# Wellcome Style Guide (April 2022 version)

**Wellcome Style Guide**

**Last updated: April 2022**

This guide focuses on the nitty gritty of language (the contents list will give you an idea) and is probably most useful to inform the editing stages.

Broader aspects of writing and presentation are covered by Wellcome’s [brand guidelines](https://company-57536.frontify.com/d/gFEfjydViLRJ/wellcome-brand-book), [tone-of-voice](https://wellcomecloud.sharepoint.com/:p:/s/CommsAdmin/EcB357uJ_KxGgl_y1s-YrNgBVGygU32N0GyH6tEQSnL2ZQ?e=NnGZax) guidelines, and [inclusive language guidelines](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QZHyhqLqpfCahcLV16j-bhK32_GVvWNI/edit).

To navigate this guide, you can click on the relevant contents entry or do a text search. Many small, specific points are included in the long A–Z at the end.

The guide is managed by Wellcome’s senior writer, [Michael Regnier](mailto:m.regnier@wellcome.org?subject=Style%20Guide).

**Contents**

Abbreviations

‘About us’ boilerplate copy

Ampersands

Apostrophes

Brackets and parentheses

Citations and references

Colons and semicolons

Commas

Contact details

Dashes

Dates

Ellipses

Footnotes

Full stops

Hyphens

Inclusive language

Lists

Numbers

People’s names and titles

Quotation marks

Slashes

Formatting text: Title case, italics and so on

Times

UK and international audiences

Units

Wellcome Collection

Gibbs Building

Major Wellcome activities and centres

A to Z of style points

### Abbreviations

Try not to use lots of abbreviations. They can be convenient and save space, but they can also force the reader to stop and skip back to recall what (for instance) TCFD stands for. And lots of them, even if they’re well-known, don’t look great on a page – it can make text look like a technical manual. A shorter version of the full name (such as ‘the task force’) may be easier to digest.

Always consider whether introducing an abbreviation is strictly necessary; if it is only used once or twice then it is usually better to spell the whole thing out each time. However, if the abbreviation is itself well-known or needs to be established, then single use is justified.

When introducing an abbreviation, put it in parentheses after the full name:

* the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

Some abbreviations are so well-known that you can use them without definition (this will depend on the audience):

* UK, USA
* DNA (even if many people couldn’t say what DNA stands for, they know roughly what it is)
* AIDS
* BBC
* Ltd
* 1pm, 5 mm, 375 kg

Some abbreviations are much better known than their full names, so depending on context and likely audience, it can be appropriate to reverse the normal order of definition:

* infected with MRSA (methicillin-resistant *Staphylococcus aureus*)

After an abbreviation has been introduced, it should be used consistently. If there is a large gap between mentions, it may be reasonable to introduce it a second time.

In general, do not use full stops in abbreviations:

* co
* Dr, MSc
* PhD, FRCPath
* mRNA

Plurals of abbreviations do not have apostrophes. Most plurals are formed with an ‘s’ and no additional punctuation:

* eds
* PhDs
* MPs

A few abbreviations are exceptions – some take a full stop: no. (number), sp. (species), f. (folio).

Some repeat a letter to indicate the plural: sp., spp. (species, singular and plural); f., ff. (folio and folios); p, pp (page and pages). A space always comes between these abbreviations and numbers:

* no. 210183
* pp 38-46

‘edn’ is the standard contraction of ‘edition’ while ‘ed’ is for ‘editor’ or edited’.

Avoid abbreviations of Latin terms such as id est (ie), exempli gratia (eg), et cetera (etc) and so on. English words can be used instead, such as ‘that is’, ‘such as’, or ‘and so on’.

**Contractions with apostrophes**

It’s fine to use contractions like ‘it’s’, ‘can’t’, and ‘we’ll’. Organisations have been wary of these in the past, for fear that they might seem too colloquial, but perceptions have shifted. Nowadays it’s more likely that lots of ‘cannot’, ‘should not’ and so on will seem archaic and formal to readers. We can move away from that without jeopardising our overall tone of professionalism.

Avoid using ‘should’ve’, ‘could’ve’, ‘would’ve’ and so on as these are harder to read.

Be careful with ‘we’d’, ‘you’d’ and so on: these can mean ‘would’ or ‘had’. Likewise with ‘he’s’, ‘she’s’ and ‘it’s’: these usually mean ‘is’ but can mean ‘has’. If it could reasonably be read the wrong way, consider rephrasing.

### ‘About us’ boilerplate copy

**Main Wellcome boilerplate**

Use this to explain who we are and what we do:

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease, and climate and health.

Add this line if helpful:

Wellcome is a politically and financially independent global charitable foundation.

**Legal text**

To appear on print publications, PDFs modelled on print publications, and the footers of e-flyers etc. Second sentence can be cut if space is tight.

The Wellcome Trust is a charity registered in England and Wales, no. 210183. Its sole trustee is The Wellcome Trust Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, no. 2711000 (whose registered office is at 215 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK).

**Wellcome Collection boilerplate**

For use on Wellcome Collection materials:

Wellcome Collection is a free museum exploring health and human experience. Our vision is to challenge how we all think and feel about health by connecting science, medicine, life and art. We offer changing exhibitions, museum and library collections, online stories and public events, in addition to a café. Wellcome Collection publishes books on what it means to be human and collaborates widely to reach broad and diverse audiences locally and globally. 

Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that supports science to solve urgent health challenges. Wellcome supports discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, with a focus on mental health, infectious disease, and climate and health.

Depending on space and relevance, you can shorten this to just the first paragraph, just the first two sentences, or just the first sentence.

### Ampersands

Try to avoid ampersands in body text, except in:

* titles (such as brand names) that require them
* certain well-known abbreviations such as R\&D or Q\&A.

They can be used as a design element or where space is at an absolute premium, for instance as part of a heading or labelling a figure.

### Apostrophes

We normally use curly (‘smart’) apostrophes, but if any formatting constraints make this difficult, it’s OK to use straight apostrophes (likewise for quotation marks).

Use apostrophes to indicate the loss of letters when two words are joined together as a contraction (isn’t, haven’t, you’re, we’ll).

Use apostrophes in possessive constructions (Jack’s, Jill’s). An exception is ‘its’, where using an apostrophe could be confused with the contraction of ‘it is’ or ‘it has’.

If the word ends in a non-plural ‘s’ use an apostrophe and a second ‘s’:

* Burroughs’s early death
* Paris’s tallest building

Make an exception if a name demands it: St Thomas’ Hospital

If the word is plural and ends in ‘s’, just add an apostrophe:

* the researchers’ plans

### Brackets and parentheses

Use parentheses (commonly called brackets) to give asides in text.

Avoid using overlapping parentheses, but if rephrasing is not possible, use square brackets:

* The programme (partly funded by UK Research and Innovation \[UKRI]) is…

Use square brackets for adding clarification to a quote:

* “We are looking at the issue \[of avian flu] very closely,” she said.

### Citations and references

**Giving citations in text**

In a document where full references to cited publications are needed, there are two ways you can indicate them:

1\) For academic reports, use author names and dates in parentheses:

…according to the study by Smith (2017).\
Some recent research (Khan, 2021, 2022; Sanchez, 2020a, 2020b) has found…

With multiple citations in the same place, order alphabetically by author and then by date, adding letters if there is more than one in the same year.

Include an alphabetical list of all cited references at the end.

2\) For a broader range of publications, use footnotes (unless the document uses footnotes for giving additional information, when it will be clearer to use author-date style in-text citations):

…according to the study1.\
Some recent research2,3,4 has found…

Full citations follow at the foot of the page or, if the format prevents this, at the very end. If the list is at the very end, give it a heading such as ‘References’. No heading is needed for sets of footnotes on individual pages.

For shorter pieces such as news articles, you may not need to cite specific references at specific points in the text. If not, then list the references at the end.

**Formatting references**

**General points**

Note differences from normal house style: in references, don’t put spaces between author initials and don’t use italics or quotes for publication titles.

Multiple authors: if two, give both separated by a comma; if three or more, give the first followed by ‘et al’

The end of a page range should use as few digits as possible; don’t repeat any that the start of the range has in common with the end:

123–7, not 123–27 or 123–127\
509–31, not 509–531

**Journal papers**

Vega KJ. Heart transplantation is associated with an increased risk for pancreatobiliary disease. Ann Intern Med 1996;124:980–3.\
Warner JA, Warner JO. Early life events in allergic sensitisation. Br Med Bull 2000;56(4):883–93.\
Popplewell EJ et al. The effect of high-efficiency and standard vacuum cleaners on mite, cat and dog allergen levels and clinical progress. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2000;11(3):142–8.

Use the standard abbreviated journal title (no full stops) if there is one. To find abbreviations for biomedical science journals, search for the full journal name on [PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/advanced).

Volume and issue numbers (11 and 3 respectively in the last example above): if a journal has continuous pagination throughout a volume that spans several issues, the issue number can be omitted. If in doubt, leave it in.

If a paper has been published online but not in print, omit the page range (and the volume and issue if also inapplicable). You can also link the title to the paper or abstract.

Mohun T et al. [Deciphering the Mechanisms of Developmental Disorders (DMDD): a new programme for phenotyping embryonic lethal mice](http://dmm.biologists.org/content/early/2013/03/18/dmm.011957.abstract). Dis Model Mech 2013;6(2).\
Varela M et al. [Schmallenberg virus pathogenesis, tropism and interaction with the innate immune system of the host](http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003133). PLoS Pathog 2013.

**Books**

Hill C. Practical Guidelines for Cystic Fibrosis Care. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1998.\
Kennedy I, Grubb A. Medical Law. 3rd edn. London: Butterworths; 2000.\
Johnson CD, Taylor I (eds). Recent Advances in Surgery vol. 23. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 2000.

**Chapters in books**

Watkins AD. Neuropharmacology. In AB Kay (ed.). Allergy and Allergic Diseases. Oxford: Blackwell Science; 1997. pp 505–17.

Note the reversal to initials-then-surname for the editor of the book containing the chapter.

**Reports with named authors**

Treat as books:

Smith J. Wellcome Science Review 2020. London: Wellcome Trust; 2020

**Reports without named authors**

Treat the institution that created it as the author.

Department of Health. NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times. London: The Stationery Office; 2009.

**News articles by named authors**

If only in print, give the page number:

Sample I. Human embryonic stem cells created from adult tissue for first time. Guardian 2013 15 May; 3.

If available online, link the article title and give date of access:

Sample I. [Human embryonic stem cells created from adult tissue for first time.](https://wellcometruststyleguide.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/citations-and-references-2/www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/15/human-embryonic-stem-cells-adult-tissue) Guardian 2013 15 May \[accessed 27 May 2013].

**Articles not by named authors**

Treat the publication as the author:

BBC News. [Man who helped unlock DNA dies.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3937475.stm) BBC News 2004 29 July \[accessed 6 April 2013].

