on therapy for the treatment of angina pectoris remains positive.
Now see how this sentence becomes much clearer when hyphens are used correctly:
The European Medicines Agency confirms that the benefit-risk balance of trimetazidine-containing
medicines used as second-line, add-on therapy for the treatment of angina pectoris remains positive.
Use of hyphens to separate consecutive vowels or consonants
Hyphens are often used to separate two vowels or consonants that appear next to each other in a
word:
anti-inflammatory, co-opt, de-ice, part-time, pre-empt, re-elect, re-enter, re-examine, tool-like
However, some such words have become so common that the hyphen is now usually omitted:
bookkeeping, cooperation, coordinated, macroeconomic, overrated, radioactive, skiing, withheld
Use of hyphens to avoid repeating a common element
Hyphens can be used to shorten phrases with a common element:
pre- and post-authorisation evaluation procedures
two-, four- and six-legged animals
Note that you should only hyphenate elements that would normally be hyphenated if written close
together. For example, you would not hyphenate 'small enterprises', so write 'small and medium-sized
enterprises', not 'small- and medium-sized enterprises'.
Use of hyphens with numbers
See Numbers: Hyphenated numbers.
3.8. Brackets
Round brackets ( )
Round brackets have the following uses:
•
To include 'parenthetical' information in a sentence, i.e. information that is helpful but not usually
essential:
All electronic devices (mobile phones, tablets, games consoles, etc.) must be switched off before take-off.
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Parenthetical information that forms a complete sentence itself should begin with a capital letter
and end with a full stop, inside the closing bracket:
Louis Pasteur is celebrated for his breakthrough discoveries in microbiology. (His achievements, which
included creating vaccines against rabies and anthrax, were inspired by the personal tragedy of losing
three of his five children to typhoid.) However, he also made several important contributions to the field of
chemistry.
•
To indicate optional or conditional information:
The (co-)rapporteur shall be elected by majority vote.
If an optional or conditional term begins a sentence, only the first letter (inside the brackets)
should be capitalised:
(Co-)rapporteurs are elected every three years.
•
To introduce an abbreviation that will be used again in the same text:
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor molecules (PPARs) are nuclear lipid-activated transcription
factors.
Square brackets [ ]
Square brackets are used in quoted text:
•
to add explanatory information:
The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products [renamed the European Medicines Agency in
2004] was inaugurated on 26 January 1995.
•
to insert an editorial comment:
Data from the Hoffner and Simeon study of 2002 [subsequently disputed by Menger et al] confirmed that
there was no causal link between …
•
to modify direct speech so that it matches the syntax of the sentence in which it is quoted:
Marcus said he "love[s] horses more than [he does] humans". (His original words were "I love horses more
than I do humans.")
•
to include omitted text:
An acknowledgement of receipt [will] be sent within 24 hours.
•
to draw attention to a spelling mistake, incorrect information or similar error made by the original
author:
Our research is based on publically [sic] available information.
A press release issued by the European Medicines Authority [sic] this morning stated that …
'Missa Solemnis' is one of the Austrian [sic] composer Beethoven's most celebrated choral works.
Note that 'sic' is a Latin term meaning 'so' or 'thus', and is used to indicate that text has been
quoted exactly as written.
Square brackets are also used:
•
to include instructions to the reader:
I confirm that my son/daughter [delete as appropriate] is currently in receipt of an educational allowance.
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•
to include instructions to the author (i.e. drafting notes) in a document template:
[Note: Remove all highlighting, comments, tracked changes or other temporary information before
finalising this document for publication.]
•
in 'nested' brackets (i.e. brackets [like these] inside brackets);
•
to include a citation reference number [see bibliographies].
Angle brackets < >
Angle brackets are used in some of the Agency's Microsoft Word templates as placeholders for optional
text elements, as in this example:
The <working party>/<committee> recommends <drafting a>/<revising the> guideline on <…>.
3.9. Apostrophes (')
Here are some simple guidelines to follow for the correct use of apostrophes.
Use of apostrophes with possessive forms
•
Add 's to indicate the possessive form of singular nouns:
Her dog's name is Rufus.
The medicine's expiry date is June 2015.
I read it on the company's website.
A day's work is needed to repair the central heating.
Note that this also applies to singular nouns that already end in s:
A gas's molecules become more excited as it is heated.
The atlas's pages were stuck with chewing gum.
His boss's wife is Swedish.
It also applies to abbreviations, including ones that end in s:
EFSA's budget; the UN's secretary-general; AWACS's success; AIDS's origins.
Most proper names, too, are written with 's in the possessive form:
Svetlana's wish came true; Hans's flight was delayed; Mrs Jones's car is ready.
But note that some proper names ending in s take only an apostrophe:
Chagas' disease; Reuters' subscription fees; Aristophanes' plays.
•
Add an apostrophe (but no extra s) to indicate the possessive form of plural nouns that end in s:
Her rabbits' names are Bugsy and Malone.
The pills' expiry date is June 2015.
The companies' merger was announced last month.
Two weeks' holiday would do me a lot of good.
•
Add 's to indicate the possessive form of plural nouns that do not end in s:
The shop sells women's and children's clothing on the ground floor, and men's clothing on the first floor.
The Belgian media's coverage of the story was extensive.
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Use of apostrophes to indicate plurals
•
Write plurals of numbers without an apostrophe:
This research uses data from the 1970s (do not write 1970's or '70s).
Binary mathematics is based entirely on 1s and 0s.
•
Use an apostrophe with plurals of letters:
There are four s's in 'Mississippi'.
Too many e.g.'s and i.e.'s in a text can make the writer appear lazy.
Note that you may often see shop signs advertising the sale of pizza's, cheese's, fine wine's, video's
and similar items, but this use of an apostrophe to indicate a plural — sometimes referred to as the
greengrocer's apostrophe — is considered non-standard English and should not be adopted in Agency
communications.
Use of apostrophes with contractions
It is acceptable in less formal Agency communications (including Twitter feeds) to use contractions like
those listed below, but they should otherwise not be used:
it's (= it is), she's (= she is), they're (= they are), don't (= do not), who's (= who is).
Note that the contraction it's should not be confused with the pronoun its (no apostrophe), as used in
'The dog rested its head on its paws'.
3.10. Quotation marks
The Agency's preference is to use straight quotation marks ('...'), rather than slanted quotes (`...´) or
curly quotes (ʻ...ʼ).
To make straight quotes the default in Microsoft Word 2010, go to File > Options > Proofing >
AutoCorrect Options, and on both the 'AutoFormat' and 'AutoFormat As You Type' tabs, untick the
option 'Replace straight quotes with smart quotes'.
