Subbing articles

Other than features and news analyses — which should be sent to production to subedit in Word using tracked changes and then reuploaded to Box for editors’ to check and upload — all articles are subbed in WordPress. Editors will send most other articles to us in the workflow, where an available subeditor can ‘claim’ the article and work on it. 

Subbing queries should be inserted inside box brackets, in bold text.

Remember the news pyramid when editing news stories.

Learning/CPD/research articles are sent to us in Word to upload to WordPress, where the subeditors will format and subedit the article. The article get sent to the art editor to add the artwork, then the article will be sent to the relevant section editor to check.

References in all articles need to be uploaded through WordPress (see ‘References‘).

Subeditors should receive death notices/tributes/letters via email to upload, format and subedit. These are to be sent to the senior section editor to check once uploaded and subbed.

See ‘WordPress’ for more information on how to upload and navigate WordPress articles

Preferred styles

Spelling

The Pharmaceutical Journal uses the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). If you are unsure of a spelling or hyphenation, or if there is variation between two dictionaries, use the one at: www.lexico.com

British English should be used throughout all text, figures and tables. US spelling may only be used for proper nouns — such as the World Health Organization or for US journal names — and for the word ‘homeopathy’. However, titles of articles/papers/websites in references remain unchanged: if it was published in American English, leave it in American English. The exception to this is if an article title is given in a foreign language — in this case, use the English translation in box brackets.

Abbreviations

At the first instance, the term should be defined and written in full with the acronym or abbreviation in brackets. From then on, the abbreviation may be used. If it is only used once, there is no need to include the abbreviation. If an abbreviation is only used once in an article, remove it — even if it is a well-known body, such as the Care Quality Commission.

Some acronyms are widely understood and so do not need to be spelled out. They are, as follows: 

All other acronyms and abbreviations — such as the RPS or the GPhC (when referring to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and General Pharmaceutical Council, respectively) — must be spelled out in full at the first instance. 

United States must be spelled out in full at each instance unless it is being used adjectivally. 

Some companies and bodies have multiple possible abbreviations. For example, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association Union could be abbreviated to either PDA Union or PDAU. In these instances, please refer to ‘Grammar’ [link] for the accepted abbreviation.  

A/an — If the abbreviation is read starting with a vowel sound, please use ‘an’, not ‘a’. Examples include ‘an honest opinion’

E.g., i.e. and vs. — There is no need to spell these out; however, they should only be used within brackets. Versus is permissible outside of brackets but should be abbreviated to vs. after its first mention. No comma is needed between their use and the thing they are referring to.

(I.e. the use of etc. vs. et cetera is permissible because this sentence is in brackets)

‘The PJ’ — Avoid this term when talking about The Pharmaceutical Journal, with the exception of social media hashtags and shortened URLs. 

Medicines

Generally speaking, style is to use the term ‘medicines’ over ‘drugs’; all medicines are drugs but not all drugs are medicines. However, use your discretion if you think the sentence in question sounds repetitive.

When referring to branded drug names, please add the generic substance and the name of the company that produces the drug in brackets in the first instance. You do not need to add the location/country where that company is based, but you do need to use the UK spelling of the medicine. Generic drug names should not be capitalised.

Nurofen (ibuprofen; Reckitt) 

When referring to generic drugs, you do not need to provide a branded drug name in brackets afterwards unless there is a relevant branded product being discussed. In this case, please include the brand name and manufacturer in brackets. 

In this study, idelalisib (Zydelig; Gilead Sciences) was specifically prescribed

Street drugs

The term ‘medical cannabis’ (not ‘medicinal’). 

Other preferred street drug terms include: alcohol, not booze or drink; amphetamines, not speed or base; nitrous oxide, not balloons; tobacco cigarettes; marijuana, not weed; cocaine, not coke or crack; ecstasy or MDMA; methamphetamine, not crystal meth.

Symbols

Alpha should be spelled out unless it’s in an abbreviation, for example alpha-amyloid and HIF-1α. Beta and onwards should be spelt out, for example beta2 and beta-amyloid. Hyphens should be used where appropriate;

Use ‘%’ in place of ‘per cent’, but use percentage;

Trademark, copyright and registered symbols are not used

Common problems

Accents — do not use them unless it is a proper noun, or it would change the meaning of the word:

Adviser — not advisor (this is the American spelling), but do use advisory.

