The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Scandinavian Culture

Style Guide

1. Abbreviations and acronyms
Where an acronym is a headword, it should be followed by the full title in brackets, and where appropriate an English translation should be given in the first sentence of the entry.

Abbreviations or acronyms which may be unfamiliar to a non-specialist reader should be given in full when they first appear in the entry, with the abbreviation or acronym following. For example: 'The Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party (Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetarparti, SAP) is one of the most successful social democratic parties in Europe.' It is not necessary to give the full version of abbreviations that are well-known internationally (e.g. EU, OECD, etc.)

Use a full stop after lower case abbreviations (e.g., i.e.,) but not after contractions (Dr, Ltd) or upper case abbreviations and acronyms (UN, EFTA).

2. Alphabetical order
For the purposes of the encyclopaedia, alphabetical order will disregard Scandinavian letters (å, ä, ö etc.) which might come in a different sequence in the relevant Scandinavian language. Thus Åberg, Lasse, comes immediately after Abell, Kjell, and not at the end of the alphabet. Where appropriate contributors should follow the same principle.

Icelanders are ordered according to their second (patronymic) names, not their first names. E.g. Finnbogadóttir, Vigdís, not Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. It is likely that most readers of the Encyclopedia will be unfamiliar with Icelandic convention.

3. Bibliographical details
All bibliographic material included as further reading should appear in alphabetical order of author surname. Books and articles by the same author should be arranged in order of date of publication. There is no need to repeat an author's name; instead, use two hyphens thus: -- to represent an em rule. Next list books written by this author with one other in alphabetical order of second author. If an author has two publications cited for one year distinguish them by using 1998a, 1998b etc.

References should be given in the following format:

Book:	Arter, D. (1999) Scandinavian politics today, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Journal article:	Marnersdóttir, M. (1995) 'William Heinesen's Tårnet ved verdens ende', Scandinavica 34,1: 71-95.
Edited book:	Eagleton, M. (ed.) (1996) Feminist literary theory: a reader, 2nd ed., Oxford: Blackwell.
Co-edited book:	Öhman, J. and Simonsen, K. (eds.) (2003) Voices from the north: New trends in Nordic human geography, Aldershot: Ashgate.
Multi-edited book:	Kautto, M. et al. (eds.) (2001) Nordic welfare states in the European context, London: Routledge.
Article in book:	Ve, H. (1998) 'Rationality and identity in Norwegian feminism', in D. von der Fehr, et al. (eds.) (1998) Is there a Nordic feminism? Nordic feminist thought on culture and society, London: Routledge.
Translated book:	Høeg, P. (1994) Miss Smilla's feeling for snow, trans. F. David, London: Flamingo.

References cited in the text should follow the Harvard system, citing the author's surname, year of publication and page reference in parentheses immediately after the quoted material, e.g. (Arter 1999: 46-50, 56). The full details should be given in a reference section at the end of the entry (not in the further reading list). Avoid references to unpublished material and material that may be difficult to obtain.

4. Bold
Do not use bold typeface.

5. Capitalisation
Please keep capitalisation to a minimum.

6. Cross-references
Check the list of entries for potential cross-references in your text, and at the end of your entry. In-text cross-references should be preceded by an asterisk *. See the Notes for Contributors for more details.

7. Dates
Please avoid using phrases which tie the text too closely into the time of writing, such as 'recently', 'up to date', 'in the last few years', etc. You should also avoid topical allusions.

Dates should be set out as follows: 28 April 2003, on 28 April, on the 28th; 1990s (not spelt out; no apostrophe); twentieth century (not 20th century, C20th); 1995-6, 1985-95.

The dates of books, films, songs etc., where these appear in the text, should be given in brackets after the title.

8. Emphasis
Please avoid using italics or underlining for emphasis. If you consider this to be unavoidable please use underline rather than italics.

9. Hyphenation
Please do not use any automatic hyphenation function on your word-processing package. An 'em rule' or dash – should be indicated by two hyphens, thus --.