Single quotation marks ('...')
Use single quotation marks:
•
to introduce terminology the intended reader may not be familiar with;
Medicines are constantly monitored for safety, through a process known as 'pharmacovigilance', once they
reach the marketplace.
•
to indicate that you are using a term loosely;
A placebo 'drug' is not actually a drug at all, as it contains no therapeutic ingredient.
•
to quote a phrase that is not directly attributed to an individual person;
Part-time workers often cite 'a healthy work-life balance' as their motivation for choosing not to work full
time.
•
to quote the title of a publication or article;
In its 'Road map to 2015' (EMA/299895/2009), the European Medicines Agency describes the challenges it
expects to face over the coming years, as well as the solutions it proposes for addressing them.
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See also titles (publications).
•
to refer to words you are describing.
The English word 'thermometer' is derived from the Greek words 'thermos' (heat) and 'metron' (measure).
Double quotation marks ("...")
Use double quotation marks:
•
to indicate the exact wording of a passage of text;
The rules of procedure clearly state that committee members "shall be appointed for a renewable period of
three years".
•
to quote verbatim the words that someone has spoken.
In his address to the European Parliament on the socioeconomic dimensions of GMO cultivation, Mr Dalli
said, "Scientific risk-assessment is — and will remain — the foundation of our authorisation system."
The closing quotation mark comes after any full stop, question mark or exclamation mark that forms
part of the quotation itself.
If the text or speech you are quoting already contains a quotation, put single quotation marks around
the original quote.
"Nobody raised their hand when I asked, 'Can I have a volunteer to run this project?', so I had to run it
myself", explained Danielle.
3.11. Spaces
•
Insert a single space between sentences. Some colleagues have said they were taught at school to
insert two spaces between sentences, but this is not the Agency's practice.
•
Do not insert spaces at the end of paragraphs, titles, subtitles, headings, table-cell text, bullet-list
items or anywhere else where they serve no purpose. Unnecessary spaces clutter the page when
paragraph and formatting marks are displayed (by pressing the '¶' button on the Word toolbar),
making it difficult to spot more serious errors when doing an editorial quality-control.
•
Insert a fixed space 2 whenever you wish to prevent elements becoming separated at the end of a
line of text. In this example, the version with a fixed space between '5' and 'December' (the
second version) is preferable:
A draft of the proposed new policy on reimbursement of staff travel expenses will be discussed at the 5
December meeting of the Executive Group.
A draft of the proposed new policy on reimbursement of staff travel expenses will be discussed at the
5 December meeting of the Executive Group.
See also Numbers — Space or no space?
2
In Microsoft Word, insert a fixed space (also known as a non-breaking space) by simultaneously pressing Ctrl + Shift +
space, or Alt + 0160 (on the numeric keypad).
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4. Numbers
4.1. General conventions on use of numbers
Words or figures?
If numbers are used in a general, descriptive sense, write them out as words, as in these examples:
Two of the candidates will be invited back for a follow-up interview.
The patient felt drowsy fifteen minutes after taking the medicine.
We expect between nine and twelve colleagues will take part in the project.
If their use is more statistical in nature, express the numbers as figures:
Of the 14 candidates interviewed, 7 did not have sufficient experience, 5 lacked the necessary
qualifications and 2 will be invited back for a follow-up interview.
Patients A, B and C reported feeling drowsy 8, 15 and 20 minutes, respectively, after taking the medicine.
Expected number of staff to be involved: 9–12.
Avoid starting a sentence with a figure. For example, write 'Thirteen applications were received in
March' or 'The number of applications received in March was 13', but do not write '13 applications were
received in March'. Instead of '2011 was the first year of the new procedure for …', write 'The year
2011 was the first year of the new procedure for …'.
Numbers with units
If the unit is expressed as an abbreviation or a symbol, use figures:
EUR 1,000; €120; £50,000
12 m; 5 kg; 250 mg; 60 µg; 36 °C
However, if the unit is written as a word, you can choose whether to write the number as a figure or as
a word (but use one or the other consistently in the same text):
1,000 euros (or one thousand euros); 50,000 pounds (or fifty thousand pounds)
12 metres (or twelve metres); 5 kilograms (or five kilograms); 250 milligrams (or two hundred and fifty
milligrams); 60 micrograms (or sixty micrograms); 36 degrees Celsius (or thirty-six degrees Celsius)
See also Scientific terminology: Units of measurement.
Space or no space — and what kind of space?
Symbols that precede a figure should be written closed up, with no space:
€200; £75; $10,000
Note that 'EUR' (which is an abbreviation, not a symbol) also precedes the number, but should be
separated from it by a fixed space 3:
EUR 20,000; EUR 5 million
3
In Microsoft Word, insert a fixed space (also known as a non-breaking space) by simultaneously pressing Ctrl + Shift +
space, or Alt + 0160 (on the numeric keypad).
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Symbols or units that come after a figure should be separated from it by a fixed space4:
174 km; 150 g; 10 m³; 30 μg; 20 cl; 37.8 °C
Note that the fixed-space rule does not apply to degrees of angle or to the percentage symbol, which
should be written closed up to the preceding figure:
45°, 90°NE, 25%, 100%
See also Scientific terminology: Units of measurement.
Thousand separator
Use a comma as a thousand separator (whether in running text, tables, charts or elsewhere):
1,000 m
€2,500
£36,750
1,200,000 people
Percentages
If a percentage is written out in words, follow it with the words 'per cent' (two words, not one, and
with no point after 'cent'), e.g. 'twenty-five per cent'. If the number is expressed as a figure, use the
'%' symbol instead, closed up to the number, like this: '25%'.
Note that, in statistics, each decimal place adds to the precision of the number, so '8.4%' is less
precise than '8.40%'.
Million and billion
'Million' can be abbreviated to 'm', to avoid frequent repetition in running text, or in places where
space is limited (e.g. in a table). The abbreviation should be separated from the figure by a fixed
space 4:
EUR 23.4 m
Similarly, 'billion' can be abbreviated to 'bn':
EUR 4.6 bn
Note that 'billion' should be used to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000).
Hyphenated numbers
Use hyphens:
•
to join the tens and units of compound numbers written out as words, as in 'thirty-four', 'nineteen
eighty-six' and 'one thousand four hundred and forty-two';
•
when the number is being used adjectivally (i.e. to describe what follows), as in 'six-month trial
period', 'eight-hour working day', '20-minute walk', '40-kilogram dog', '72-year-old woman' and
'twenty-fifth anniversary';
4
In Microsoft Word, insert a fixed space (also known as a non-breaking space) by simultaneously pressing Ctrl + Shift +
space, or Alt + 0160 (on the numeric keypad).