### Colons and semicolons

Colons and semicolons can be used in certain types of list, and to separate statements that are part of the same sentence.

Use a colon when the second statement is an explanation, example or illustration of the first. Use a semicolon to link two related statements when one isn’t subordinate to the other. Very often, you could replace a semicolon with a full stop and it would still work, although probably less smoothly.

* We have some concerns: the exhibition would take a lot of time to organise and its overall theme seems unclear.
* We have some concerns; the next project meeting will discuss what can be done.
* Visitor numbers have increased: between 2008 and 2009, there was a rise of 24 per cent.
* Visitor numbers have increased; our new advertising campaign has worked well.

Colons may also introduce a quote:

* He said: “This is likely to benefit everyone.”

Do not use a hyphen or dash after a colon.

### Commas

Far too many uses to go into in depth. This entry makes a few key points about some of those uses.

Do not use the ‘Oxford’ or ‘serial’ comma (before the final ‘and’ in a list) unless it is needed to avoid ambiguity.

For strings of adjectives, do not include commas unless they apply independently to the noun. Compare:

* new, flexible funds (as distinct from the old funds, which perhaps weren’t flexible)
* new flexible funds (as distinct from the old flexible funds).

With names and job titles/descriptions, use a comma when there is only one person with that description (or at least only one who could be under discussion here):

* The famous scientist Albert Einstein lived here (as there are many famous scientists; here ‘Albert Einstein’ is the subject and ‘the famous scientist’ modifies it)
* The father of relativity theory, Albert Einstein, lived here (as there is just the one; here ‘The father of relativity theory’ is the subject and ‘Albert Einstein’ is an informative aside).

Using a comma between two independent clauses is often frowned on (the ‘comma splice’) but in informal contexts it can work where a semicolon might seem stuffy and a full stop would give a staccato feel. A dash is preferable:

* Drop in anytime, no need to book.
* Drop in anytime – no need to book.

### Contact details

**Addresses**

Use full postal addresses, unless space is tight and the audience is very local (a Tube ad for Wellcome Collection might say ‘Euston Road, NW1’). Include ‘UK’, unless the audience is definitely UK-only.

Whenever possible, spell out all the parts of an address, such as ‘Department’ or ‘Road’. Acceptable abbreviations (for use only if space is very tight):

* Rd, St, La, Ave, Terr, Cres, Blvd, Dept, Rm
* short versions of county names, such as Herts, Oxon, N Yorks

Don’t put a comma between town and postcode or between building number and street, but do put one between postcode and UK.

If displaying the address across several lines, don’t put commas at the ends of the lines. Wellcome’s full displayed address is:

Wellcome\
Gibbs Building\
215 Euston Road\
London NW1 2BE, UK\
**T** +44 (0)20 7611 8888\
**E** <contact@wellcome.org>\
**wellcome.org**

**Telephone numbers**

Always include the country code, +44 for the UK, as well as the area code (with its 0 in parentheses), unless the publication is only for a UK audience.

Don’t hyphenate any part of the number, but include a space after the area code and in the main part of the number if a natural break is standard:

* STD code for London is 020 – not 0207 or 0208 – then break numbers four/four: +44 (0)20 7611 8888
* For seven-digit numbers, break three/four: +44 (0)131 123 4567
* Don’t break six-digit numbers: +44 (0)1223 123456

To introduce a number when giving displayed contact details, use ‘**T**’ (you can use ‘**T**’ or ‘**M**’ for mobile depending on context) plus one space; spell out ‘telephone’ when used in body text:

* **T** +44 (0)20 7611 8888
* **T** +44 (0)7373 737373
* Please telephone +44 (0)20 7611 8888 for more details.

Use ‘ext’ to give an extension, spaced with no comma, brackets or full stop:

* **T** +44 (0)20 7654 3210 ext 8888

**Email**

Use ‘**E**’ plus one space when displayed (‘email’ in body text – no hyphen)

Do not underline email addresses in print. On the web, spell out email addresses as well as linking them.

If an email address needs to be broken to fit across lines, try to break after the @; failing that, break after a full stop or underscore. Avoid breaking after a hyphen, as that can look like it might be an automatically generated line break hyphen rather than part of the address.

**URLs**

Online, you can usually just link text. But sometimes, and in print, URLs need to be given. Do not introduce a displayed URL with ‘**W**’ or ‘Web’ etc.

Leave out the bits at the start, like ‘http\://’ and ‘www’.

Do not underline URLs in print. For emphasis, they may be put in bold or coloured (depending on the design style for the publication) – if so, and if part of body text, be careful to put any following punctuation in normal body text style.

* **wellcome.org**
* **wellcomecollection.org/whats-on**
* Details can be found at **wellcome.org**, or by calling…

If a URL needs to be broken to fit across lines, try to break after a slash; failing that, break after a full stop or underscore. If possible, avoid breaking after a hyphen, as that can look like it might be an automatically generated line-break hyphen rather than part of the URL.

### Dashes

We use en dashes (–) rather than the longer em dashes (—).

If formatting constraints make dashes difficult to use, it’s OK to use hyphens instead.

**Breaking up a sentence**

When separating parts of a sentence, often to give an aside, use spaced dashes:

* This work – which has been over a decade in the making – will transform our understanding of diabetes.

**Indicating ranges**

Use an unspaced dash to give a range:

* 09.30–17.00
* 9–12 June 2009
* Norbert Smith (1927–1993)
* 20–30 children
* 4–6 kg

It’s usually best to spell out ‘to’ if the range is defined by words, although days and months can still work this way:

* three to four members
* Open Tuesday–Sunday
* 30 October to 7 December 2022
* October–December 2022

**Joining words of equal weight**

Use an unspaced dash to join words of equal weight, such as noun pairs identifying a connection or other relationship.

* antibody–antigen complex
* British–French partnership
* Wellcome–Royal Society funding scheme

**Tildes/swung dashes**

Can be used to mean ‘approximately’, although usually it will be better to use a word. But when space is tight, such as when labelling a diagram, a swung dash can be used (no space between it and the value):

* \~£600mn, \~1,000 grants

### Dates

**Formatting**

Date then month then year, no punctuation, no ‘st’, ‘nd’, ‘rd’ or ‘th’. If the day is needed (when advertising an event, it’s handy to know), put it at the beginning, again with no punctuation:

* 4 April 2013
* Thursday 4 April 2013

When giving a time along with a date, put the date first as above, then a comma, then the time as below

* Thursday 4 April 2013, 14.00–15.30

If the full version of the date cannot be used, use dd/mm/yy format (04/05/09) unless there’s scope for doubt about which century, in which case use dd/mm/yyyy (04/05/1909).

**Abbreviating days and months**

When needed, use three-letter abbreviations for days and months (no full stops) – but spell them out in full wherever space permits:

* Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
* Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

**Abbreviating years**

Do not use the last two digits of a year on their own – always use the full year. If necessary (in a quote), put an apostrophe first:

* “I started here back in ’95.”

**Year ranges**

For year ranges, you can usually shorten the end date to two digits (if in the same century):

* 1992–97, 1997–2006

Exception: for lifespans, always include both years in full.

**Births and deaths**

For birth dates or death dates, use b and d respectively with spaces:

* b 1743, d 1915

**Non-calendar years**

Use a slash (2008/09) to identify a non-calendar year (such as a financial year or an academic year) that began at some point in 2008 and finished at some point in 2009. Use a dash (2008–09) for any period of time beginning in 2008 and ending in 2009.

**Seasons**

Lower case: spring, summer, autumn, winter; wet season, dry season, mild season.

**Eras**

Generally use CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era) in preference to AD/BC. Only use these if needed for clarity.

**Decades**

Identify decades in full: 1960s, not Sixties or ’60s. If the century needs to be dropped (such as in a quote), spell it out with an initial cap: Sixties.

For decades of a person’s life, use 30s and 40s rather than thirties and forties.

**Centuries**

Use numerals (no superscript for ‘th’ etc). Specify BCE/CE only if needed for clarity.

* 12th century
* 2nd century BCE

### Ellipses

Ellipses are used to indicate skipped text (from a quote, for example).

* “The present state of the NHS… is appalling.”
* “This is a remarkable finding… We can now halve the time taken for treatment.”

They can also be used to tail off and imply that’s there’s more for the reader to find out, but be careful that the context is informal enough for this to work. Wellcome Collection event flyers are often good for it:

* You might just decide being wrong is more fun than being right…

### Footnotes

Footnotes are best used when the information they contain is important but would ruin the flow of the text if added in parentheses, and when the context is reasonably formal (such as a report). Otherwise, try to avoid using them.

In body text, use numbered footnotes:

Ibrahim’s latest study1, on public attitudes to science, differs sharply from earlier work by Kelly2 and Garcia3,4.

In tables or figures, use: \*, †, ‡, §, ¶ in that order. If more are needed (try to avoid having this many), double up: \*\*, †† etc.

### Full stops

Use full stops at the ends of sentences, with some exceptions:

* When the sentence is a heading or subhead.
* When the sentence is a paragraph on its own, for instance as part of an advert.
* If the sentence ends with a URL or email address. Try to avoid this (by putting the URL earlier in the sentence). If the end of the piece is a call to visit a website, it may be reasonable to omit the final full stop; this works better in ads and flyers than in longer texts.

Don’t use full stops after initials:

* USA, J R Hartley

### Hyphens

**Adjectival phrases**

Hyphenate only when used directly before the noun:

* the up-to-date version
* this version is up to date

**Adjective plus noun**

Hyphenate when used as a compound modifier (whether before noun or not) but not if used as a noun phrase:

* a long-term solution, this solution is long-term
* we are looking to the long term

**Adjective plus participle**

Hyphenate:

* a long-running study, the study was long-running

**Adverb ending in ‘-ly’ plus participle or adjective**

Do not hyphenate:

* widely known, poorly written, surprisingly fast

**Adverb not ending in ‘-ly’ plus participle or adjective**

Hyphenate:

* well-developed, often-quoted, half-empty, ever-reliable

**Compass points**

Hyphenate:

* north-west, north-west-facing windows

**Double-barrelled names**

Hyphenate:

* Eliza Manningham-Buller

**Fractions**

Hyphenate:

* three-quarters, one-and-two-thirds

**Noun plus adjective**

Hyphenate:

* a tumour-like growth, the growth is tumour-like

**Noun plus participle**

Hyphenate:

* a hospital-acquired infection, the infection was hospital-acquired

**Number plus noun (with/without unit abbreviations)**

Hyphenate:

* a 16-page leaflet, a two-week holiday, a 19th-century botanist, a 100-metre sprint
* Note ages: six-year-old children, six-year-olds, but six years old

**Ordinal plus superlative**

Hyphenate only when used directly before the noun:

* the second-best option, the third-tallest building
* that option was the second best, this building is the third tallest in the world

**Participle plus noun**

Hyphenate when used as a compound modifier (whether before noun or not) but not if used as a noun phrase:

* cutting-edge research, this research is cutting-edge
* this research is at the cutting edge

**Participle of phrasal verb**

Hyphenate only if used as a compound modifier before the noun:

* a written-off investment
* the investment is written off; we have written off the investment

**Noun phrase**

Variable – see A–Z for individual examples (short cut, test-tube, website, web page, engine-room, guinea-pig, healthcare…).