Ageing — not aging;

Annual — avoid this term unless referring to an event;

Bacteria — this is plural; the singular is bacterium;

Bricks and mortar — not brick and mortar;

Case–control — use an en-dash, not a hyphen;

Chair — use chair, not chairman or chairwoman;

Data — this is plural; the singular is datum;

Dry eye disease — this should be referred to as such and abbreviated to DED when used multiple times. For consistency, it should not be referred to as simply as dry eye (DE) or as dry eye syndrome (DES);

Due — this should only be used in relation to time;

Each/every — use ‘each year’ not ‘every year’;

Em dash and en dash — use em (—) [Alt+Shift+Dash on a Mac / Alt+0151 on a PC] for text and en (–) [Alt+Dash on a Mac / Alt+0150 on a PC] for ranges and numbers, and where equal weighting is needed (e.g. blood–brain barrier);

Front line — not frontline or front-line;

Gastrointestinal — one word, not hyphenated

Genes (human) — human genes are italicised and capped. Non-human genes are not. Note: the names of proteins regularly mirror the names of genes, but are not italicised;

The gene IGF1 is used to make the protein IGF1

Genes (non-human mammalian models) — in mice and rats, only the first letter of a gene is capped, and the whole gene is italicised;

Gfap makes GFAP

GP — can refer to either general practice or general practitioners. It is assumed that the reader will be able to garner the meaning from the context. Where possible, please try to avoid using both in the same sentence; 

Grassroots — one word; no space or hyphen;

Healthcare — not health care or health-care;

Healthcare professional, not health professional;

Hodgkin lymphoma, not Hodgkin’s lymphoma;

Judgement, not judgment, unless referring to a legal judgment;

Key — keys unlock doors: use ‘vital’ or ‘essential’ instead;

Last — use past instead, unless it is the last time ever;

In the past five days

Medicines versus medications — the term ‘medicines’ should be used rather than ‘medications’ when referring to drugs, with the exception of the term ‘medication reviews’;

Methicillin, not meticillin;

Non-words — all words prefixed with ‘non’ are hyphenated

Number of — avoid this term; use ‘several’ instead;

OK — not okay;

Organisms (non-viruses) — spell out fully on first occurrence and italicise. When using the contraction, put a space after the full stop. If it is only used once in the article, do not add the shortened version;

Haemophilus influenzae then H. influenzae 

Organisms (viruses) — viruses are not living organisms, and thus their names are not italicised;

P value — the ‘P’ should be upper-case and italicised;

Beta blockers (hazard ratio [HR] 2.11; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12–3.98; P=0.02) and calcium antagonists (2.28 [CI] 1.13–4.58]; P=0.02)

Page — use ‘page’, not ‘p’;

Papillomavirus — taken as one word, not two (papilloma virus);

Pharmacy students — never student pharmacists unless it is a direct quote;

Point of care testing — use the abbreviation POCT, not POT or PCT;

Policymaker — not policy-maker or policy maker;

Qualified Person — not ‘qualified person’, to avoid confusion. See also, Responsible Pharmacist;

Read/write access — not read-write access, read–write access, or read-and-write access;

Renal disease/failure — do not use this term unless it is in a direct quote. Instead, use the preferred term ‘chronic kidney disease’;

Responsible Pharmacist — not ‘responsible pharmacist’, to avoid confusion. See also, Qualified Person;

Sexually transmitted infection — not sexually transmitted disease;

Trials — the word ‘phase’ is not capitalised, and the number is given in Roman numerals. There should never be a line break between the two;

The drug is in phase II trials

Pilot — do not use this term as a verb unless the subject is flying; use as an adjective is acceptable;

Self — hyphenate compound words beginning with ‘self’, such as self-care and self-assessment;

So-called — the term following so-called should be in inverted commas;

The so-called ‘king of the hill’ was not a member of the royal family

Spokesperson — not spokesman or spokeswoman;

Study — these are by, not from, an author/organisation;

Trademark —please use trademark (one word) as a noun and trade mark (two words) as a verb;

Trials and reviews — the term ‘double-blind’ should be hyphenated;

Type 1 diabetes mellitus — this should be written out in full and then abbreviated to T1DM when used in multiple instances. It should not be referred to simply as “type 1 diabetes” or T1D, nor should it be reffered to as DMT1. By extension, the same rule applies to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM);

Under way — not underway;

Vitamins — the number in a vitamin should be subscript (unless this is in print, in which case see Formatting Indesign);

World Wars — use ‘First World War’ or ‘Second World War’, not WWI or WWII;

X-ray — with a capital X and a hyphen.

