International Diabetes Nursing

Writing style guide

The term 'diabetic' should not be used as a noun. Preferred style is ‘people (or person or individual) with diabetes’ or ‘in the group without diabetes’, rather than ‘diabetic people (or person)’, 'diabetic patient' or ‘non-diabetic group’.

The terms 'Type 1' and 'Type 2 diabetes mellitus' should be used rather than IDDM and NIDDM. Diabetes should not be abbreviated to DM but it is acceptable to omit mellitus.

'Men' and 'women' should be used in preference to 'males' and 'females'. ‘Participant(s)’ or ‘person’/’people’ is preferred to ‘patient(s)’ or ‘subject(s)’ to reflect the collaborative nature of modern clinical research.

 

Abbreviations and Units

Abbreviations are strongly discouraged except for units of measurement. Non-standard abbreviations should not be used. Avoid abbreviations in the title and in the abstract. At first mention the abbreviation should be spelled-out in full followed by the abbreviation in parentheses unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

SI units must be used throughout except for blood pressure (mmHg) and haemoglobin (g/l). Gas or pressure values should be given as mmHg with kPa in parentheses or vice versa.

Where molecular weight is known, the amount of a substance should be expressed in mol or appropriate subunit (mmol). Energy should be expressed in kcal or joules (J).

The solidus (/) may be used in a unit only if it is not used more than once (e.g. mmol/l is acceptable), but ml/min/kg is not acceptable and should be replaced with ml min-1 kg-1.