**Noun plus noun (as compound modifier)**

* a hunter-gatherer society

Hyphenate when needed for avoiding ambiguity. It’s not necessary for all our publications to be consistent, but each one should be internally consistent.

**Prefixes**

No hard and fast rule here, but a few general guidelines. Hyphenate after a prefix if:

* it's needed to clarify the pronunciation, or avoid ambiguity or awkward letter combinations (often a judgement call)
* a construction is new or uncommon
* a construction involves a proper noun or associated adjective

Otherwise usually join up. See A–Z for individual examples.

### Inclusive language

Language can exclude people, especially people in minoritised groups. But contexts differ and language is always changing, so there are few hard and fast rules. Refer to Wellcome’s [inclusive language guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QZHyhqLqpfCahcLV16j-bhK32_GVvWNI/edit) for up-to-date advice.

The best way to be inclusive is to ask people what language they prefer to use about themselves. Only make a point of describing a characteristic if it is relevant. Don’t use one characteristic to imply another – for example, describing what someone is wearing to suggest their religious beliefs.

**Identity-first language**

* Azhari is a disabled artist
* A group of disabled artists

Use in relation to disability. It follows the social model of disability, which acknowledges that people are disabled by society’s ableist structures and attitudes.

**Person-first language**

* A person with epilepsy
* A group of artists with learning disabilities
* People with mental health conditions

Use when referring to more specific conditions or impairments.

We prefer not to use person-first language in relation to disability because it implies that disability is a burden someone carries, whereas the true burden is ableism in society. Use if a disabled person or group prefers to use person-first language to describe themselves, however:

* Marina is an artist with a disability
* A group of artists with disabilities

**Exclusive language**

Avoid phrases intended to mean ‘everyone’ that do not include everyone – ‘ladies and gentlemen’, for example, excludes non-binary people.

Avoid gendered expressions such as ‘the good guys’, ‘man-made’

Avoid ableist metaphors, such as ‘fell on deaf ears’, ‘blind drunk’

Neutral metaphors are usually ok, so it’s fine to ‘go for a walk’ with someone using a wheelchair, for example, or for a blind person to be ‘pleased to see you’.

### Lists

Lists can be given as part of a sentence in the main body text or displayed with bullet points or numbers. Choose based on how well or badly the single-sentence list would work, and whether a set of bullets would break the flow of the prose or add to the visual impact of the list.

**Lists in body text**

If a list can flow on naturally from the preceding part of the sentence, it does not need to be introduced by a colon.

* It is found in blood, urine and lymph.

If not, it should:

* It is found in three bodily fluids: blood, urine and lymph.

It is vital to clearly distinguish list items from one another. Commas are the simplest tool, as above. We don’t use the ‘Oxford comma’ (between the penultimate item and the ‘and’) except when it adds clarity, most obviously when any individual item contains an ‘and’:

* We offer fish and chips, egg and chips, sausage and chips, and sausage and egg.

If any item contains a comma, it becomes hard to separate items clearly using other commas. Using semicolons can help here (this can also apply if any item is reasonably long or grammatically complex). Lists in which items are separated by semicolons should be introduced by colons.

* Our Discovery Advisory Groups are: Molecular Mechanisms; Pathogen Biology and Disease Transmission; Cell Biology, Development and Physiology; Immune System in Health and Disease; Population and Public Health; Brain and Behavioural Sciences; Genetics and Genomics; Medical Humanities; Social Sciences; and Data Sciences, Tools and Technology.
* The aims are: to save money; to simplify the process; to allow applicants a greater range of opportunities to receive feedback; and to promote a sharper focus on the areas we have recently identified.

Individual list items should not contain colons or dashes, to prevent the punctuation from getting too complex. If an item really does need that extra clarification, use parentheses:

* We no longer offer studentships in the areas of science (four-year PhDs), or humanities and social science (one-year Master’s courses).

**Displayed lists**

Use numbered lists if the sequence of items is important or if the items need to be referred to by number.

The molecular genetic approach to inherited deafness often involves four distinct steps:

1. the genetic defect can be localised to a specific chromosome region by linkage analysis
2. subtle alterations of the DNA in the candidate region can be detected, allowing physical localisation of the deafness gene
3. genes can then be cloned from the area of interest
4. genes associated with deafness can be identified through demonstration of alterations in this gene in deaf people

Use bullet points when the sequence of entries is not important.

If the list begins with a heading rather than following on from body text, begin each item with a capital letter and end each with a full stop:

Direct research costs covered by the award

* Research expenses, including research assistance, animals, equipment, fieldwork costs and funding for collaborative activity.
* Travel and subsistence for scientifically justified visits.
* Overseas allowances where appropriate.

If the list follows on from body text and is introduced with a colon, have lower case at the starts and no punctuation at the ends of lines – *unless* individual items contain more than one full sentence, in which case all items should begin with capitals and end with full stops:

The award covers the direct costs of carrying out the research, such as:

* research expenses, including research assistance, animals, equipment, fieldwork costs and funding for collaborative activity
* travel and subsistence for scientifically justified visits
* overseas allowances where appropriate

The award covers the direct costs of carrying out the research, such as:

* Research expenses, including research assistance, animals, equipment, fieldwork costs and funding for collaborative activity.
* Travel and subsistence for scientifically justified visits. Please contact us well in advance of a proposed visit to discuss whether it qualifies.
* Overseas allowances where appropriate.

Use sub-bullet points if that extra level of detail is needed; avoid a third level.

### Numbers

**Words or numerals?**

Normally, spell out numbers of ten and below as words, and use Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3…) for 11 and above. Some exceptions:

**Units**\
Using numerals with units can give an air of precision and formality, so when you want either, use numerals even with numbers up to ten. But if the tone is more casual or it’s an approximation, stick with words for up to ten:

* The test takes less than five minutes to administer
* Running time 5 minutes

Always use numerals with unit abbreviations and percentages.

**Numbered parts and categories**\
For levels, chapters, types, etc, where the number follows, use numerals even with numbers up to ten. Likewise with school Years and Key Stages.

* level 6, chapter 4, type 2 diabetes, pupils in Year 7, Key Stage 3

**Ranges**\
Try to avoid mixing two formats: if the bottom of a range is normally written as a word (up to ten) and the top as numerals (11 and up), it will usually look better to have both in the same format. Which format will depend on context.

* groups of eight to twelve children
* treatment usually takes 10–20 sessions

**Starts of sentences**\
Try to avoid beginning sentences with numerals. Either rephrase so that the sentence begins with something else or spell out the number.

* A total of 23 people attended.
* Thirteen people were infected.

**Roman numerals**\
Use Roman numerals for blood factors and grades of listed building.

**Large numbers**\
When you get into millions and billions, unless you need to be exact, spell out million and billion. You can use decimal points for a bit more precision, if needed:

* 7.2 billion
* 3.27 million

Abbreviate million, billion and trillion on subsequent mentions to mn, bn and tr, with no space between them and the numerals:

* We are providing £15 million, of which £10mn has already been allocated.

Use commas in numbers of 1,000 and greater:

* 4,500
* 32,007
* 4,565,324

The exception is for years, which should be plain four-digit numbers. This helps clarity when years and other numbers might get mixed up:

* In 2011, 2,300 British people died from mesothelioma and 2,000 from other related lung cancers.

**Decimals and fractions**

Use a full stop to indicate a decimal point. Always include the zero before the point in numbers less than one.

* 3.6
* 0.23

Remember that the number of digits after a decimal point is significant (0.12 is not necessarily the same as 0.1200). Numbers may be rounded up or down as appropriate, reducing the number of digits after the point. Never use more digits than are meaningful or known to be accurate.

Fractions should in general be written out and hyphenated.

* two-thirds, one-and-four-fifths

**One in a million…**

When using a proportion, such as ‘one in five’, treat it as a plural.

* At least one in five adults live with pain that limits their daily activities.

**Percentages**

In most contexts, use numerals followed by a space and ‘percent’.

In heavier statistical work and some financial contexts, use numerals with % sign (no space). Likewise for labels or headings, and in retail contexts such as discounts in the Wellcome Collection café.

* a 4 percent increase
* 15% off

Note a potential cause of confusion: if, say, a disease’s prevalence rises from 6 percent to 9 percent of the population, that is an increase of 50 percent (as it has gone up by half) or an increase of 3 percentage points (the arithmetic difference between 6 and 9).

### People’s names and titles

**Names**

When using initials in a name, do not use full stops and insert a space between initials (except in a reference listing, where there won’t be spaces).

Don’t include first names of peers, and include their territorial designations only when relevant or to avoid ambiguity.

* H G Wells
* Sir Henry Wellcome
* Professor Sir David Weatherall
* Baroness Benjamin
* Lord Browne of Belmont and Lord Browne of Ladyton

**Titles**

Titles are not usually required on first mention – we prefer to treat people equally by using their familiar name. Academic and honorary titles are often given in a description of the person:

* Jane Smith is professor of mathematics at the University of Hull
* Jane Smith, professor of genetics at Cambridge University, says: “…”

On subsequent mentions, style can vary. In a news article, it’s probably best to go from ‘Jay Singh, a GP in Wigan’ to ‘Dr Singh’, to keep a more neutral tone. In a feature, ‘Singh’ or ‘Jay’ may be more natural, depending on how formal the piece is.

If the person in question needs to be treated more sensitively – a child or a person who has become noteworthy for something that’s happened to them (like an illness) rather than their work – then ‘Jay’ may be better.

In a list of people where most have a title such as Dr, Professor, Sir, Lady and so on, it is reasonable to also include standard titles like Ms and Mr.

Jr, Sr: use after names, with a comma – Joe Bloggs, Jr

II, III etc: use after names, without a comma – Joe Bloggs III

Do not use ‘the Hon.’, ‘the Rt Hon.’, ‘the Noble’, ‘the Learned’ etc (for MPs, ministers, peers, and so on).

**Postnominal letters**

Postnominal letters (such as OBE, QC, FRS, MP) indicate an honour, qualification, position or membership. Refer to them only if the information adds something, and spell out rather than assuming all audiences know what the abbreviation means

* Jennie Lee was a member of parliament in the UK.

If the text is biographical, use abbreviations and include a footnote to define what each one means. If an individual has more than one set of letters, separate them with a comma. Do not put a comma between surname and first qualification.

Postnominal letters are arranged into groups in this order:

1. Orders and decorations conferred by the Queen (VC, KG, MBE…)
2. Appointments to the Queen (PC, ADC, QHP, QHS…)
3. Queen’s Counsel (QC), Justice of the Peace (JP), Deputy Lieutenant (DL)
4. University degrees
5. (a) Religious orders; (b) Medical qualifications
6. (a) Fellowships of learned societies (FRS); (b) Royal Academicians; (c) Fellowships, Memberships of professional institutions, associations
7. Member of Parliament
8. Membership of one of the Armed Forces

If someone has a lot of letters, consider whether they are really all necessary to list – what relevant information are you adding for your audience?

