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Sample style sheet: Post-fire residuals book

"Post-fire residual vegetation in boreal forests" (Wiley/Blackwell)

by Ajith Perera and Lisa Buse

Please contact Geoff Hart (ghart@videotron.ca / geoff@geoff-hart.com) if you have any questions.

Each chapter and appendix has been edited in a separate file.

Sections contained in this style sheet:

• Acronyms and abbreviations
• Figures and tables
• Footnotes
• Headings
• Hyphenation and compound words
• Literature citations
• Miscellaneous
• Numbers
• Reference formats
• Spelling
• Word choice

Acronyms and abbreviations

• Abbreviations should be defined on first appearance in the text, rather than as a separate list, but the goal was to minimize the number and use primarily acronyms everyone would be familiar with.
• Strongly discouraged other than for standard terms (e.g., DBH, BA).
• Not permitted where the abbreviation will be used fewer than 3 times. Exceptions: Unusually long or complex phrases, or organizations that are very well known by their abbreviated name (e.g., IUFRO).

Figures and tables

See also: Footnotes

• Spell out the word "Figure" in full in the text; abbreviate (Fig.) in brackets.
• Both figures and tables should be numbered to correspond with chapter (e.g., in Chapter 1, Table 1.1 instead of Table 1)
• Captions: Add a period after the number and at the end of the title (e.g., Table 1.1. This is a table title.)
• Use lower-case letters rather than descriptions such as “top”, “bottom”, etc. to describe the parts of a figure. The letters should generally come before the information that describes them.

  Example: “Figure 1.1. Images of the forest (a) before and (b) after a fire.”

• For all photos, provide a source. If they are your own photos, add "Source: [your name]."

Footnotes

• Text: Where possible, eliminate them and integrate them directly in the text.
• Tables: Footnotes should be indicated using superscripted lower-case letters (a, b, c etc.)

Headings

• Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns.
• Springer will perform all final formatting.
• Use a maximum of three levels of heading. The title includes a number for the chapter (e.g., Chapter 1. Introduction) but is not a numbered heading and is not included in the limit of three headings.
• Headings are not numbered.
• The chapter number is not used as a prefix in headings but is used as a prefix for tables and figures.

Hyphenation and compound words

See also: Word choice

aboveground: no hyphen, but “above the ground” when not used as an adjective before the noun.

belowground: no hyphen, but “below the ground” when not used as an adjective before the noun.

broadleaved: no hyphen

clearcut/clearcutting: one word (per the FERIC usage) for the type of harvesting in which all trees are removed; could be hyphenated as “clear-cut” in the rare cases where the meaning is “clear” (e.g., a clear-cut distinction) and no better wording exists.

cut block: two words, rather than "cutblock"; hyphenated if used as a compound adjective (e.g., cut-block dispersal)

dead wood: two words, no hyphen

decisionmaking: set solid (unhyphenated both as adjective and noun); I used the same approach for similar compounds such as "decisionmaker"

decision-support: hyphenated as an adjective, open (decision support) as a noun

ecoregion(al): no hyphen

e-mail: hyphenated

ex situ: italicized and not hyphenated, even as an adjective.

fire-return interval: hyphenated

fire-suppression policies, efforts: hyphenated as an adjective.

in situ: italicized and not hyphenated, even as an adjective.

landowner: one word, no spaces

land-use: hyphenated as adjective

low-lying: hyphenate

multiple-use: hyphenated as an adjective, open (multiple use) as a noun

non-governmental organizations: hyphenated

old-growth forest: always hyphenated as an adjective

online: never hyphenated (on-line) or open (on line)

patch-size: hyphenated as an adjective, open as a noun

policymaker: solid, not hyphenated

post-: use only in adjectival forms; use “after” in all other situations (e.g., “after a fire”, not “post-fire”).

post-fire residuals: hyphenated

private sector: open, not hyphenated (even as an adjective)

re-establish: hyphenated

remote sensing: hyphenated as an adjective, open as a noun

rootstock: one word, no hyphen

runoff: no hyphen

seed bank: two words

socioeconomic: a single unhyphenated word in all cases

spatiotemporal: a single unhyphenated word in all cases

streamflow: no hyphen

submodel: a single unhyphenated word in all cases

subsurface: no hyphen

time-consuming: hyphenated in all cases

trade-offs: hyphenated in all cases

user-friendly: hyphenated both as noun and adjective

whitespotted (sawyer beetle): one word, no hyphen

wildfire: one word, no hyphen

windthrown: no hyphen

wood borer: two words, not one; no hyphen

wood-boring: hypenated as an adjective

Literature citations in the text

See also: Reference formats

• References cited in the text use the author–date, with no commas before years (Hart 1990) unless there are multiple years for a given author (Hart 1990, 2001).
• Outside of brackets, citations should be chronological to reflect the historical progression of the research.
• Multiple authors cited inside the same brackets: The order should be chronological rather than alphabetical by author, then alphabetical within a given year (including "et al." as an author name for the purposes of determining alphabetical order).