10. Italics
Please use the underline function to indicate words or phrases which should eventually appear in italics, e.g. Scandinavian language words, titles of books, plays, films etc. If it turns out that we cannot use your electronic copy, or the italic codes get lost in the conversion, it is much easier for the typesetter to pick out underlining than italic face in the printout.

11. Numerals
Numbers under 100 should be spelled out (e.g. fifty-one, thirteen).
Numerals should be used for measurements (12km) and for ages (10 years old; at the age of 23). All measurements should be expressed in metric terms; abbreviations should be used (e.g. 12km, 100m, 30cm). Numerals should also be used for amounts of money.
Insert a comma for both thousands and tens of thousands: 1,000; 10,000; 100,000. Decimal places should be indicated with a point: 10.84.
Use minimum numbers, e.g. 23-4, 145-67, 145-6, but note 12-14.
Ensure that you use the numeral keys on your keyboard for 1 (one) and 0 (zero), and not a lower case L or an upper case O.

Write: the Second World War (not World War II)

12. Percentages
Write: 75 per cent. Do not use the % symbol.

13. Paragraphs
Always use the tab function to indent the first line of a paragraph, except for the first paragraph after a headword or sub-heading, which should not be indented.

14. Personal names, including Icelandic names
Personal names should be given in full when they first appear (Ingmar Bergman), and as surname only thereafter (Bergman). Avoid referring to individuals by their forenames only, apart from exceptional cases where this is common practice (e.g. Per Albin Hansson), and Icelanders. Note however that Icelanders are ordered by their last names, not their first names (see point 2 above).

15. Punctuation
Use a single (not a double) space after a full stop, and after commas, colons, semi-colons, etc. Do not put a space in front of a question mark.

16. Quotation marks
Always use single quotation marks for any quotations in the text. Use double quotation marks to indicate a quote within a quote. The full stop only falls inside the quotation mark if the material quoted is a complete sentence.
If you are using a Scandinavian language keyboard, please ensure that your quotation marks are 'like this'; not 'like this'.

17. Quotations
Quotations in a Scandinavian language should only be used if essential. They should not exceed a maximum of two lines, and should be followed by an English translation in brackets. If a standard English translation is available, please use this and give the reference accordingly. Otherwise please provide your own translation and indicate that you have done so.

Quotations of more than 40 words should be indented (0.5 cm left and right). Use the 'left indent' or 'block indent' feature to do this, rather than using word spaces or tabs to indent each line of text. Leave a line space above and below the extract. The exact spelling and punctuation of the original should be faithfully reproduced. Indented quotations should not have quotation marks unless they report conversation. They should be double-spaced like the rest of the text. Your own interpolations into quoted matter should be clearly enclosed within square brackets [like this]. You should give the source on a new line, not indented, within round brackets.

18. Serial commas
Serial commas should be used.

19. Sexist language
Please avoid the use of sexist or gender-specific language.

20. Spelling
British spelling should be used throughout, with the Concise Oxford Dictionary and Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors as authorities. Note that this means using '-ize' and '-ization' in e.g. authorization, pluralize (but not in analyse, advertise etc.).

21. Sub-headings
Sub-headings should be kept to a minimum, and avoided altogether in the shorter entries. Where sub-headings are necessary, they should appear on a line of their own, underlined, and preceded and followed by a line space.

22. Scandinavian place names
Where there is an anglicised version of a Scandinavian place name in common use, this should be used, e.g. Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Reykjavik.

For places in Finland which have both Finnish and Swedish names the Finnish-language version is normally preferred, since these are more commonly used in the English-speaking world (e.g. Helsinki not Helsingfors). In some cases, however, e.g. when discussing a Swedish-speaking Finlander, it may be more appropriate to use the Swedish name. In this case the alternative should be provided in brackets, e.g. Åbo (Turku).

Scandinavian monarchs and other historical personalities should be given their Scandinavian names, e.g. Karl XII, not Charles XII.

23. Tables
Where large amounts of statistical information are to be presented, this may done in a table. Where tables are used they should be formatted as a plain grid, and a brief reference to the source should be included directly underneath the table.