### Quotation marks

We normally use curly (‘smart’) quotes, but if any formatting constraints make this difficult, it’s OK to use straight quotes (likewise for apostrophes).

Use double quotation marks when directly quoting speech or writing. Use single quotes otherwise, for example:

* some titles (such as events and poems)
* buzz phrases or terms that you want to hold at a bit of a distance without completely endorsing (such as: some people hoped for a ‘magic bullet’ against Covid-19) – but do this sparingly
* quotes within quotes
* drawing attention to a new and unfamiliar term (such as: by applying the ‘Hogden test’, named in honour of its inventor).

**Positioning other punctuation relative to quotation marks**

Put a final full stop inside the quotation marks only if the quote includes a complete sentence that stops at the end of it:

* She found the results of the experiment “a complete surprise”.
* She said, “The results came as a complete surprise.”

Put a final comma inside the quotation marks only if it’s serving as a placeholder for a full stop when an attribution follows the quote:

* She found the results of the experiment “a complete surprise”, and ran the tests again.
* “The results came as a complete surprise,” she said.

### Slashes

The slash has four main uses:

* to separate abbreviated form of dates, months and years (2/3/04)
* to identify a non-calendar year: 2018/19 (but 2018–19 for a period of time beginning in 2018 and ending in 2019 but not an exact year)
* to indicate alternatives (we will refund train/bus fares), although it is better to use ‘or’
* in fractions (4/5) – although we prefer to spell them out (four-fifths)
* in a few particular abbreviations such as n/a and w/c, although we prefer to spell them out (not applicable, week commencing)

Use a dash, not a slash, to indicate an alliance or combination (unless in an official name that uses a slash):

* Avoid: This Wellcome/MRC joint scheme
* Use: This Wellcome–MRC joint scheme

### Formatting text: Title case, italics and so on

**UPPER CASE, Title Case, Sentence case, lower case, CamelCase**

**What Does and Doesn’t Get an Initial Capital in Title Case?**

Some smaller words usually don’t get initial capitals in title case: articles (the, a, an), shorter prepositions (in, of, to, for), shorter conjunctions (and, or, so), forms of ‘be’. But, as a rule of thumb, any of these words with five letters or more should probably be capped (Until, After, Against). Four letters is borderline: make a judgement call based on the context (if you’re capping ‘Without’, it will look odd to lowercase ‘with’ in the same title).

The criterion is insignificance rather than shortness as such. Because of this, if any of these smaller words have a particular significance or emphasis in the context, then it can be reasonable to cap them too (‘but’ and ‘not’ can often carry a lot of weight). Be consistent within a publication; consistency between different publications, at least on this point, is less important.

Don’t use initial capitals after hyphenated prefixes, but do for compounds of whole words:

* Research Career Re-entry Fellowships, How to Pre-empt Negative Publicity
* Early-Career Awards, South-East Asia

When the title of something is followed by a colon and then a subtitle, switch down to sentence case for the subtitle:

* *The Big Questions in Science: The quest to solve the great unknowns*

**Titles and headings**

Wellcome uses sentence case for the titles of most of our publications, such as reports, and for chapter or section headings.

**Names**

Use title case for names, such as those of people, countries, cities, religions. Also adjectives and verbs derived from names (except where the association with the eponymous individual is conventionally ignored, like ‘pasteurise’).

Geographical terms only take title case if they are part of an accepted official region or political division. Lower case should be used for more general geographical descriptions:

* South Africa, southern Africa, north London, South-East Asia, East of England, south of France

Note that while ‘west’ is geographical, ‘the West’ is a cultural concept for places that have a culture rooted in Western European values, often as a result of colonialism. Avoid using ‘the West’ and be more specific about who you mean, such as: Western Europe, North America and Australia. Similarly, avoid using ‘the East’ or ‘the Far East’, which are European concepts denoting exoticism, excluding audiences in those locations.

‘The Global North’ and ‘the Global South’ are newer concepts and are more acceptable – however, it is still better to be specific about which countries are being referred to. The same applies to ‘lower- and middle-income countries’, especially when this phrase is used without context or without reference to ‘higher-income countries’. Avoid the abbreviation ‘LMIC’ wherever possible.

**Institutions/bodies**

Organisations and their subdivisions almost always have title case (assuming they do have an official title). The ‘the’ usually does not count as part of the title and should not be capitalised unless at the start of a sentence. There are a few exceptions, where the capital T is compulsory:

* The Wellcome Trust Limited (the company that is legally the Wellcome Trust’s trustee; ‘the Wellcome Trust’ itself has a lower-case ‘the’, although usually we just say ‘Wellcome’)
* The Hub (at Wellcome Collection)

**Job titles**

Use title case for specific job titles, but not when the phrase is more a description than a title.

* Alex Sato is Head of Population Genetics
* Alex Sato is a population geneticist working with fellow department heads on…

**Grants, schemes, programmes, activities and so on**

Use title case for funding schemes and other named activities when referred to specifically in full. If abbreviating to the core noun on subsequent mentions, use sentence case. When referring to schemes collectively or generically, use sentence case.

* We offer Wellcome Discovery Awards. These awards enable researchers to do bold and creative research…

**Brand names**

Many brands refer to themselves without initial capitals – some just in their logo, others in body text too. Give them title case unless it looks strange to do so. One class of such exceptions is when a lower-case ‘i’ or ‘e’ precedes a capital: eBay, eSure, iPod, iTunes.

**Hashtags**

Capitalise the first letter of each word to aid accessibility:

* \#WellcomeTrust, #PhotoOfTheDay

**All capitals**

Sometimes we use all caps for visual effect, but this is normally a matter for the Creative team in Corporate Affairs.

**Italics**

**Foreign words and phrases**

Words foreign to the language you’re using are often set in italics, but if their use has become sufficiently common that they may be thought of as assimilated, they are usually set in roman.

Some of the likelier non-English words and phrases are listed in the A–Z.

Try not to drop in too many words or phrases from languages other than the one you are using, especially Latin. They risk coming across as obscure or pretentious. If there’s a natural-sounding phrase in the language you’re using that does the job, prefer that.

**Emphasis**

Italics can be used (*sparingly*) to emphasise part of a sentence. But it’s preferable to avoid this if possible. Does this point need the emphasis? Can the sentence be rephrased to make clear where the emphasis lies?

* It was what the research *didn’t* find that was most interesting.

Online, if you need emphasis, use bold and not italics.

**Image credits**

In print publications, we usually put image credits (although not the captions describing the images) in italics.

* Red blood cells. *Annie Cavanagh/Wellcome Images*

Online, use roman.

**Bold**

Apart from use in headings and sub-headings, bold can be used in body text to highlight key words or phrases, but this effect works better in more practical, information-giving contexts than in general narrative. It goes particularly well with bullet-points:

The award covers the direct costs of carrying out the research, such as:

* **research expenses** – this may include research assistance, equipment and fieldwork costs
* **travel and subsistence** for scientifically justified visits
* **overseas allowances** where appropriate

But in more narrative prose, it can be distracting to have bits of bold littering a paragraph.

When spelling out a URL that isn’t hyperlinked (normally in print), use bold rather than underlining.

**Underlined text**

Avoid.

**Styling titles of publications, activities etc**

The guidance below is for titles when used in body text. If titles are given in a heading or a displayed list so that it’s clear what they are, omit any quotes. Also omit quotes in full academic-style reference listings.

When a title has a subtitle (following a colon), the subtitle takes sentence case.

**Artworks**, **Publications** (albums, artworks, books, exhibitions, essays, films, leaflets, plays, poems, songs): use single quotes, title case

* ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, ‘On the Origin of Species’, ‘Being Human’

**Events** (including conferences/seminars/talks): title case, single quotes – although the quotes can be dropped if the title makes it clear that it’s a meeting, conference, or whatever.

* ‘Gene Therapy’
* Third International Meeting of the Canadian Rheumatoid Society

**Articles** in journals/magazines/newspapers, **Chapters**, **Leaflets**, **Reports** (except Annual Report): single quotes, first initial capitalised

* ‘Chromosome engineering in mice’
* ‘Darwin in the drawing-room’

**Annual Report, Courses**, **Games**, **Grant schemes**, **Journals**, **Newspapers**, **Projects**, **TV/radio programmes and stations**, **Websites** and **Ships**: title case

* Wellcome’s Annual Report and Financial Statements
* BSc in Molecular Biology
* Monopoly
* Wellcome Early-Career Awards
* the British Medical Journal, the Economist
* the Human Genome Project
* Panorama, Channel 4
* the Huffington Post
* SS Titanic

**Scientific terms**

There are many conventions.

Genus names should have initial capitals and italics except where they are being used as common names; the species names that follow take lower case and italics (although if a species name is used adjectivally on its own, it is in roman). In higher-order classification systems (phyla etc), titles are capitalised; when used adjectivally or colloquially they revert to lower case.

* *Xenopus*, *Drosophila melanogaster*, *Homo sapiens*, *C. elegans*, actinomycetes, petunia, Diptera, dipteran, falciparum malaria

Virus species names are generally used on their own (without genus): no italics or title case

* vaccinia virus

Gene names are italicised; protein names are not. Be very careful about which is under discussion, as a gene and the protein it codes for may well have the same name.

Anatomical names or disease names don’t get italics, even if they have a Latin origin. Title case is usually only used when they’re named after someone or somewhere.

### Times

Use the 24-hour clock. The hour/minute separator should be a full stop. Include a 0 at the start for times before 10.00:

* 09.00, 17.30

Avoid am and pm, but if necessary (like in a quote), use lower case, no full stops and no space before:

* 9am, 5.30pm

Note that 12 noon and 12 midnight are neither am nor pm.

When giving a date along with a time, put the date first as above, then a comma, then the time:

* Thursday 4 April 2013, 14.00–15.30

### UK and international audiences

A lot of what Wellcome publishes, including of course everything that goes online, is available to readers outside the UK. As such:

* Avoid phrases like ‘in this country’ to mean ‘in the UK’.
* Don’t assume readers will have knowledge of UK geography, customs, institutions.
* Unless the context makes it obvious, write ‘the UK government’ rather than ‘the government’ etc.
* Be careful with seasons: spring in the northern hemisphere is autumn in the southern hemisphere; in tropical regions, there are often two or three seasons – the wet season, the dry season, and sometimes a mild season.

‘Foreign’ sounds derogatory – avoid wherever possible.

Avoid describing locations as ‘remote’ – nowhere is remote to the people who live there.

Prefer ‘international(ly)’ to ‘overseas’ or ‘abroad’ where reasonable.

If in doubt, assume an international readership.