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•
to express fractions used adjectivally or adverbially, as in 'a one-quarter increase' or 'two-thirds
completed', but not when used as a noun, as in 'an increase of one quarter' or 'two thirds of the
assessments are completed'.
Decimal point
Unlike some other languages, English uses a point (not a comma) to separate whole numbers from any
fractional part:
0.062 mg
3.5 kg
172.4 g
Number ranges
When a range of numbers is written out, repeat any symbols and multiples (thousand, million, etc.)
used:
between EUR 15 million and EUR 20 million
from 17 °C to 24 °C
In abbreviated form, put an en dash (key code in Microsoft Word: Alt + 0150) between the figures,
without spaces, if the symbol or multiple is the same for both figures in the range:
€15–20 million
17–24 °C
However, if the symbol or multiple changes (e.g. metres becomes kilometres, or million becomes
billion), put a single space on either side of the en dash:
800 m – 1.2 km
EUR 950 million – EUR 1.4 billion
Ordinal numbers
Ordinal numbers should be written as shown here (i.e. no superscript characters):
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 100th, etc.
4.2. Dates and times
Dates
The Agency's standard format for presenting dates is D Month YYYY, e.g.:
7 March 2011 (not 07 March 2011)
21 June 2012
In the Agency's Microsoft Word documents, do not add 'London' to the date line in the reference
section, e.g. do not write 'London, 14 April 2012'.
Short-form dates
In tables, footnotes or other places where a short date form is preferred, it is acceptable to use the
format D/M/YY, e.g.:
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7/3/11 (not 07/03/11)
21/6/12 (not 21/06/12)
Bear in mind, though, that for American readers the first example means 3 July 2011, not 7 March
2011, so use with care.
Date spans
For series of dates, use an en dash (key code in Microsoft Word: Alt + 0150) to indicate the time span,
e.g.:
12–14 July 2012
30 August 2012 – 1 September 2012 (with a single space on either side of the en dash)
Where a short form is preferred, time spans can be written as follows (again, using an en dash):
12–14/7/12
30/8/12 – 1/9/12
For decades, write 1970s, 1990s, 2000s, etc., with no apostrophe. Do not write '60s, 1990's, 'the
sixties', 'the nineties', etc.
For dates that span several years or decades, use an en dash to indicate the time span, e.g.:
1974–77
1988–92
1997–2012 (include the century if the end-year is not in the same century as the start-year)
Note that 2009–10 is a time span of two years (2009 and 2010). Periods that span a period of 12
months or less but do not coincide with the calendar year (such as financial years or school years)
should be indicated with a forward slash, e.g. 2009/10.
In running text, indicate time spans using connecting words ('from', 'to', 'on', 'between', etc.), not
dashes, as in these examples:
The training session took place from 17 July to 19 July 2011 (not 'from 17–19 July 2011').
The committee will meet on 4 and 5 June 2012 (not 'on 4–5 June 2012').
Between 1992 and 1994, she was the chair of the debating society (not 'Between 1992–1994').
Times
Use the 24-hour-clock system to express times, with a colon (not a point) between the hour and the
minutes, e.g.:
7:00; 10:30; 12:00; 17:45; 21:00
Do not add 'hrs', 'o'clock', 'a.m.' or 'p.m.'.
Write '12:00 (noon)' if it is necessary to clarify that you do not mean midnight.
For midnight, write '24:00' for periods ending then or '00:00' for periods starting then.
For time spans, write '7:45–9:00' (using an en dash, with no spaces) or 'from 7:45 to 9:00', but not
'from 7:45–9:00'.
If you need to specify a time zone, write it like this:
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8:30 Brussels time
12:00 (noon) London time
16:30–18:00 Washington time
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5. Lists
5.1. Lists in running text
Simple lists
If a list in running text contains short, simple items, just separate them with commas:
Otto has lived in Denmark, Spain, Venezuela and the United States.
The £20 lunch menu includes a starter, main course and dessert.
You should not usually put a comma before the final item, but do so if it helps to avoid ambiguity, as in
these examples:
Otto has lived in Denmark, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.
The £30 lunch menu includes a starter, main course, dessert, tea or coffee, and a glass of wine.
If a list is introduced with 'i.e.', 'e.g.', 'including', 'such as', 'for example' or similar expression, put
'and' (or 'or') before the final item, but do not end the list with 'etc.':
A budget of €80 was allocated for stationery, e.g. pens, pencils, paper, envelopes and staples.
End a list with 'etc.' only if the list is non-exhaustive and has not been introduced by 'e.g.', 'for
example' or similar expression:
A total of €80 was spent on pens, paper, envelopes, etc.
Do not put a comma before 'etc.' if the list contains only one item:
The purpose of the meeting was merely to outline the scope of the project, not to discuss budget etc.
Complex lists
If a list contains longer or more complex items, using commas may not be ideal, as demonstrated
here:
The aims of the initiative are to save resources without compromising on quality, reengineer processes and
reallocate resources to deliver on core activities, improve efficiency to better handle the workload and
demonstrate European best practice.
See how confusing that is? For lists like this, it is better to introduce the list with a colon and separate
the items with semicolons instead:
The aims of the initiative are to: save resources without compromising on quality; reengineer processes
and reallocate resources to deliver on core activities; improve efficiency to better handle the workload; and
demonstrate European best practice.
Note that, in running-text lists like this, the final item should be preceded by 'and' (or 'or', where
appropriate).
Alternatively, and where space allows, it may be even clearer to write the list example given above as
a bullet list instead.
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5.2. Bullet lists
The Agency recommends two presentation styles for bullet lists: a 'dependent style', in which each list
item completes an introductory phrase, and an 'independent style', in which each list item is a selfcontained phrase, independent of any introductory phrase.
'Dependent style' bullet lists
If the items in a list complete an introductory phrase (like this one), you should:
•
introduce the list with a colon;
•
begin each list item with a lower-case letter;
•
end each list item with a semicolon;
•
end the list with a full stop.
'Independent style' bullet lists
Use this style if the list items do not complete an introductory phrase:
•
Introduce the list with a colon.
•
Begin each list item with a capital letter.
•
End each list item with a full stop.
See also Further notes on lists.
5.3. Numbered lists
The Agency recommends two styles for presentation of numbered lists, which mirror those
recommended for Bullet lists.
'Dependent style' numbered lists
If the items in a list complete an introductory phrase (like this one), you should:
1. introduce the list with a colon;
2. begin each list item with a lower-case letter;
3. end each list item with a semicolon;
4. end the list with a full stop.