Points of view — all articles except Q&As, interviews, blogs and correspondence should be written in the third person. Quotes and case studies may be kept in the first person. On rare occasions, use of the first person regarding something highly personal may be allowed;

Medicine/medication — where possible, use the term medicine instead of medication;

Plurals — organisations and companies are referred to in the singular, not plural;

Pre and post  may be used as hyphenated prefixes, but not standalone words to mean before and after:

“His post-treatment diagnosis was clear” is fine; “he survived ten years post diagnosis” is not

Commas are preferred before the term ‘such as’;

Oxford comma is not used in lists of single words, but can be useful in lists of clauses;

Colons — if used in a book title or headline, the first letter after its use should be capitalised:

The Big Catch: Fishing for contracts

Semicolons are useful in long lists of clauses and are generally preferred before the word ‘however’ or ‘but’;

Names of reports and publications — for the names of reports and documents, use lower case and single quotation marks. For publications and published entertainment media (e.g. newspapers, journals, books, movies and video games), use title case and italics;

Subscript — apply consistently for instances such as vitamin D3, H2 antagonist, beta2-agonist;

Superscript — not used for ages or dates (i.e. use 64th not 64th);

While/whilst; among/amongst — while should be used, not whilst; among should be used, not amongst;

Due to — should be used only in relation to time. When referring to causation, use “because”, “as a result” or “owing to”;

More than/over — more than is the correct term to use with numbers. Use over when you are writing about quantities: 

More than 100 helicopters are flying in supplies. Each one is carrying over five tonnes of aid

Less than/fewer than — use less than when you’re referring to something that can’t be counted or doesn’t have a plural (e.g. money, air, time, music).
Use fewer if you’re referring to people or things in the plural (e.g. houses, newspapers, dogs);

Several — do not use ‘a number of’;

By/in contrast — only use in contrast when followed by “to”. Start sentence “By contrast,” when comparing with previous sentence;

Compared with/to — “with” to highlight difference, “to” to highlight similarity;

Awards — use the following format:

John received the ‘Best dog of the year’ award from his owner

Per day — not ‘a day’. This also applies to months, years and other measures of time;

Red flag — all lower case, without inverted commas.Numbers

Key — should only be used in relation to unlocking a door or a ‘Key points’ box. Use important, vital etc. instead.

Confusing terms 

Words that sound similar but have different meanings and spellings: 

Names and titles

Governments 

Include the location when mentioning a government, e.g. the UK government or Scottish government. Government is not capitalised.

When it appears on its own, parliament should be lower case; however, Houses of Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords should all be capitalised.

Governmental agencies and departments should be capitalised when specifically using the full title (e.g. Department of Health; Ministry of Defence) but lower case when used in plural or in condensations (e.g. the departments, the council, the ministry). 

Do not abbreviate political parties, or use colloquial terms. When referring to the party, give the official name in title case: 

They are called the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, not ‘Tories’ or ‘Lib Dems’.

Reports

When mentioning a report, please use its full title in inverted commas, with a link to the report in the first instance within an article. The link should not include the inverted commas. Capitalise the first letter of the title, but not the rest:

Although the NHS has its own style, our house style is to call their long-term plan the ‘NHS long-term plan’ 

Organisations

When an organisation is first mentioned it should be spelled out in full and capitalised with the abbreviation in brackets. From then on, the abbreviation can be used. If it is only used once, do not include the acronym. At first use in anything more in-depth than a news piece, a definition of the organisation must be included. 

Any foreign organisation with a name in another language should be used as it is. The definition will explain what it does.

Médecins Sans Frontières, an international medical humanitarian organisation, is …

While this list is not exhaustive, these are our most commonly used definitions:

Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) is a trade association of companies in the UK that produce prescription medicines;

British Medical Association (BMA) is the trade union and professional body for doctors in the UK;

British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) is a membership organisation that specialises in issues relating to antimicrobial agents;

Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of all health and social care services in England;

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) commission most of the hospital and community NHS services in the local areas for which they are responsible;

Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) is the trade association for large pharmacy operators in England, Scotland and Wales;

Community Pharmacy Scotland represents community pharmacy owners throughout Scotland;

Community Pharmacy Wales represents community pharmacy owners throughout Wales;

Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) is the voluntary regulator for complementary therapists in the UK;

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a ministerial department responsible for government policy on health and social care;

European Medicines Agency (EMA) evaluates medicinal products for use in Europe;