But we still use British English spellings, with a few exceptions:

* Sulfur, fetus and fetal are regarded as more correct in UK scientific circles.
* Direct quotes from a publication, publication titles, addresses, institution names, and so on, retain the original spelling.

**-ise/-ize endings**\
-ize endings are more common in the USA than in the UK (and -ise less so), but this isn’t a strict national divide as such.

We use -ise (and -isation etc), with exceptions as above for quotes and names. Likewise use -yse, not -yze endings.

Note that the World Health Organization has a z.

### Units

**With numbers**

Our standard guidance on numbers is to spell out in words up to ten and then use numerals for 11 and up. When using units, this can vary.

Using numerals with units can give an air of technical precision and formality, so when you want either, use numerals even with numbers up to ten. But if the tone is more casual or it’s an approximation, stick with words for up to ten.

* The test takes less than five minutes to administer
* Running time 5 minutes

**Unit abbreviations**

Some unit abbreviations can further convey formality and precision. Use them if appropriate. When using unit abbreviations, always use numerals with a space (exceptions: no space for sums of money, temperatures and angles):

* 4 kg, 5 mm, 25°C, 180°, £5,000, 99p

If an abbreviation is well-known (such as mm, cm, km, mg, g, kg), it’s safe to use it without definition. Consider the likely audience.

Try to avoid abbreviating hours, minutes and seconds, but where needed: in a scientific context, use h, min and s; for a general readership, use hrs, mins and secs.

Units that are named after people are normally written in full in lower case but have upper-case abbreviations:

* joules, J; watts, W

**Metric and imperial**

Avoid imperial units (such as feet, inches, pints, ounces, pounds, acres) unless in quotations.

Some imperial units can be used when talking informally, vaguely or metaphorically (‘a few miles from Godalming’, ‘tons of work’), when the audience is UK-based (where giving a person’s height or weight is more conventionally done in imperial), or when the context makes imperial the obvious choice (‘a pint of milk’).

Otherwise use metric or other SI units, but be careful with the level of accuracy if converting.

**Currency**

Use pound sign and numerals in most contexts:

* £5,000, £19.99

If it’s a whole number of pounds, there’s no need to add ‘.00’ unless for consistency with the rest of a set of values that do have pence.

Usually use p for pence (no space before) in values under £1:

* 99p

Never use the pound sign and p together (£2.50p).

Follow this style for other currencies, using accepted symbols or abbreviations:

* $5,000, ¥5,000, €5,000, SFr5,000

Spell out less-well-known currencies if necessary for clarity (will depend on the audience):

* 3 million pesos

Distinguish dollars from different countries with prefixes if needed for clarity:

* US$, Can$, Aus$, HKG$

Use GBP for material particularly aimed at audiences in and around Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, South Sudan and Syria, as these countries also have pounds as currency:

* GBP4.5 million

If a sum is in another currency, it will often be appropriate to add an approximate conversion to pounds. Use an online currency converter and don’t give lots of decimal places:

* It is supported by $2.5 million (£1.6mn) from the Gates Foundation.

For an international audience, it may be more appropriate to give a conversion into US dollars, even if the initial sum is UK pounds :

* The UK government committed £1 billion ($1.3bn) to the WHO’s vaccination fund.

### Wellcome Collection

Wellcome’s public venue at 183 Euston Road, London.

Not ‘the Wellcome Collection’ (except in a phrase like ‘the Wellcome Collection events programme’). Don’t shorten it to ‘Collection’.

Occupies the Wellcome Building, although we rarely call it that. Levels (not floors):

* levels –2, –1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (lower-case l)

Permanent exhibitions:

* ‘Medicine Man’
* ‘Being Human’

Also contains:

* Gallery 1, Gallery 2
* Wellcome Café, Wellcome Kitchen
* Wellcome Shop \[not at the moment]
* the Information Point (reception on level 0)
* the Forum, the Studio
* The Hub (note cap T)
* Event Spaces
  * Henry Wellcome Auditorium
  * Dale Room
  * Franks Room
  * Steel Room
  * Burroughs Room
  * Williams Lounge
* the Reading Room
* the Library
  * Copy Services
  * Reading Room
  * Viewing Room
  * E-Learning Room
  * Rare Materials Room

The library’s named collections are:

* Archives and Manuscripts
* History of Medicine Collection
* Medicine and Society Collection
* Medical Collection
* Art Collection
* Asian Collection
* Moving Image and Sound Collection
* Wellcome Images
* Biomedical Images \[available as part of Wellcome Images]

**Exhibition/gallery label formatting**

Every show has its own identity, so consistency between different exhibitions is less important than consistency within one.

When preparing wall labels, it’s a good idea to establish what order the various lines of information should go in. A starting-point might be this:

Title/description

Details of larger work that this is part of

Creator, date

Details of this edition/translation/reproduction

Materials

Duration \[in the format X mins Y secs]

Credit or Wellcome Collection object code

Body text

Common variations from this might be to lead with the creator name or to put the credit line after the body text.

Bear in mind that most individual objects won’t have all of these pieces of information.

**Wellcome Collection boilerplate**

For use on Wellcome Collection materials. Use either version as desired:

Wellcome Collection is a free museum exploring health and human experience. Our vision is to challenge how we all think and feel about health by connecting science, medicine, life and art. We offer changing exhibitions, museum and library collections, online stories and public events, in addition to a café. Wellcome Collection publishes books on what it means to be human and collaborates widely to reach broad and diverse audiences locally and globally. 

Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that supports science to solve urgent health challenges. Wellcome supports discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and has taken on the challenges of mental health, infectious disease, and climate and health.

Depending on space and relevance, you can shorten this to just the first paragraph, just the first two sentences, or just the first sentence.

Wellcome Collection is a free museum exploring health and human experience.

**Event Spaces at Wellcome Collection legal text**

For use on relevant publications:

Event Spaces at Wellcome Collection is operated through Wellcome Trust Trading Limited, a non-charitable trading company registered in England and Wales (no. 3227027), controlled by the Wellcome Trust (a charity registered in England and Wales, no. 210183). The registered offices of both are at 215 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK.

### Gibbs Building

Wellcome headquarters, located at 215 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE.

It contains (among other things):

* ‘Bleigiessen’\
  big sculpture by Thomas Heatherwick Studio (German for ‘lead-pouring’; roughly pronounced as ‘bly-geese-en’)
* Cornerstone Café\
  on ground floor
* Rooftops Restaurant\
  staff restaurant on fifth floor
* Cloud 9\
  staff bar on ninth floor
* main meeting rooms on ground floor: Jenner 1, Jenner 2, Hodgkin 1, Hodgkin 2, Mendel 1, Mendel 2 – not ‘the Hodgkin Room’ etc.
* meeting rooms on the seventh floor: Lacks 1, Lacks 2, Franklin, Darwin

### Major Wellcome activities and centres

Wellcome runs and supports many major programmes of activity and research centres. To check the name of one, try searching the Wellcome website. These pages may be useful:

* [Our work](https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work) – big list of activities and projects
* [Research centres and institutes](https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work/research-centres-and-institutes)
* [International programmes and activities](https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work/programmes-and-initiatives-africa-and-asia)
* [Grant funding](https://wellcome.org/grant-funding)
* [Vision and strategy](https://wellcome.org/who-we-are/strategy)

### A to Z of style points

**A**

**a or an?** a if the next word starts with a consonant sound, an if it has a vowel sound: an hour, an honour, a hero, a historic, an egg, a European, an MP

**A4** paper size

**A\&E** accident and emergency; spell out and define (unless UK-only audience)

**A level** (n.), **A-level** (adj.)

**α-helix** use alpha symbol

**above board** two words

**accessible toilet**

**Achilles heel**, **Achilles tendon** cap A, no apostrophe

**acknowledgements** with an e between the g and the m

**acquired immune deficiency syndrome** AIDS (not immunodeficiency)

**Act** piece of law once it has been passed by Parliament; capital A

**AD** (anno domini; Latin for ‘in the year of the lord’) Avoid; use CE

**adaptation** not adaption

**ad hoc** (Latin for ‘to this’) as required. Avoid

***ad nauseam*** (Latin for ‘to sickness’) too much. Avoid

**ADHD** attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (no punctuation)

**adrenaline** with an e. Adrenalin (cap A) is a trademarked brand of adrenaline

**adviser** not advisor

**aficionado**

**African Caribbean** use instead of ‘Afro-Caribbean’

**ageing** not aging

***aide-memoire*** plural *aides-memoire*

**AIDS** acquired immune deficiency syndrome (not immunodeficiency)

**air conditioning** (n.) **air-conditioned** (adj.)

**all right** all correct

**All Souls College,** **Oxford** no apostrophe

**alright** OK – more for informal use

**ALSPAC** Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (aka Children of the 90s)

**Alzheimer’s disease** apostrophe; lower-case d

**am** lower case, joined up to number (3.30am) – use this only in quotes as house style is 24-hour clock (03.30)

**amid** not amidst

**amino acid** two words

**among** not amongst

**analyse** with an s

**anatomical names** not italic

**annex** (v.), **annexe** (n.)

**antenatal**

**anti-ableism**

**anticancer**

**antidiabetic**

**anti-inflammatory**

**antimalarial**

**antimicrobial**

**antioxidant**

**anti-racism**

**antiretroviral**

**any more**

**armchair**

**artefacts** not artifacts

**artwork**

**Asperger’s syndrome**

**aspirin**

**atherosclerosis**

**attention deficit hyperactivity disorder** (ADHD); no punctuation

**audiovisual**

**autism spectrum disorder** not autistic spectrum disorder

**autoimmune**

**autumn**

**avant-garde** new, experimental

**avian flu** preferable to avian influenza or bird flu (latter acceptable for headings if space tight)

**Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)** aka Children of the 90s

**B**

**B cell** (n.), **B-cell** (adj.)

**BA** no full points, no spaces; undergraduate degree (Bachelor’s) in the arts

**Bacille Calmette–Guérin** BCG; only use the full name when discussing its history

**backfiles** one word

**BAME** Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. Refers to a wide category of ethnicities that are not White, with a wide range of experiences; be more specific whenever possible

**bank holiday** lower case

**base pair, base pairing**

**baseline**

**BC** (before Christ) avoid, use BCE

**BCE** (before Common Era)

**beamline**

**beam time**

**bednet**

**Beijing** use in preference to Peking

**Belarus**

**Bell’s palsy**

**benchmark**

**benefited** one t; derivatives similar

**biannual** twice a year; biennial is every two years. But these are so often confused that it’s almost always better to use alternatives such as ‘twice a year’ and ‘every other year’

**biased** one s; derivatives similar

**bile duct**

**Bill** legislation while still being considered by Parliament

**Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation** note ampersand; can shorten to Gates Foundation

**billion** one thousand million: 1,000,000,000; spell out on first mention then abbreviate to ‘bn’, except when referring to numbers of people