'Independent style' numbered lists
Use this style if the list items do not complete an introductory phrase:
1. Introduce the list with a colon.
2. Begin each list item with a capital letter.
3. End each list item with a full stop.
See also Further notes on lists.
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5.4. Multi-level lists
Keep multi-level lists to a maximum of three levels, otherwise the sequence of information can become
difficult to follow. Note also that the formatting for lists in the Agency's Microsoft Office templates only
allows three levels.
How to punctuate multi-level lists
•
Put a colon at the end of any item (at whatever level) that introduces one or more sub-level items.
•
Begin all independent list items (i.e. ones that do not complete an introductory phrase), at
whatever level, with a capital letter, and end them with a full stop.
•
•
•
•
For dependent items (i.e. ones that complete an introductory phrase) at level 1:
−
begin with a lower-case letter;
−
end with a semicolon;
−
end the final one with a full stop.
For dependent items at level 2:
−
begin with a lower-case letter;
−
end with a comma;
−
end the final one with a semicolon.
For dependent items at level 3:
−
begin with a lower-case letter;
−
end with no punctuation;
−
end the final one with a comma.
End all lists, regardless of whether the final item is at level 1, 2 or 3, with a full stop.
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Sample multi-level lists
Note that the third-level list formatting demonstrated above is not currently built into the Agency's Microsoft Word
templates, but this is expected to be rectified shortly.
5.5. Further notes on lists
•
If a list appears directly beneath a heading (as this one does), without any introductory phrase, do
not put a colon at the end of the heading. (Like document titles, headings should not end with any
punctuation, except perhaps a question mark or an exclamation mark.)
•
Unlike in a running-text list, there is no need to put 'and' (or 'or') before the final item in a bullet
list or numbered list.
•
A bullet list should normally be preferred to a numbered list, unless it is important to indicate a
sequence or priority of the listed items, or so that the items can be referred back to by number.
•
When using the Agency's Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Publisher templates, respect the built-in
formatting for bullet lists and numbered lists.
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6. Grammar
This guide covers only a few aspects of English grammar that are likely to be useful to colleagues in
their everyday work. See Reference materials: Grammar guides for online resources that cover
grammatical issues in greater detail.
6.1. Singular or plural verb forms?
With collective nouns
For collective nouns — 'committee', 'group', 'team', 'board' and similar entities — you can generally
use either a singular or plural verb form:
The committee has met to consider its position.
The committee have met to consider their position.
The Executive Group was unanimous in its decision.
The Executive Group were unanimous in their decision.
The team is willing to present its findings again.
The team are willing to present their findings again.
However, use a plural verb form if the emphasis is on a subset of the entity's members, rather than
the entity itself:
The staff expect their concerns to be addressed at the meeting next month.
The working party are highly qualified experts in their respective fields.
The police are looking into the matter. [But The Metropolitan Police is woefully underfunded.]
With 'either/or' and 'neither/nor' combinations
If both subjects in a phrase are singular, use a singular verb form:
Either Simone or Christina is giving the presentation.
Neither the time nor the place is convenient for him.
If both subjects are plural, use a plural verb form:
Either peaches or pears are acceptable for this cake recipe.
Neither they nor we wish to abandon the project at this late stage.
If one subject is singular and one is plural, use the verb form that matches whichever subject is
mentioned second:
Either the mouse or the batteries need to be replaced.
Neither his colleagues nor his boss wants to see him leave.
With countries and organisations that have a plural name
If it has a plural name, use a singular verb form:
The Netherlands is the strongest supporter of the new proposals.
The United Nations is determined to push forward the new proposals.
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With multiples that clearly form a whole
When it is clear that multiple nouns or actions form a whole, use a singular verb form:
Steak and chips is her favourite meal.
Receiving and verifying the application was Michael's responsibility.
Standing and waiting in line for ages drives me mad.
With words ending in '-ics' or '-tions'
Words such as 'mathematics', 'statistics', 'economics' and 'communications' take a singular verb form
when they denote a discipline or body of knowledge, but a plural verb form in other instances:
Statistics was my least-favourite subject at university.
The available statistics do not support the argument you propose.
Communications is an activity that, when done properly, contributes greatly to the perceptions people have
of an organisation.
The Agency's communications are carefully monitored by journalists for news that may interest their
readers.
Note that branches of medicine such as 'paediatrics', 'obstetrics' and 'orthodontics' always take a
singular verb.
6.2. Verb tenses in reported speech
In English, it is common practice to use the past tense when reporting (e.g. in the minutes of a
meeting or in a press release) what someone has said.
For example, the following exchange:
Italian delegate: "I am concerned that point 7 of the agenda has not been sufficiently addressed."
Chair: "I appreciate your concern. We will discuss it further after the lunch break."
would be reported as follows:
The Italian delegate said he was concerned that point 7 of the agenda had not been sufficiently addressed.
In response, the chair said she appreciated the delegate's concern and stated that they would discuss the
point further after the lunch break.
Further guidance on tenses in reported speech is available in the English Style Guide (DG Translation).
6.3. 'Fewer' or 'less'?
Use 'fewer' when referring to people or things in the plural (colleagues, delegates, meetings,
documents, pencils, etc.):
Fewer people attended the language course after the teacher was replaced.
We had fewer meetings this week than we did last week.
I have had fewer crashes since my computer was upgraded.
Use 'less' when referring to things in singular form (time, effort, money, patience, etc.):
It takes less time to walk to work than I thought it would.
There is less choice on the menu now than there used to be.
Less talk, more action!
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Also use 'less' with units of measurement:
The patient's weight dropped from 96 kg to less than 80 kg.
Our online survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete.
She lives less than two kilometres away from her parents' house.
6.4. 'Amount of', 'quantity of' or 'number of'?
Use 'amount of' with mass nouns (things you cannot count) that are intangible (things you cannot
touch):
A great amount of time/effort/energy/difficulty/patience/intelligence/thought/etc.
Use 'quantity of' with mass nouns that are tangible:
A small quantity of money/water/milk/sauce/petrol/poison/sauce/etc.
Use 'number of' with plural count nouns (things you can count):
A large number of documents/computers/people/children/colleagues/participants/etc.
6.5. Relative clauses
Relative clauses are sentence parts that begin with 'that', 'which', 'who', 'whose', 'when', 'where' and
similar words, and are used to provide additional information about the main subject of the sentence.
There are two kinds of relative clause: 'restrictive clauses' and 'non-restrictive clauses'.
