A to Z
A
article
Use ‘article’ to refer to the final accepted manuscript (of article format), ready for publication.
Do not use ‘paper’.
article processing charge
Lower case, no hyphen.
author
Lower case.
Go to the guidance on job titles and roles
autorenewal
No hyphen or dash.
B
basket
E-commerce. Ideally, localise to domain.
Cart = American English
Basket = British English.
See: cart
book processing charge
Lower case. No hyphen.
C
cart
E-commerce. Localise to domain if possible.
Cart = American English
Basket = British English.
See: basket
CC BY
Type of Creative Commons licence. All capitals, no hyphen.
A hyphen is used only if there’s a clause relating to the licence, for example a non-commercial open licence would be ‘CC BY-NC’.
Creative Commons attribution licence (CC BY)
Upper case on Creative Commons. Lower on attribution licence.
Licence = British English noun
License = British English verb.
Examples:
- The CC BY licence is the default licence for all Palgrave Macmillan and SpringerOpen books and chapters.
- For more information on OA licensing options in Springer Nature books and chapters see our book policies page.
chapter processing charge (CPC)
Lower case, no hyphen.
check out, checkout
Checkout can be used but only as a noun or adjective.
Use ‘check out’ for the verb form. Do not hyphenate.
Examples:
- Creating an account will make it faster to check out next time.
- Use your saved details for a faster checkout experience.
- Go to checkout.
click
Avoid using 'click' to instruct users to follow a link.
Instead use 'select'.
Example:
Select your journal.
See: select
click here
Do not use.
Go to the guidance on links
collection (article collection)
Lower case.
conflict of interest
Do not use the term 'conflict of interest'.
Instead use 'competing interest'.
Example:
This journal has a competing interests policy in place.
corresponding author
Lower case.
country
Do not use ‘country’ alone as a label for a dropdown list of locations.
Some countries are not internationally recognised. Some teams may also be using this list to identify sanctioned countries or territories.
Use ‘Country / region’ instead.
D
DOI
Stands for digital object identifier.
Use DOI in its abbreviated form in interface text.
Example:
DOI: 10.3103/S0967091211120151
double-anonymous
In reference to the peer review process. Lower case, hyphenated.
See: single-anonymous
double-blind, double blind
We no longer use ‘double-blind’ or ‘double blind’ in our systems or in messages to our customers when referring to the review process.
Use ‘double-anonymous’ instead.
See: double-anonymous
Dr
No full stop.
E
eBook
Not ‘Ebook’, ‘EBook’, ‘ebook’ or ‘EBOOK’.
All one word. No hyphen.
EPUB
File format for eBooks. Capitalised.
Example (button text): Download EPUB
F
FAQ
Not ‘FAQs‘.
G
gold open access, green open access
Lower case.
H
hardback
Use ‘hardcover‘.
hardcover
One word. Use instead of ‘hardback‘.
home
In navigation and breadcrumbs, refer to the home page as ‘Home‘.
Do not use 'Home page' or ‘Homepage‘.
I
impact factor
Lower case.
J
K
L
LaTeX
Note capitalisation. File format commonly used in scientific disciplines including maths, physics and astronomy.
licence / license
In British English, licence is the noun and license is the verb.
Examples:
- A Springer Nature licence is available to academic institutions.
- How to license our journal articles.
M
manuscript
Use ‘manuscript’ to refer to the completed research document that an author submits to us through Snapp or another editorial system. Do not use ‘paper’.
See: submission
manuscript / submission / article title
Within emails, titles should be displayed within single quotes.
Example:
We're delighted that your article has been accepted for publication:
'The effects of exercise training on hypertensive older adults'.
MyCopy
Capital M, capital C.
N
O
open access, open data, open science
Lower case. Unless it’s part of a proper name.
Example:
The Open Access Support Centre was set up to help people understand their options for publishing open access.
OA
Abbreviation for open access.
P
All capitals. Not ‘.PDF’
Example:
Upload a PDF file.
peer review
Lower case. No hyphen.
preprint, preprinting
Lower case. One word, no hyphen.
Example:
Research Square provides a free preprinting service to all authors.
Q
quality check
Lower case. This may change to ‘technical check’ as the preferred term.
R
S
select
Use instead of 'click' when instructing a user to follow a link.
We do not know what device someone is using or how they are using it. 'Select' is more relevant to all situations.
single-anonymous
In reference to the peer review process. Lower case. Hyphen.
Use instead of ‘single-blind’.
single-blind, single blind
In reference to the peer review process. Do not use, instead use ‘single-anonymous’.
Snapp
Initial capital only. Not ‘SNAPP’, or ‘snapp’.
Short for Springer Nature’s article processing platform.
softcover
One word. Use instead of paperback.
submission
This refers to all the documents and data an author submits through Snapp. This includes the manuscript, related data files and declarations made in the system.
See: manuscript
T
terms and conditions
Lower case. Use ‘and’ not ‘&’.
transformative journals
Lower case.