**biomechanics**

**biomedical**

**bird flu** prefer ‘avian flu’, but this can be acceptable in headings

**birth control** (n. and adj.)

**birth rate**

**birth weight**

**Black** (adj.) we prefer to capitalise ethnicities, but do not insist as long as use is consistent within a document

**black-and-white** (adj.) hyphens when prenominal (‘a black-and-white photo’), otherwise not (‘in black and white’)

**blasé** careless

**blind** use ‘blind people’ or ‘blind and partially-sighted people’. Do not use ‘the blind’

**blood–brain barrier en dash**

**blood cell**

**blood count**

**blood group**

**bloodstream**

**blueprint**

**boardroom**

**Bombay** avoid. Use Mumbai

**bookshop**

**born digital**

**Braille**

**brain-dead**

**brain death**

**brainstem**

**branchpoint**

**breakpoint**

**breastfed, breastfeeding**

**Brown** (adj.) avoid using to refer to people of colour, except where an author or contributor has confirmed they prefer to describe themselves this way

**BSc** undergraduate degree (Bachelor’s) in science

**built-in**

**bull’s-eye**

**Burma**, **Burmese** avoid. Use Myanmar (n. and adj.)

**Burroughs Wellcome & Co** no comma, note ampersand

**by-election**

**bygone**

**bylaw** not byelaw

**bypass**

**by-product**

**bystander**

**C**

***c.*** short form of circa (Latin for ‘around’); no space between it and numerals (‘c.1900’). Use only with dates and consider an alternative such as ‘around’

**Ca2+ calcium ion**

**Caesarean section**

**café**

**Calcutta** avoid. Use Kolkata

**Cancer Genome Project**

**cannot**

**canvas** material; **canvass** survey opinion

**car park**

**cardiovascular**

**care giver**

***carte blanche*** (French for ‘blank paper’) free rein, avoid in English

**case–control** en dash

**casenotes**

**casework**

**cast iron** (n.), **cast-iron** (adj.)

**catalyse**

**CBT** cognitive behavioural therapy

**CE** Common Era

**cell line**

**Celsius, °C** close up °C to number; not centigrade

**central Europe, central European**

**centre of excellence** lower-case unless part of a specific title

**cf** (abbreviation of ‘confer’, Latin for ‘compare’) use only in parentheses or footnotes, not in body text

**Chagas’ disease**

**change-over** (n.), **change over** (v.)

**Charity Commission**

**chatroom**

**chemoattractant**

***chez*** (French for ‘at the home of’) avoid in English

**childbirth**

**chord** musical; **cord** vocal, spinal etc

**Christian name** avoid. Use ‘given name’

***circa*** (Latin for ‘around’) avoid; use ‘around’ or ‘approximately’

**cis** (adj.) gender identity matches that which was assigned at birth: cis people, cisgender, someone who is cis.

**cissexism** discrimination against people who are trans

**City, the** the part of central London housing major financial institutions

**CJD** Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

**cliché**

**coapplicant**

**coauthor**

**coenzyme**

**coexist**

**cofactor**

**cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)** not ‘behaviour’, no hyphen

**co-infect**

**collective nouns** normally act in the singular. If the verb is more applicable to the component parts, then the plural can be used. Sports teams almost always take the plural form of the verb in British English.

**colleges and commas** where a location is part of the institution’s name, usually there is no comma (King’s College London) – but check its website. Where the place name is added to locate, use a comma (King’s College, Cambridge)

**Colombia** the country

**colour-blind** (adj.), **colour blindness** (n.)

**Columbia, District of** DC – where Washington is

**Columbia University** in New York (not CUNY, which is City University of New York)

**combating, combated**

**Commons** can be used as shorthand for House of Commons on second mention, if audience is predominantly in UK

**common sense** (n.) **commonsense** (adj.)

**communism, communist** lower-case c unless referring to a specific party

**conjoined twins** not Siamese twins

**consensus**

**continent, the** lower-case c; do not use to refer to mainland Europe

**cooperate**

**co-opt**

**coordinate**

**cord** vocal, spinal etc; **chord** musical

**corgi** breed of dog

**cost–benefit analysis**

**Côte d’Ivoire** use in preference to Ivory Coast

**countryside**

**court martial** plural is courts martial

**Covid-19** cap C; technically the disease rather than the virus (SARS-CoV-2), but in many contexts that distinction may not matter

**co-workers**

**Coxsackievirus**

**crepe**

**Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease** CJD

**Crohn’s disease**

**cross-hatch**

**cross-hybridisation**

**crosslink**

**cross-section**

**cross-talk**

**crossword**

**CT** computerised tomography

**CV, curriculum vitae** (Latin for ‘life course’, plural ‘curricula vitae’) résumé; use CV without definition (CVs plural)

**Czar** prefer Tsar

**D**

**d** died; put space before date

**Dark Ages** prefer to use more specific time such as Middle Ages, Early Middle Ages, 5th to 10th century

**Darwinian**

**data** treat as singular

**database**

**dataset**

**dead end** (n.); **dead-end** (adj.)

**decision maker**

***déjà vu*** (French for ‘already seen’) consider context before using in English

**Democratic People’s Republic of Korea** use North Korea instead

**The Democratic Republic of the Congo** note two ‘the’s; can shorten to DRC if audience is likely to know the abbreviation

**dependent** (adj.), **dependant** (n.)

**desiccated** one s, two c’s

**developed countries**, **developing countries** avoid. Refer to specific countries, or use an alternatives such as Global North and Global South

**diabetes, types 1 and 2** not I and II

**die-hard**

**dietician** not dietitian

**diphtheria**

**disabled** See the Inclusive Language section

**disabled toilet** avoid. Use ‘accessible toilet’ instead

**disorient** prefer to disorientate (likewise derivatives)

**dispatch** prefer to despatch

**distil** one l (but distilled, distillery, distillation)

**DNA** deoxyribonucleic acid; use undefined in most cases

**DNase** an enzyme that cuts DNA

**dorsoventral**

**dosage** general quantity of medicine prescribed, (500 mg a day)

**dose** particular portion of medicine

**dotcom** not dot.com or dot-com

**double spaces** only use single spaces between sentences

**Down’s syndrome**

**DPhil**

**Dr** Doctor, no full point, always abbreviate as title

**Duchenne muscular dystrophy** (DMD)

**E**

**e-** mostly takes a hyphen (**e-newsletter**, **e-commerce**, **e-health**), but write **email** and **ebook** closed up. Use the prefix only when helpful; a bulletin sent by email is obviously an e-bulletin

**early-career researcher** (‘early-career’ is a hyphenated compound modifier); but **early career stage** (here ‘career stage’ is the compound and ‘early’ modifies this on its own)

**East Africa**

**eastern Europe**

**East Midlands, the**

**East of England, the**

**East Timor** use in preference to Timor-Leste

**earrings**

**EBI** European Bioinformatics Institute

**Ebola** cap E

**e-bulletin**

**e-commerce**

***E coli*****&#x20;O157** letter O not zero

**ed** abbreviation for editor/edited; **eds** plural

**edition** abbreviate to edn

**editor(s)** abbreviate to ed/eds

**e-flyer**

**eg** avoid; use ‘for example’, ‘such as’, ‘like’ or similar

**e-health**

**elF-2**, elongation factors

**Eire** use Republic of Ireland instead

**email**

**EMBL** European Molecular Biology Laboratory

**Empire/empire** capital E for a particular empire, otherwise lower-case

**encyclopedia** not encyclopaedia

**e-newsletter** just ‘newsletter’ as these have become more common

**engine-room**

***en masse*** (French) in a group, avoid in English

**enquiry** more commonly used to mean question, while inquiry more often means investigation

**enrol** not enroll (but enrolled, enrolling)

***en route*** (French for **‘**&#x6F;n the way’), avoid in English

**en suite** (French for ‘forming a set’), use in English only for bathrooms

**enthral** single l. But double for derivatives: **enthralled**, and so on

**Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)**

***et al.*** (abbreviation of ‘et alia’, Latin for ‘and others’) use only when referring to a multi-authored work (Jones et al., 2007). In a full citation it will be roman along with everything else.

**etc (abbreviation of ‘et cetera’, Latin for ‘and so forth’) avoid; use ‘and so on’ or similar**

**ethnic minority** avoid. Use ‘minority ethnic’

**eukaryote, eukaryotic**

**every day** (n. and adv.) on each day (‘it happens every day’)

**everyday** (adj.) commonplace (‘an everyday mistake’)

**exclamation marks** avoid!

**exposé** an exposé will expose the truth

**extracellular**

**eyesight**

**eyewitness**

**F**

**f. and ff.** folio (two for plural); put one space, then the numerals

**facade** no cedilla under the c

**factor V, IX etc** for blood factors

**fall-out** (n. and adj.), **fall out** (v.)

**FAQ** frequently asked questions. Can use in the singular: ‘this FAQ’ = ‘this list of frequently asked questions’

**Far East** avoid. Refer to specific countries or regions such as East Asia, South-East Asia

**far-fetched**

**farmyard**

**fEC** full economic costs; note lower-case f

**feedback** (n. and adj.), **feed back** (v.)

**fetal and fetus** no o

**fibre optics**

**film-maker**

**fine-tuning**

**first,** **second, third** spell out up to tenth, then 11th, 12th, etc, but usually spell out much larger ones again: hundredth, millionth

**first-aid** (adj.), **first aid** (n.)

**first-class** (adj.)

**first-line treatment/therapy**

**first name** better than Christian name but ‘given name’ is best

**First World War** prefer to use World War I

**flashback**

**flashpoint**

**focus, focused, focusing**

**-fold** hyphenate with numbers (three-fold, 6.5-fold, 16-fold). But be very careful of ambiguity, as people use it differently: is a three-fold increase a rise to triple the original (from 10 to 30) or a rise of triple the original (from 10 to 40, up by 30)?

**follow-up** (adj. and n.), **follow up** (v.)

**foodstuff**

**foot and mouth disease** (FMD)

**footstool**

**fora** (plural of ‘forum’, Latin for ‘outside’) use ‘forums’, except in certain legal contexts or if communicating in Latin

**forebrain**

**foreign** avoid – Wellcome is global, so where exactly is ‘foreign’?

**foresight**

**forever** continually

**for ever** for all time

**forums**

**Francis Crick Institute** normally called ‘the Crick’ on subsequent mentions

**frameshift**

**FRCPath** post-nominal abbreviation of Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists

**freshwater** (adj.), **fresh water** (n.)

**fruit fly** (n.), **fruit-fly** (adj.) *Drosophila*

**fulfil, fulfilling, fulfilled, fulfilment** watch the ‘l’s

**full economic costs (fEC)** lower-case f in abbreviation

**full-length** (adj.), **full length** (noun phrase)

**G**

**gallbladder** one word

**Gambia, the**

**gap junction**

**gases**

**gassed**

**gastrointestinal**

**Gates Foundation** commonly used shorthand for the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation

**Gb** gigabase

**GB** gigabyte

**GCSE** no need to spell out in words but for international audiences, give a description such as “a secondary education qualification in England, Wales and Northern Ireland”

**genetic modification, genetically modified** GM can freely be used as shorthand for either on second mention unless there’s a risk of confusion

**genre**

**germ line** (n.); **germline** (adj.)

**given name** not Christian name

**GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)**

**Glaxo Wellcome** now part of GlaxoSmithKline, no relationship to the Wellcome Trust any more

**Global North** and **Global South** use in preference to ‘first world’, ‘third world’, ‘developed/developing countries’, ‘high-, middle- and low-income countries’. Specify countries where possible in context.