A restrictive clause provides information that is essential to the meaning of the sentence, as in:
My sister who lives in Slovakia is a nurse. [Means specifically that my sister who lives in Slovakia is a
nurse, as opposed to, say, my sister who lives in Denmark. It also means I have only one sister living in
Slovakia.]
A non-restrictive clause provides additional information that is optional, and could safely be removed
without affecting the meaning of the sentence:
My sister, who lives in Slovakia, is a nurse. [Means simply that I have a sister who is a nurse, and,
incidentally, that she lives in Slovakia. I might also have sisters living in Slovakia who are not nurses.]
Note that the only difference between these two sentences is that the clause 'who lives in Slovakia' is
enclosed by commas in the non-restrictive version, indicating that the information is parenthetical.
Although the example above is fairly trivial, there are other, more critical cases, where using the
wrong kind of relative clause can give misleading or incorrect information. For example, imagine that
inspectors had found that batches of a medicine (call it 'Tenaxibel') produced at one of two facilities
(call the affected one the 'Villanueva' facility) contained harmful contaminants, and the European
Medicines Agency published the following statement on its website:
Pharmacies with stocks of Tenaxibel produced at the Villanueva facility should stop dispensing it
immediately.
Pharmacists reading this statement would correctly assume from the restrictive clause that only
batches of Tenaxibel produced at the Villanueva facility were affected, and that they could safely
continue to dispense any stock they had of the medicine that was produced at the other facility.
However, what if the Agency's statement had read as follows:
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Pharmacies with stocks of Tenaxibel, produced at the Villanueva facility, should stop dispensing it
immediately.
In this case, use of the non-restrictive clause implies that 'produced at the Villanueva facility' is merely
parenthetical information and can be ignored, leaving pharmacists to conclude that they should stop
dispensing Tenaxibel altogether, regardless of which facility their stock was produced at. This could
result in pharmacists unnecessarily withholding unaffected batches of the medicine from patients who
need it, which is obviously not what the Agency had intended with its statement.
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7. Scientific terminology
This section currently contains only some basic guidance on scientific names and on units of
measurement. Colleagues who have suggestions as to other relevant areas that could be covered here
are welcome to submit them by e-mail to: [email protected]
7.1. Scientific names
Note: The text in this section is adapted from the English Style Guide (DG Translation).
Biological sciences
Binomial system for classifying living organisms
The initial letter of the scientific name is capitalised, while species epithets are always lowercased,
even if derived from proper nouns (e.g. Martes americana, Pusa sibirica). The names of genera and
species are always italicised:
Order:
Rosales
Carnivora
Family:
Rosaceae
Felidae
Genus:
Rosa
Felis
Species:
Rosa moschata
Felis catus
In zoology, the names of subspecies are also italicised: Felis silvestris bieti. In botany, the names of
taxons below the rank of species are also italicised, but the rank itself is indicated by an unitalicised
abbreviation: Acanthocalycium klimpelianum var. macranthum. The recommended abbreviations are
'subsp.' (rather than 'ssp.') for subspecies, 'var.' for 'variety', 'subvar.' for 'subvariety', 'f.' for 'form',
and 'subf.' for 'subform'. The name of a cultivar is placed in single quotation marks without italics, and
the first letter of each word is capitalised: Camellia japonica 'Ballet Dancer'.
Most text references are to genus or species (i.e. the name of the genus followed by an epithet). The
genus name should be spelled out in full on first occurrence and subsequently abbreviated: Escherichia
coli, abbreviated E. coli.
Non-technical usage
Some scientific plant names are identical to the vernacular name and should not be capitalised or
italicised when used non-technically (e.g. 'rhododendron growers' but Rhododendron canadense).
Chemical elements and compounds
The names of chemical elements start with a lowercase letter, including elements whose designations
are derived from proper nouns:
carbon, oxygen, platinum, californium, einsteinium, nobelium
Their symbols consist either of a single capital or a capital and small letter, and do not take any point:
N (sodium), Sn (tin), U (uranium), Pb (lead), Mg (magnesium), K (potassium)
Use the standard interlingual symbols for chemical compounds (i.e. chemical formulae):
NaCl, H2O, C18H25NO, etc.
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Hyphens
Current practice is to not hyphenate prefixes ('di', 'iso', 'tetra', 'tri', etc.) — so write 'diisopropyl
fluorophosphate', 'ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid', etc. — or other compound forms (e.g.
'benzeneethanol').
However, use hyphens to link numbers to letters in the names of chemical compounds (on both sides if
the number is an infix). If there are several numbers in sequence, separate them with commas, e.g.:
2-pentanone
1,2-dichloroethane
2-methoxy-5-[(1Z)-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)ethenyl]-phenol
Capitals
If the first word in a sentence is a chemical compound that starts with a number, capitalise the first
letter:
2-Pentanone is a compound obtainable from proprionic acid.
Common names
Most chemical compounds in widespread use have one or more common names besides their scientific
name. Such common names or abbreviations of the scientific names are often used for brevity's sake
in scientific texts. For example, 'ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid' is more customarily known as 'edetic
acid' or abbreviated to 'EDTA'.
7.2. Units of measurement
General conventions
Names of units of measurement are always lowercased, even if they are derived from a person's name,
and take a plural 's', e.g.:
amperes, hertz, newtons, pascals, watts, volts, becquerels
Unit symbols derived from generic nouns are always lowercased and do not take a plural 's':
g (grams), kg (kilograms), cl (centilitres), mol (moles), s (seconds), kb (kilobytes)
Unit symbols derived from personal names take an initial capital:
Hz (hertz), Bq (becquerel), N (newton), K (kelvin), W (watt), J (joule)
They keep their capital even when prefixed:
kHz, MHz, eV
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Symbols for units of measurement are written without points, and are separated from preceding
figures by a fixed space 5, like this:
20 g, 55 kg, 2.5 cm, 30 km, 8 ml, 36.7 °C, 1.23 mg/m2
Exceptions to the fixed-space rule apply to degrees of angle (e.g. 45°) and percentages (e.g. 100%),
where the figure and symbol should be closed up.
Common units of measurement
Physical quantity
Name
Abbreviation
Comments
or symbol
computer file size,
kilobyte
kb
In computing, kilo-, mega-,
storage capacity or
megabyte
Mb
etc. usually represent binary
memory
gigabyte
Gb
values, e.g.:
terabyte
Tb
length (or width,
nanometre
nm
distance, diameter, etc.)
micrometre
μm
millimetre
mm
centimetre
cm
metre
m
kilometre
km
microgram
μg
Do not use '-gramme'
milligram
mg
spellings.
gram
g
kilogram
kg
tonne
t
millilitre
ml
centilitre
cl
decilitre
dl
litre
l
mass
k (kilo) = 210 (1,024);
M (mega) = 220 (1,048,576).