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for evaluating the safety and efficacy of medicines in the United States (note: the FDA approves drugs, not the United States government. FDA can be used in headlines, but it must be spelled out in full in the article, as usual);

Foundation trusts are semi-autonomous organisational units within the NHS in England;

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a global health partnership committed to increasing access to immunisation in poor countries;

General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is the independent regulator for pharmacy in Great Britain;

Health Education England (HEE) is the organisation responsible for NHS workforce training and development in England;

Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) are local organisations for community pharmacies;

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) regulates medicines and medical devices in the UK;

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is England’s health technology assessment body (note: NICE can also be defined as a health technology assessment body that provides guidance on which drugs should be used on the NHS in England);

National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is the trade association for independent community pharmacy in the UK;

Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) is a not-for-profit organisation which supports the needs of individual pharmacists and pharmacy students;

Pharmacists’ Defence Association Union (PDA Union) exists to represent, defend and support the interests of its members when dealing with employers and/or outside organisations;

Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) is the negotiating body for community pharmacy contractors in England;

Pharmacist Support is an independent charity for pharmacists and their families, preregistration trainees and pharmacy students in need;

Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is the professional membership body for general practitioners in the UK;

Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is the professional leadership body for pharmacists and pharmacy in Great Britain (note: if Pharmpress products are mentioned, the reference should include that it is owned by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. For example: The Pharmaceutical Journal — published by Pharmpress, which is owned by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society — contains peer-reviewed content

World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. Note: Organization follows the American spelling using a ‘z’, not an ‘s’.

Note: The company Boots is referred to as such; please do not refer to it as Boots UK, unless referring to it as the UK arm of Walgreens Boots Alliance.

People

Infants are aged up to 2 years; 

Children are aged 2–11 years; 

Adolescents are aged 12–17 years; 

Adults are aged 18 years and above; 

Older people, not elderly or the elderly, are aged 65 years and older.

However, please note that these definitions might be different in some studies. In these instances, define as used in study.

Job titles including ‘prime minister’ and ‘president’ should always be lower case, and appear after the person’s name where possible:

Sandra Gidley, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, used to be an MP…

Aamer Safder, member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society English Pharmacy Board, says …

Do not use acronyms or abbreviations for job titles, such as exec or CEO. Use the term ‘chief executive’, not ‘chief executive officer’. Always give job titles in lower case;

Chairpeople/spokespeople should be referred to in a gender-neutral way — i.e., ‘chair’, not ‘chairman’ or ‘chairwoman’;

For brevity, the health and social care secretary may be referred to as the ‘health minister’, and the public health and primary care minister may be referred to as the ‘public health minister’. These should not be used interchangeably

Monarchy — refer to the Queen as Queen Elizabeth II, not Her Majesty The Queen.

Names — when using initials in people’s names, they do not require full stops;

Titles — do not use titles such as doctor or professor (unless they are part of an image credit, in which case use whatever is provided by the image library

Royal titles — Sir should be used with their full name in the first instance. After that, use Sir [first name].  Lord and Lady should only be used with their surnames.

Sir Tom Jones and Lord Sugar both support the scheme. Sir Tom just makes more of a song and dance about it

Places

For cities in the UK, use city (or town) plus county, except for the following cities: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Swansea. Repetitive county capitals are exceptions to this rule, e.g.: York, Yorkshire; Nottingham, Nottinghamshire; Derby, Derbyshire; Hertford, Hertfordshire; Oxford, Oxfordshire; Hereford, Herefordshire

If referring to a county, such as Bristol, add ‘UK’ after, as there is a good chance that there is a city with that name in another country;

If a place is a county with cardinal direction in the name (i.e. North Yorkshire) , it should be in title case; if it does not, it should not (i.e. north London);

If referring to an area in Scotland or Wales, include the city or town, plus Scotland or Wales (i.e. treat Scotland/Wales as the county);

For cities outside the UK (excluding the United States), cities should include the country, apart from capital cities;

Tokyo, Berlin and Ottawa are fairly well known, but Kyoto, Japan; Frankfurt, Germany; and Montreal, Canada, are not

For cities in the United States, use city plus state (except New York and Washington DC). Note: this only applies to the United States — other countries that have states, such as Australia, follow the rule above);

United States should always be spelled out in full, unless used adjectivally;

The Netherlands is referred to as such, with a lower case ‘the’; do not use ‘Holland’;

The Czech Republic is is referred to as such; do not use ‘Czechia’;

Northern Ireland and Ireland should be used; do not use ‘Republic of Ireland’.