  Example: “(Charlie 1990, Baker 2000, Able 2010)”

• Inside brackets: Use a semicolon (;) between citations only if there are two or more citations for a given author.

  Example: “(Charlie 1990, 1991; Baker 2000)”

• Organization names cited in the text as authors should be abbreviated (e.g., Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources 2006 would become OMNR 2006).
• "Personal communications" should include the person's given name (e.g., João) and affiliation (e.g., university) so that interested readers can contact the right researcher to obtain more information. I recommend deleting the dates of personal communications, but if an author prefers to include them, all such citations should be dated for consistency.
• "In this volume" citations: These should be replaced with the correct year of publication (probably 2013) during the final stages of production, and the final title and reference should be added to the literature cited section. (Since chapters are often scanned or photocopied without recording the name of the book they appear in, this ensures that authors and librarians can easily find the book that contains the cited chapter.)

Miscellaneous

• Commas: I have used the serial comma (A, B, and C) everywhere for consistency rather than deciding individually in each case.
• Dates: Use the day + month + year format (e.g., 2 August 2005).
• Lists: Where the author has presented lists composed of full sentences or complex clauses within a paragraph, I will separate these from the paragraph to produced a numbered or "bullet" format to facilitate reading and avoid potentially complex internal punctuation (see the next point, "list capitalization and punctuation"). Following the Chicago Manual of Style and other guides, I have used "1." in lists.

  Exception: It is acceptable to retain simple, short lists within paragraphs, but the numbers should have brackets on both sides: (1), (2), etc.

• List capitalization and punctuation: For lists composed of sentence fragments, start the list with lower-case letters (exception: proper nouns) and use no terminal punctuation. For lists composed of complete sentences, use standard sentence capitalization and punctuation.
• Quotations: For quoted text, please use double quotes ("), with single quote (') used only for quoted words inside double quotes. To avoid the potential problem of inserting punctuation within quotes that was not part of the original quotation, use "logical" punctuation, in which punctuation only goes inside quotation marks if it is part of the quoted text.
• Sidebars: No literature citations.
• Species binomials: Please provide both the genus and species information the first time you introduce the common name of a species. Thereafter, you can use either the Latin or common names. Taxonomic authors (e.g., L.) are only necessary where the taxonomy is unclear or has not been finalized. This usually means they are only needed for plants, diseases, and insects, not for higher animals.
• Years: For decades, do not use apostrophe (e.g., 1920s, not 1920's). For ranges, use the word “to” instead of the en dash (–). Example: 1970 to 1990, not 1970-1990.

Numbers

• Adjective forms: Use "first" and "second" (and so on) rather than "1st" and "2nd", which seem too informal.
• Times: Use numbers for all times (e.g., “2 days”, not “two days”). This is easier and more consistent than using numbers only for measured times.
• Large numbers: Please use periods (.) for decimals and use spaces instead of commas to divide large numbers into groups of 3 digits (e.g., 1 000 000 instead of 1,000,000). No space is necessary where the number contains only four digits (e.g., 2000 instead of 2 000); in tables, the space (2 000) should be retained if doing so is necessary to make numbers in a column line up vertically.
• Number ranges: Rather than using hyphens or dashes for ranges (1-10 or 1–10), use the word "to" (1 to 10). This avoids various typesetting problems if any ranges include negative numbers.
• Parameters: For things that are counted rather than measured, numbers 1 to 9 are spelled out as words (one, two..., nine); numbers from 10 up are expressed as numerals. When a sentence contains a mix of numbers less than 10 and numbers greater than 10, use numerals for both.
• Parameter names: Use italics for all letters that are variables (e.g., x, DBH) but not for letters that are memory aids rather than variables (e.g., x0, DBHmax).
• Units of measurement: For any number that requires a unit of measurement, use numerals instead of words. To avoid seeming inconsistencies in usage, always use numerals for units of time. All units should be metric; where imperial are commonly used, please provide metric equivalents in brackets. Use exponential notation (e.g., m s-1) instead of “/” notation (e.g., do not use m/s).