Do not use the non-metric
unit 'ton'.
volume
Use a capital 'L' wherever the
lower-case 'l' could be
confused with a capital 'I' or
the number '1'.
3
cubic centimetre
cm
cubic metre
m3
specific volume
cubic metre per kilogram
m3/kg
amount of substance
mole
mol
substance concentration
mole per cubic metre
mol/m3
mass concentration
kilogram per cubic metre
kg/m3
density, mass density
kilogram per cubic metre
kg/m3
surface density
kilogram per square
kg/m2
metre
area
square centimetre
cm2
5
In Microsoft Word, insert a fixed space (also known as a non-breaking space) by simultaneously pressing Ctrl + Shift +
space, or Alt + 0160 (on the numeric keypad).
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Physical quantity
Abbreviation
Name
Comments
or symbol
time
square millimetre
mm2
square metre
m2
hectare
ha
millisecond
ms
second
s
minute
min
1 ha = 10,000 m2.
With no point; the plural is
also 'min', without 's'.
hour
h
speed, velocity
metre per second
m/s
acceleration
metre per second
m/s2
squared
temperature
degree Celsius
°C
Keyboard shortcut for the
degree symbol in Word:
Alt + 0176 (on the numerical
keypad).
degree Fahrenheit
°F
This is not a metric unit and
should not normally be used,
but it may be used instead of
degree Celsius if the context
requires it.
kelvin
K
luminous intensity
candela
cd
luminous flux
lumen
lm
illumination
lux
lx
frequency
hertz
Hz
energy
joule
J
force
newton
N
power
watt
W
pressure
pascal
Pa
electric charge
coulomb
C
electromotive force
volt
V
electric resistance
ohm
Ω
electric conductance
siemens
S
electric capacitance
farad
F
magnetic flux density
tesla
T
Metric prefixes
All of the prefixes in the table below can be used with the metric units listed in the table above.
Prefix
Abbreviation
Factor
deca-
da
10
hecto-
h
102
kilo-
k
103
mega-
M
106
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Prefix
Abbreviation
Factor
giga-
G
109
tera-
T
1012
peta-
P
1015
exa-
E
1018
deci-
d
10-1
centi-
c
10-2
milli-
m
10-3
micro-
μ
10-6
nano-
n
10-9
pico-
p
10-12
femto-
f
10-15
atto-
a
10-18
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8. Correspondence
8.1. Opening and closing phrases
In most cases, the following opening and closing phrases are acceptable in correspondence, whether in
a letter, a fax or an e-mail.
•
Opening phrase:
Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr Braun,
Dear Sir/Madam, [if you do not know the person's surname]
Dear Michelle, [if you are on familiar terms with the person]
Note that all forms are followed by a comma, and that the body of your letter should begin on the
next line.
•
Closing phrase:
Yours sincerely, [if the correspondence is formal]
Best regards, [or Kind regards, or similar, if the correspondence is less formal]
The closing phrase, too, should be followed by a comma, with your name appearing on a new line
below.
In correspondence of a very formal nature (e.g. addressed to a head of state, ambassador or Member
of the European Parliament), refer to the English Style Guide (DG Translation) recommendations.
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9. Editorial quality
As stated in the Introduction, the purpose of this guide is to promote a consistently high professional
standard of editorial quality in the Agency's communications materials.
We produce many different materials for many different audiences. Depending on the content and the
audience targeted, our materials may vary in terms of their length, their complexity, their tone of voice
or their format.
However, every material we produce in the line of our work should be treated as an official Agency
communication, regardless of whether it is a regulatory guidance document for publication on our
external website, a PowerPoint presentation for use at a high-level scientific forum, a letter addressed
to the director of a pharmaceutical company, a draft agenda for an internal meeting, an e-mail inviting
colleagues to attend a training course, or a poster used at a General Assembly to promote an aspect of
our work. As such, it must fulfil the Agency's quality criteria for communications materials.
9.1. Quality criteria
To be considered of acceptable quality, Agency communications materials must:
•
fully satisfy the information needs of the reader, by providing them clear, accurate and useful
information in a reader-friendly and well-presented format;
•
reflect our professionalism and our commitment to best practices, by ensuring compliance
with our editorial conventions and our identity guidelines 6.
By making every effort to fulfil these criteria, we can satisfy the expectations of our audiences for highquality communications materials, while also helping to promote the reputation of the Agency as a
professional, credible and authoritative organisation.
9.2. Tips for ensuring editorial quality
The following tips should help you not only to ensure that the materials you produce meet the Agency's
expected standard of editorial quality, but also that they are effective communications tools.
Tip 1: Know what you want to say and why you want to say it
Before you even begin to write your text, ask yourself the following questions:
•
What is the information I need to share? Make sure you have a clear grasp of exactly what
information or message it is you want to communicate.
•
Why do I need to share it? Knowing your motives for producing the material will help you clarify
your thinking about the content you write.
•
Who am I writing it for? Knowing your target audience beforehand helps you to anticipate their
information needs and therefore puts you in a better position to meet those needs.
•
What do I expect the reader to do with the information? If you need the intended reader to act in
some way on the information you provide (e.g. follow a procedure or change a behaviour), tailor
your material to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.
6
See the Agency's Identity guidelines on our intranet.
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Getting the answers to these preliminary questions clear in your mind — or even better, noted down
on paper — before you start writing will help you to order your thoughts and eventually structure your
content in a clear and logical way that will increase the chances of your communication being effective.
Tip 2: Write for your reader
Write your material from the perspective of your intended audience, always bearing in mind the
following:
•
You are writing the material for the reader — not for yourself. The reader's information needs
should come first.
•
The reader may not have the same in-depth knowledge of your subject as you do. Explain clearly
any information you cannot reasonably expect the intended reader to already know, and do not
burden them with jargon, arcane knowledge or masses of detail they are not likely to understand
or need to know about.
•
The reader is most likely a busy professional with a hectic workload and limited time — just like
you. They do not have time to spend searching elsewhere for information that you did not provide
or explain clearly in your text.
Tip 3: Be clear
If your communication is to be effective, it must above all else be clear.
•
Explain all information as clearly as possible. Even complex regulatory or scientific text can be very
clear as long as you explain it well.
•
Make each sentence express a single idea. Keep related ideas together in a paragraph. Key
information is easier to understand when grouped into rational units.
•
Use lists, tables, charts, illustrations or photographs to present information if this makes it easier
to understand.