**glycoproteins**

**GMO** genetically modified organism (GMOs plural)

**Goldsmiths, University of London** formerly Goldsmiths College

**Golgi body**

**goodwill**

**government** (n. and adj.)

**graft-versus-host disease** GVHD

**Gram-negative and Gram-positive**

**grantholder**

**Green Paper** UK term for a preliminary report to provoke discussion, capital G and P

**ground-breaking**

**guidebook**

**Guillain–Barré syndrome**

**guinea-pig**

**H**

**half-life**

**halfway**

**halftone**

**hallmark**

**handout** (n.), **hand out** (v.)

**HapMap** as in the International HapMap Project (from haplotype mapping)

**hard-wire** (and derivatives)

**hay fever**

**head-dress**

**headquarters**

**headteacher** but National Association of Head Teachers; avoid headmaster/-mistress

**healthcare**

**heat shock** (n. and adj.)

**HeLa** cell line, named for Henrietta Lacks, from whom the original cells were taken and used without consent

**herpesvirus** family of viruses

**herpes zoster** (virus)

**heterogeneous** diverse

**heterogenous** derived from different sources

**HFEA** Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

**high-income countries** preferred to developed countries or developed world or First World - preference is to identify specific countries if possible

**high-level** (adj.), **high level** (noun phrase)

**hindbrain**

**hip-joint**

**historic**, use ‘a’ before it (not ‘an’)

**HIV** human immunodeficiency virus; lower-case initials when spelt out; do not say ‘HIV virus’

**HIV positive** hyphenate in ‘HIV-positive blood’ but not in ‘the blood is HIV positive’. Likewise HIV negative

**Hlabisa District** in South Africa

**homeopath, homeostasis etc** not homoeo…

**home page**

**hominid**

**homogeneous** uniform

**homogenous** similar because of common origin

**hotspots**

**housekeeping**

**HTLV-I** human T-lymphotropic virus type I; Roman numeral

**Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)**

**Human Genome Project (HGP)**

**Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa)** – any following noun (like ‘initiative’ or ‘consortium’) in lower case

**human immunodeficiency virus** HIV

**human papillomavirus** HPV

**Huntington’s disease** not Huntingdon’s

**hydrolyse**

**hyperreactivity**

**I**

**ie** (abbreviation of ‘id est’, Latin for ‘that is’) avoid; use ‘that is’ or ‘namely’

**IFN, interferon** Greek letters as (IFN-α, β, γ) symbols

**II, III** used in people’s names; roman, after surname, no hyphen

**ill health**

**IMAX** image maximum, apparently = extra-wide-screen, all capitals

**inbuilt**

**infrared**

**inquiry** more commonly used to mean investigation, while enquiry more often means question

***in silico*** (Latin) in a computer model; avoid outside formal research papers

***in situ*****&#x20;hybridisation**

**install, instalment**

**interdisciplinary**

**interleukin-1 (IL-1)**

**interlinear**

**International HapMap Project**

**internet** lower-case i

**interwar**

**intersex** (adj.) physical characteristics are not exclusively female or male; never a synonym for trans

**intraspecific**

**intravenous** spell out

***in utero*** (Latin) in the womb; avoid outside formal research papers

***in vitro*** (Latin) in glass = in a laboratory; avoid outside formal research papers

***in vivo*** (Latin) in a living thing; avoid outside formal research papers

**Ireland** use Republic of Ireland instead

**iv** intravenous, spell out unless you have a very good reason

**Ivory Coast** use Côte d’Ivoire

**J**

**Johns Hopkins University** not John Hopkins

**Jr** Junior: no full stop, capital J, not Jnr, comma before (Harry Connick, Jr)

**judgement** not judgment (except in some legal contexts)

**K**

**k** abbreviation for kilo (not to be used for ‘thousand’)

**K** abbreviation for Kelvin (not to be used as shorter version of KB)

**Kaposi’s sarcoma**

**kb** kilobase

**KB** kilobyte (NB 1024 bytes not 1000)

**keynote**

**Key Stage 4** same level as GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

**King’s College, Cambridge**

**King’s College London** (sometimes shortened to KCL but more usually King’s)

**King’s Cross**

**knockout**

**know-how**

**Kolkata** use in preference to Calcutta

**Korea** avoid using this to mean South Korea

**KwaZulu-Natal**

**L**

**labelled**

***laissez-faire*** (French for ‘allow to do’) not *laisser-faire*. Avoid in English

**Laos** not Lao

**lawsuit**

**lay-by**

**learned** not learnt

**Lebanon** no ‘the’

**legionnaires’ disease**

***Leishmania*** (the organism), **leishmaniasis** (the disease)

**letterhead**

**leukaemia**

**licence** (n.); **license** (v.)

**life cycle**

**life form**

**life history**

**lifelike**

**lifelong**

**lifespan**

**lifestyle**

**lifetime**

**limb bud**

**listed buildings** England and Wales: grades I (most important), II\* and II – ‘a grade II listed building’ (lower-case g, Roman numerals, no hyphen). Scotland and Northern Ireland: grades A, B and C

**loathe** detest; **loth** unwilling (not loath)

**local authority** and **local education authority** lower case

**log in** (v.), **login** (adj. and n.)

**long-standing**

**long-term** (adj.), **long term** (noun phrase) similarly for longer, short and shorter

**lookout** (n.), **look out** (v.)

**loop of Henle**

**Lords** acceptable shorthand for House of Lords on subsequent mentions for UK audiences

**loudspeaker**

**lower-case** (adj.), **lower case** (noun phrase)

**low-income countries** prefer over developing countries, developing world or Third World. Often we talk about ‘lower- and middle-income countries’ together; better is to name specific countries where possible in context

**M**

**MA** Master’s degree in the arts

**mAb** monoclonal antibody

**Magdalen College, Oxford**

**Magdalene College, Cambridge**

**make up** (v.), **make-up** (n. and adj.)

**Marfan syndrome**

**Master’s** short for Master’s degree. Note the cap M and apostrophe

**master switch**

**materia medica** medical material, an ancient phrase

**Mb** megabase

**MB** megabyte

**M-CSF** macrophage colony-stimulating factor

**medieval** not mediaeval

**mendelian**

**MHC** major histocompatibility complex; classes I and II not 1 and 2

**microorganism**

**microsatellite**

**midblastula**

**midbrain**

**midday**

**Middle Ages**

**Middle East**

**middle-income countries** we rarely use this phrase except as part of ‘low- and middle-income countries’ together – refer to specific countries where possible

**Midwest, the** region of the USA

**milestone**

**million** 1 million, use numeral, abbreviate to ‘mn’ on subsequent use, except always spell out when referring to numbers of people in body copy

**minisatellites**

**minority ethnic** or ‘minoritised ethnic’

**mismatch**

**misspelling**

**mn** abbreviation for million. Avoid ‘m’, which confuses screen readers

**Montréal**

**moon**

**mosquitoes** not mosquitos

**motor neurone disease (MND)** not neuron; but use neuron everywhere else

**motorway**

**MRC** Medical Research Council, now part of UKRI

**MRSA** methicillin-resistant *Staphylococcus aureus*

**MRSs** microsatellite repeat sequences

**MSc** Master’s degree in science

**mucus** (n.); **mucous** (adj.)

**multicellular**

**multicopy**

**multidimensional**

**multidrug-resistant**

**multifunctional**

**multimedia**

**multinational**

**multiracial**

**multisubunit**

**Mumbai** use instead of Bombay

**Myanmar** (noun and adj.) use in preference to Burma and Burmese

**myasthenia gravis**

**N**

***N*****-acetylglucosamine**

**naive**

**National Curriculum**

**National Institutes of Health (NIH)** often helpful to specify ‘the US National Institutes…’ Takes the singular (unless talking specifically about the component institutes)

**naso-pharynx** nose and throat

**NB** nota bene (Latin for ‘note well’), avoid; use ‘note’ or ‘note that’ or similar

**née** (French feminine for ‘born’) avoid – to indicate a change of name, use ‘formerly’

**neodarwinian**

**net zero**

**the Netherlands** not Holland

**neuron** but motor neurone disease

**nevertheless**

**Newcastle upon Tyne**

**newcomer**

**NICE** the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (has changed its name a couple of times but kept the acronym)

**NMDA** N-methyl-D-aspartate

**NMR** nuclear magnetic resonance

**Nobel Prize**

**Nobel Prize winner**

**non-binary**

**non-communicable**

**nonetheless**

**non-fiction**

**non-identical**

**non-infectious**

**non-specialist**

**no one** acts as singular (‘no one has objected’)

**North Africa**

**North-East, the** region of England

**northern hemisphere**

**North Korea** use in preference to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

**North-West, the** region of England

**notebook**

**O**

**obsessive–compulsive disorder**

**OCR** (optical character recognition) in some contexts, can be used as a verb, such as ‘the text has been OCRed’

**off-peak**

**offshoot**

**offshore**

**oilfield**

**oil well**

**ongoing**

**online**

**open access**

**orang-utan**

**orient** prefer to orientate (likewise derivatives)

**outcompete**

**outdoor**

**outpatient**

**overestimate**

**overexpression**

**overleaf**

**overnight**

**overoptimistic**

**overreach**

**override**

**overrule**

**P**

**p** page; put a space after (p 17)

**p\&p** standard abbreviation for postage and packing – for use in UK context only

**pa** per annum; avoid. Use ‘each year’ or similar

**page/pages** use p or pp respectively if abbreviated; space before number (p 5, pp 9–14)

**painkiller**

**pairwise**

**palaeontology**

**paperback**

**papier-mâché** material made of paper and glue

**Parkinson’s disease**

**patch-clamp**

**pate** head (archaic)

***pâte*** (French) paste used to make porcelain, avoid in English

**pâté** meat paste

**pay scales**

**PCR** polymerase chain reaction

**peacetime**

**peer review** (n.), **peer-review** (adj. and v.), **peer-reviewed** (adj. and v.)

**Peking** avoid. Use Beijing

**per annum** (Latin for **‘**&#x65;ach year’) avoid. Use ‘each year’ or similar

***per se*** (Latin) intrinsically; avoid

**PET** positron emission tomography

**petri dish**

**PGD** preimplantation genetic diagnosis

**pH** potential of Hydrogen, a scale of acidity and basicity

**PhD**

**phone numbers** no hyphens; include STD code and international code, for example +44 (0)20 7611 8236. Abbreviate to **T** in contact listing only