Reference formats

• Section title is "Literature cited" (not references or bibliography).
• Use full journal names, not abbreviations. Do not abbreviate publisher names
• Add commas before author initials and periods between initials.
• For references with 7 or more authors, present the first 3 names followed by “et al.” Otherwise, present up to 6 authors.
• Use "&" before the last author’s name when all authors are provided; do not add “&” before the last authors name when “et al.” is used.
• Journal papers: Alexander, M.E. & Hawksworth, F.G. (1976) Fire and dwarf mistletoes in North American coniferous forests. Journal of Forestry 74(7), 446-449.

  Note: Comma is not required before the “&” or “et al.” No space between author initials.

• Books and monographs: Buech, R.R., Siderits, K., Radtke, R.E. et al. (1977) Small mammal populations after a wildfire in northeast Minnesota. USDA Forest Service, North Central Research Station, St. Paul, MN, Research Paper NC-151.

  Note: State or province names are required (using the 2-letter postal abbreviation) for publisher addresses. For reports, the report series is not abbreviated. Page length is not required.

• Chapter in book: Cayford, J.H. & McRae, D.J. (1983) The ecological role of fire in jack pine forests. In Wein, R.W. & MacLean, D.A. (eds.), The Role of Fire in Northern Circumpolar Ecosystems. John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., New York, NY. pp. 183-199.
• Web pages: Cite a whole Web site in brackets in the text. For publications on a Web site, use the author/date system (e.g., IUFRO 2011), then provide the full title of the publication and its Web address in brackets in the Literature Cited section.

Spelling

See also: Hyphenation, Word choice

• Please use U.S. English spelling.
• “Web” and “Internet” are capitalized because they are proper nouns.

Word choice

and/or: Replace with "and" (to emphasize both), "or" (to emphasize alternatives), or "A, B, or both" (to emphasize all three possibilities), depending on which of the three meanings is correct.

Chapter: don’t abbreviate; capitalize when referring to a specific chapter but not a generic usage (e.g., “Chapter 3 is the previous chapter.”)

coarse woody debris: downed dead wood; snags should be used only for standing dead wood.

crown: Capitalized (Crown) when referring to the government representative of the royal family; lower-case (crown) when referring to the top of a tree.

drilling: Use “boring” everywhere for consistency.

DBH: capitalized (not “dbh”)

ecologic(al): Use "ecological" instead of "ecologic" as an adjective (e.g., ecological research). In longer phrases, “ecology” is acceptable (e.g., "a forest landscape ecology approach".

economic(al): Use "economical" for issues relating to affordability, but "economic" for issues related to economics.

epigeic rather than epigaeic

extinguishment: acceptable alternative to “extinction”

farther/further: Use “farther” for distance and “further” for extent. (In some cases, it’s debatable which word is better, but mostly this should be clear).

fire footprint: not fire’s footprint

forestland: Replace with "forested land".

forest landscape ecology: Use "forest" rather than "forestry"

historic(al): Use "historical" as the general term related to history, and "historic" for something of unusual historical significance.

if: Used for "if... then" constructions; use "whether" elsewhere.

Internet: Capitalized as a proper noun (the Internet, not an "internet" made up of independent networks).

metre (not "meter"): this refers to the metric system, not the meteric system.

salvage logging vs. salvage harvesting: decision deferred by Ajith and Lisa until the end of the editing process.

snags: use only for standing dead wood; downed dead wood should be coarse woody debris.

technology transfer: As defined in the introductory chapters, "knowledge transfer" (unhyphenated) is preferred.

that vs. which: use "that" for restrictive uses (the study that occurred in 1990 represented the start of a new field of research) and "which" for nonrestrictive uses (the study, which occurred in 1990, represented the start of a new field of research).

timberland: Change to "forested land".

topographic: not topographical

unburned residuals: Change to “unburned vegetation” or “unburned patches” to reduce the repetition of “residuals”.

Web: Capitalized as a proper noun (the World Wide Web).

where: Use only for physical locations; "in which" is used for situations.

while: Use only to mean simultaneity (I made dinner while the clothes were drying); use "although" or "though" to indicate exceptions (I mostly edit, though I also write and translate) or "whereas" to indicate alternatives or contrasts (I edit, whereas the authors write).

©2004–2024 Geoffrey Hart. All rights reserved.