•
Reduce the deductive burden on the reader. 'Deductive burden' is the intellectual effort the reader
needs to make to understand what you are trying to say. Aim to keep it as low as possible. The
following things increase the deductive burden, so avoid them:
−
Poor document structure. Make sure each section, sub-section, paragraph and sentence is in a
logical sequence that helps to clarify the flow of information.
−
Confusing sentence structure. Avoid sentences that are so long and convoluted that the reader
has to read them three times to work out what you are trying to say. Break the sentence down
into smaller ones if this makes the sense clearer.
−
Use of jargon. Terminology that is specific to the Agency's working environment (or to a single
unit or sector within the Agency) is likely to be unfamiliar to many readers — including,
perhaps, your colleagues. Explain each specialised term clearly at first use and/or provide a list
of definitions if your intended audience is likely to need it.
−
Unexplained acronyms and other abbreviations. Only use abbreviations when they improve the
clarity or brevity of the text, and always write out potentially unfamiliar abbreviations at first
use. Provide a glossary if necessary. [See also abbreviations.]
−
Editorial errors. Grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, poor punctuation, typing errors,
missing words, etc. all reduce clarity. Always proofread your text before finalising it.
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•
Be careful with idioms (non-literal expressions). It may be acceptable to use idioms that are widely
understood — such as 'in the pipeline', 'a hands-on approach' and 'to get the green light' — but
avoid using ones that are likely to confuse your readers.
Tip 4: Be concise
•
Get straight to the point. Put important information first and supporting information after. Leave
out anything that does not advance your argument or clarify your message.
•
Avoid 'wordiness' (using three words where one will do). Here are examples of 'wordy' phrases (left
column) that can often be replaced with a shorter equivalent (right column):
•
in order to
to
with a view to
so that
in the event that
if
in view of the fact that
since
with regard to
regarding (or concerning)
give consideration to
consider
make a recommendation to
recommend (or suggest)
at this time
now (or currently)
at that point in time
then
during the course of
during
on a daily basis
daily
in accordance with
following (or under)
has a requirement for
needs
in a timely manner
on time (or promptly)
Use simpler words. Complex words can be a barrier to understanding. Using everyday expressions
instead can help to get your message across more concisely. Here are some examples of 'long'
words (left column) with simpler equivalents (right column):
approximately
about (or roughly)
consequently
thus
subsequently
next (or after, then)
commence
start (or begin)
establish
set up
conduct
carry out
implement
put in place (or begin)
assistance
help (or aid)
ascertain
find out
modification
change
facilitate
ease (or help)
Using clear, straightforward language does not insult your readers' intelligence: it makes
your communications more directly intelligible.
•
Avoid unnecessary intensifiers. Intensifiers, like those underlined in the example below, often add
little to the substance of a sentence (and can make it seem 'shouty'):
It is very important to ensure that team members are totally committed to the project, as it is absolutely
clear that its success will be severely compromised unless they are wholly engaged.
Other intensifiers to use with care: really, significantly, vitally, abundantly, radically, fundamentally.
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•
Put secondary information in footnotes. Website addresses, references to source documents and
similar information can often be placed in a footnote to reduce the length of the main text.
•
Cut, cut, cut. Once your first draft is written, go through it again, stripping out redundant or
repetitive information. Reduce sentences to their essence. Good self-editing can reduce your
text by as much as 50%, as this example shows:
Original paragraph [154 words]
The Agency has been implementing various new parts of the pharmaceutical legislation over the course of
a number of years. As a result, the Agency has grown into a complex organisation that is heavily
dependent on effective and efficient information and communication technologies. At the same time, the
EMEA [sic] has been allocating a significant part of its IT development and maintenance resources to the
development and support of the EU Telematics systems. The results of various process-improvement
initiatives, process analyses and staff surveys show that it is now time for the Agency to refocus some of
its IT resources on improving corporate information systems as a step towards a fully electronic working
environment. This commitment is reflected in the Agency’s work programme and budget. Additionally,
following internal preparatory work and consultation, the EMEA [sic] will adjust its organisational structure
to enable the Agency to deliver on its mission in a more effective and efficient way.
Edited paragraph [77 words]
In recent years, the Agency has devoted much of its IT resources to developing and maintaining complex
systems that support the new pharmaceutical legislation and the EU telematics programme. However, an
internal review shows that the Agency should now focus more on developing electronic systems that help it
to carry out its daily tasks more efficiently, with less reliance on paper. The Agency's work programme and
budget have been tailored accordingly, and organisational changes will be introduced.
Tip 5: Be accurate
For the reasons set out in the section Editorial quality-control, every reasonable effort must be made
to ensure all information provided in the Agency's communications materials is accurate.
•
Double-check all facts and figures in your text. Provide references to source-materials where data
can be verified, if possible.
•
•
Avoid contradictory information.
Be specific. Vague, ambiguous language can make it seem like you either do not know the facts or
are deliberately trying to obscure them. For your text to be comprehensible and credible, give
specific information that answers the questions who, what, why, when, where, how and how much.
Examples of vague expressions:
a number of initiatives [How many? What are they?]
several delegates [How many? Who are they?]
to discuss various aspects of the programme [Which aspects, precisely?]
a substantial proportion [What percentage?]
a significant benefit [Why is it significant? Whom does it benefit?]
another important consideration [Is it more important than other considerations?]
related activities in the field of rare diseases [What activities?]
as a result of recent improvements [What were the improvements? When were they made?]
at a later stage [In April? By the end of this year? Next summer? In 2014?].
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Tip 6: Respect the Agency's editorial conventions
Inconsistent application of editorial conventions across the Agency's communications materials reduces
their overall quality and can negatively affect our audiences' perceptions of our professionalism.
To ensure consistency, familiarise yourself with the conventions set out in the A-Z section of this guide,
and do your best to apply them in all Agency communications materials you produce.
Tip 7: Do an editorial quality-control
See How to do an editorial quality-control.
Tip 8: Format your materials correctly
Besides being of acceptable editorial quality, the communications materials you produce must also be
properly formatted, in line with the Agency's formal guidelines on corporate identity. Guidance on
formatting is provided separately in the Communications guidance microsite on our intranet.
9.3. Editorial quality-control
Mistakes — even relatively minor ones — in the Agency's communications materials can confuse and
frustrate the reader, and do not reflect well on our professional competence. Major errors, such as
misleading or factually incorrect information, can potentially have severe repercussions of a medical,
legal, financial, political or reputational nature for the Agency or its stakeholders.