**phosphorous** (adj.); **phosphorus** (n.)

**picornavirus**

***pièce de résistance*** (French) the most impressive part, avoid in English

**place names** prefer indigenous versions where there is an issue of colonialism (Mumbai, Kolkata) but not otherwise (Cologne, Naples)

**plc** public limited company

**pm** use closed up to number (6.30pm); use only in quotes as we prefer 24-hour clock (18.30)

**policy maker**

**postcard**

**postcode**

**postdoctoral**

**postgraduate**

**post-mortem** (adj.), **post mortem** (n.) after death, reserve for medical and forensic contexts

**postnatal** after birth, use in medical context, avoid where possible

**post office** initial caps only if talking about the corporate entity, not a local office

**postwar**

**pp** pages; space after

**Prader–Willi syndrome**

**practice** (n.); **practise** (v.)

**preconditions**

**predate** hunt; probably best to avoid unless there’s no room for ambiguity

**pre-date** precede

**pre-eminent**

**pre-empt**

**pre-established**

**prehistory**

**pre-impact**

**premeiotic**

**prerequisite**

**the press** singular when meaning coverage (‘the press we received was encouraging’), plural when meaning the print media (‘the press were interested’)

**prewar**

**PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers)**

**prime–boost** vaccination strategy requiring two doses

**Prof** prefer Professor unless space is tight

**pro forma** (Latin) to a standard format, avoid

**program/programme** use program for software only; otherwise use programme

**pro rata** (Latin) proportionally, avoid outside salary and payment contexts

**prostaglandin E2**

**protein kinase C** (A etc)

**protester** not protestor

**proto-oncogene**

**PrPC** normal or ‘cellular’ form of prion protein; capital superscript C

**PrPSc** disease-associated or ‘scrapie’ form of prion protein; superscript Sc

**Psci-com** treat as proper noun

**public, the** usually treat as plural

**publics** use to acknowledge that the public are not homogeneous

**pulse rate**

**Q**

**Q\&A** questions and answers

**Queen, HM The** use ‘Queen Elizabeth II’ on first mention, and ‘the Queen’ on subsequent mentions; be consistent with references to other ruling monarchs

**Queen Mary University of London** no comma

**Queens’ College, Cambridge**

**The Queen’s College, Oxford**

**Queen’s University Belfast**

**queueing** not queuing

**R**

**R\&D** research and development

**radioisotope**

**radiolabelled**

**rainfall**

***raison d’être*** (French) reason for being, avoid in English

**reanalyse**

**reappear**

**rearrange**

**recreation** enjoyment

**re-creation** making again

**re-establish**

**re-evaluate**

**re-examine**

**Regent’s Park**

**regime**

**reimburse**

**reinstate**

**reoccupy**

**reopen**

**repellant** (n.); **repellent** (adj.)

**the Republic of Korea** use South Korea

**resale**

**Research Councils** capital R and C - all UK Research Councils now part of UKRI

**response-mode** (adj.) not responsive

**rhesus-positive (and negative)** hyphenate when prenominal (‘rhesus-positive blood’) but not otherwise (‘the blood is rhesus positive’)

**right angle**

**rivers** lower case: river Thames, Amazon river

**RNase**

**roadside**

**role**

**Romania** not Rumania

**royal** lower case, except in titles like ‘His/Her Royal Highness’ and ‘The Princess Royal’

**runoff**

**S**

***Saccharomyces cerevisiae*** brewer’s yeast

**saint**

**St Andrews, University of**

**St Thomas’ Hospital** not St Thomas’s

**saltwater** (adj.), **salt water** (n.)

**SAMRC** South African Medical Research Council

**sand fly**

**SARS** severe acute respiratory syndrome

**SARS-CoV-2** the coronavirus causing Covid-19

**sceptic** not skeptic

**schizophrenia/schizophrenic** do not use to mean ambivalent or self-contradictory

**schoolboy/schoolgirl/schoolchildren**

**school years** Year 7, Year 12, etc

**science centre** lower case unless a specific named one

**SCN** suprachiasmatic nucleus

**sea level**

**seaside**

**sea urchin**

**seawater** (adj.), **sea water** (n.)

**seaweed**

**second-hand**

**Second World War** prefer World War II

**semiarid**

**semicircle**

**set-up** (n., adj.); **set up** (v.)

**short circuit** (noun phrase) **short-circuit** (v.)

**short cut**

**shortlist** (v. and n.)

**short-term** (adj.), **short term** (n.) similarly for shorter, long, longer

**Siamese twins** avoid. Use ‘conjoined twins’ instead

***sic*** (Latin for ‘thus’) used only in parentheses to indicate an exact quote where the reader “mite (*sic*)” suspect a typo

**side chain**

**side-effect**

**sixth form** (n.); **sixth-form** (adj.)

**sizeable**

**skiing**

**skilful**

**smallpox**

**snakebite**

**Snakebites programme**

**SNPs** single nucleotide polymorphisms; pronounced ‘snips’ so write ‘a SNP’ rather than ‘an SNP’

**socioeconomic**

**south-east**

**South-East Asia**

**the South-East** region of England

**southern Africa** as distinct from South Africa

**southern hemisphere**

**South Korea** use in preference to Korea or the Republic of Korea

**the South-West** region of England

**sp.** species (singular; plural is **spp.**) – spell out where possible

**spaces** use single spaces between sentences

**spaceship**

**spatiotemporal**

**speciality** particular talent or recipe

**specialty** area of medicine specialised in; specialism might be clearer

**spelt** not spelled

**spirochaete** not spirochete

**square root**

**Sr** Senior, no full stop, capital S, not Snr, comma before (Harry Connick, Sr)

**starting-point**

**state** (as in government) lower-case s

**stationary** not moving

**stationery** envelopes and suchlike

**status quo** (Latin) current state

**steady-state** (adj.), **steady state** (noun phrase)

**stem cell**

**stepwise**

**streamline**

**subcellular**

**subdivision**

**subfield**

**sublethal**

**subroutine**

**sub-Saharan Africa** avoid where possible

**subscript**

**subtitle**

**subunit**

**subway**

**Sudan** no the

**sudden infant death syndrome** SIDS

**sulfur** not sulphur; the traditional British spelling is no longer seen as standard in scientific contexts

**sun**

**supervisor** not superviser

**swap** not swop

**swear words** do not use

**T**

**T cell** (n.), **T-cell** (adj.)

**T helper cell (Th cell)** not ‘helper T cell’. Types: Th1 cell, Th2 cell

**take-off** (n.), **take off** (v.)

**takeover** (n. and adj.); **take over** (v.)

**targeted, targeting**

**taxpayer**

**TDR** Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (cosponsored by UNICEF, the UN Development Programme, the World Bank and the WHO; managed by the WHO)

**temperature** use celsius (25°C); close up °C to number; do not use centigrade

**test-tube**

**tête-à-tête** (French) head-to-head, avoid in English

**textbook**

**The Institute for Genomic Research** note capital T.

**think-tank**

**Third World** avoid. Prefer ‘Global South’, or specify countries if possible in context

**three-dimensional** spell out at first, but can shorten to 3D on subsequent uses

**throughput**

**time-course**

**timescale**

**Timor-Leste** use East Timor

**tone-deaf** (adj.), **tone deafness** (n.) avoid metaphorical use

**top up** (v.), **top-up** (adj. and n.)

**totalling, totalled**

***tour de force*** triumph, masterpiece, avoid in English

**Tourette syndrome**

**tranquil**, but **tranquillity** and **tranquilliser**

**trans** (adj.) gender identity does not match that which was assigned at birth. Do not use ‘transgendered’

**transphobia** literally an irrational fear of people who are trans. ‘Cissexism’ is less common but may be better to refer to discrimination and oppression

**trialling, trialled**

**the tropics**

**Trustnet** Wellcome’s intranet

**Tsar** preferred to Czar

**tsetse fly**

**T-shirt**

**turning-point**

**turnover** (n.); **turn over** (v.)

**tweet** lower case

**two-thirds**

**type 1 diabetes** (and **type 2**)

**U**

**UCL** University College London

**UK** United Kingdom; use without definition

**UK Biobank** no ‘the’

**UK Patent Office**

**UKRI** UK Research and Innovation

**Ukraine** no ‘the’

**ultraviolet** (UV)

**uncooperative**

**underway**

**unicellular**

**universe** lower-case

**University College London**

**University of X** or **X University**? ‘University of X’ is much more common in the UK, but check their own website and look at the logo if in any doubt

**upregulation**

**up-to-date** hyphenate when before a noun ‘An up-to-date description’

**up to date** do not hyphenate when a distinct phrase ‘This description is up to date.’

**URL** do not spell out, but preferable to avoid and use ‘address’ if possible

**USA** (n.), **US** (adj.) United States (of America) use without definition

**V**

**value added tax (VAT)** in UK-only contexts the abbreviation is normally fine on its own

**van der Waals** lower-case v and d

**vCJD** variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

**versus** against, preferred abbreviation is vs – if needing to use v. (such as in a quote), use a full stop

**via** (Latin for ‘road’) through; avoid, use ‘through’

**vice versa** (Latin for **‘**&#x74;he other way around’) avoid

**videoconferencing**

**Vietnam** not Viet Nam

**viewpoint**

**W**

**wartime**

**web**

**web page**

**website**

**wellbeing**

**Wellcome Genome Campus**

**The Wellcome Trust Limited** the company that is the trustee of the Wellcome Trust. Note always cap T for The. Very rarely mentioned outside financial reports and legal boilerplate

**the Wellcome Sanger Institute**

**the Wellcome Trust** we almost always just say ‘Wellcome’. Exceptions are in legal text and other very formal contexts, and sometimes if there’s a need to avoid confusion with Henry Wellcome. Never ‘the Wellcome’

**West(ern) vs west(ern)** use ‘west’ when geographical sense is intended (except in proper names that include ‘West’); avoid ‘West’ in the cultural sense because it is Eurocentric – if possible, specify countries or regions instead

**West Africa**

**western Europe**

**the West Midlands** region name

**wet nurse** (n.); **wet-nurse** (v.)

**while** not whilst

**whistle-blower**

**White** (adj.) we prefer to capitalise ethnicities, but do not insist as long as use is consistent within a document

**White Paper** UK term for a government report containing information or proposals, capital W and P

**WHO** World Health Organization – note z

**whole-mount** (adj.)

**widescreen**

**widespread**

**wifi**

**wild type** (n.), **wild-type** (adj.)

**Wilms’ tumour**

**workshop**

**workstation**

**World Health Organization** z not s

**World War I, II**

**worldwide** but world wide web

**X**

**X chromosome** (n.), **X-chromosome** (adj.)

**Xerox** brand name only – use ‘copy’

**X-ray**

**Y**

**Y chromosome** (n.), **Y-chromosome** (adj.)

**Year 7, Year 11** and so on in school

**year-end**

**Z**

**zebrafish**

**Zika** capital Z