Furthermore, we owe it to our audiences — out of simple respect — to ensure that our materials meet
their information needs. Agency materials must give clear, comprehensive, accurate, practical and
reliable information that readers can easily digest, act on or put to use in their own line of work, be it
regulatory affairs, pharmaceutical development, healthcare practice, journalism or other business.
For these reasons, it is important to do an editorial quality-control of all Agency materials before
finalising them.
See How to do an editorial quality-control.
9.4. Who is responsible for editorial quality?
Responsibility for the editorial quality of any Agency material lies primarily with its author, who should
make every effort to ensure the material meets the quality criteria mentioned above.
Other colleagues involved in drafting or reviewing the material should, where possible, discuss with the
author any suggestions they have for improving its quality.
In the case of high-profile documents (annual reports, work programmes, major policy documents,
etc.) and of web content and printed materials (e.g. printed reports, posters, leaflets and exhibition
panels), the Communications sector will usually assume responsibility for editorial quality.
Important note!
Documents sent to the Communications sector for publication on the Agency's website will be returned
to their originator for correction if they contain obvious editorial errors.
To avoid delays in publication, please make sure you do a thorough quality-control of your
documents before sending them for publication.
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9.5. How to do an editorial quality-control
Before finalising any Agency communications material you produce, follow the steps below to check its
editorial quality.
Step 1: Remove temporary content
Remove (unless, for whatever reason, the final document is supposed to contain them):
•
tracked changes;
•
comments;
•
highlighting;
•
drafting notes;
•
other temporary information.
Step 2: Check links
If the material contains any active links (hyperlinks, cross-references, etc.), check that they work
properly and lead the reader to the intended website, document or other content. Broken or incorrect
links can be very frustrating for the reader.
Step 3: Use a spellchecker
Use a spellchecker, such as the one built into Microsoft Word, to find careless spelling mistakes or
typing errors in your text.
However, do not rely on a spellchecker as your only means of checking a text. The following humorous
example (left side, with corrected version on the right) demonstrates the limitations of a spellchecker:
I halve a spelling chequer
I have a spelling checker
it came with my pea sea
it came with my PC
it plane lee Marx four my revue
it plainly marks for my review
miss steaks aye ken knot sea.
mistakes I cannot see.
Eye ran this poem threw it
I ran this poem through it
your sure reel glad two no
You're sure real glad to know
its vary polished in it's weigh
it's very polished in its way
my chequer tolled me sew.
my checker told me so.
To rite with care is quite a feet
To write with care is quite a feat
of witch won should be proud
of which one should be proud
and wee mussed dew the best wee can
and we must do the best we can
sew flaws are knot aloud.
so flaws are not allowed.
And now bee cause my spelling
And now because my spelling
is checked with such grate flare
is checked with such great flair
their are know faults with in my cite
there are no faults within my sight
of nun eye am a wear.
of none I am aware.
— Sauce unknown.
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Step 4: Proofread the text
The best way to proofread any text before finalising it is to print out a copy and carefully check every
word, number, table, chart, footnote, the table of contents and any other content, marking up any
errors on the paper as you go. For long or complex documents especially, it is a good idea to proofread
your text the following day, if possible, so that you approach it with a clear mind. Wherever possible,
you should ask a colleague to proofread your text too, since a fresh pair of eyes can often spot errors
you have overlooked.
When proofreading, pay particular attention to the following:
•
Spelling mistakes. Consult a dictionary or glossary if you are uncertain of a spelling. See Reference
materials for guidance.
•
Punctuation errors. See Punctuation for guidance.
•
Typing errors, such as transposed letters ('teh' instead of 'the'), transposed words ('cells a in table'
instead of 'cells in a table'), repeated words ('we went to the the market') or strange characters.
Check every word, letter and number carefully.
•
Incorrect capitalisation. See capital letters for guidance.
•
Confusing sentence structure. Rewrite for greater clarity.
•
Obscure terminology. Always clearly explain terminology that may be unfamiliar to the reader.
•
Unexplained acronyms and other abbreviations. See abbreviations for guidance.
•
Missing or incomplete information. Complete as applicable.
•
Repetitive or redundant information. Rewrite, condense or delete, as applicable.
•
Incorrect data. Verify any data that look suspect, check that correct units of measurement are
used and make sure that data or statements included in the body of the text do not contradict data
used in accompanying tables, charts or illustrations.
•
Missing or incorrect references. Check that necessary footnotes, URLs, further information sources,
bibliographic references, etc. are provided and are correct.
Step 5: Make any necessary corrections and carry out final checks
After proofreading on paper, go back to the electronic version of the text and correct any errors that
were found. This is also the time to rewrite, delete, clarify or otherwise amend any elements that need
to be improved. If the amendments are extensive, do a thorough editorial quality-control again after,
to make sure everything is perfect.
If the document contains a table of contents, remember to update it immediately before doing the final
save, to reflect any changes that have been made.
Also, where relevant, check that the correct reference information (document reference number,
creation/publication date and name of originating entity) and contact details are given.
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10. Reference materials
10.1. Dictionaries
General reference
The Agency's preferred dictionary for standard English usage is the Oxford English Dictionary. Printed
copies are available in the Agency's library. An online version is also available here:
Oxford Dictionary (Oxford University Press)
Scientific reference
For medical and other scientific terminology, Credo Reference is a good starting point:
Credo Reference (Credo Reference Ltd)
A list of other online scientific-reference resources, compiled by the Agency's library services, is
available on our intranet here:
Library e-resources (European Medicines Agency)
10.2. Glossaries
A glossary of Agency-specific terminology is available on our public website:
Glossary (European Medicines Agency)
10.3. Style guides
Two excellent English style guides, written specifically for use by the institutions and other bodies of
the European Union:
English Style Guide (European Commission Directorate-General for Translation)
How to write clearly (European Commission Directorate-General for Translation)
Another very good EU-specific guide, particularly useful for checking official names of countries and EU
bodies, and for editorial conventions relating to EU legislation:
Interinstitutional style guide (Publications Office of the European Union)
A widely respected guide on contemporary English writing style:
Style Guide (The Economist)
Further useful style guides are available to consult in the Agency's library.
10.4. Grammar guides
A good general overview of English grammar:
Glossary of English Grammar Terms (Part of the UsingEnglish.com website)
A further useful grammar resource:
Grammar (Part of the Oxford Dictionaries website)
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10.5. Quizzes
How confident are you in your English language skills? Test yourself with the educational quizzes
available here:
Quizzes (Part of the UsingEnglish.com website)
There are hundreds of free quizzes to choose from at beginner and intermediate levels, covering all
aspects of the English language. Hit the 'Grade me!' button at the end of each quiz for your score.
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