Cochrane Style Manual

Version 6, June 2024

The Cochrane Style Manual helps authors and editors apply a consistent style across Cochrane reviews and other Cochrane content. Cochrane copy-editors use this Style Manual to apply the Cochrane journal style when working on protocols and reviews before publication. See About this manual for more.

Cochrane Style Essentials is a summary of the main style points.

For recent updates, see Latest changes.

Suggestions for additions or changes can be sent to production@cochrane.org.

Section info
Contact
Denise Mitchell (production@cochrane.org)
Describe change
Link changed from Style Basics to Style Essentials.
Change date
9 October 2024
Abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms

When to use abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms | Common abbreviations | Formatting of abbreviations | Abbreviations to avoid

Cochrane review specific

Cochrane review: content, structure, and format | Titles of Cochrane reviews | Author details | Abstracts | Plain language summaries | Headings: headings in Cochrane review text; headings in Cochrane review tables | Search methods: citing databases and study registers; search terms | Tables in Cochrane reviews | Figures in Cochrane reviews | Supplementary materials: linking from the text and numbering; types of supplementary materials; references and citations in supplementary materials | Cochrane review software

Formatting

Character formatting: bold; italic; underline; subscript and superscript | Indentation | Ligatures | Lists: within paragraphs; bulleted and ordered lists | Paragraph break | Symbols and special characters | Website addresses and links

Grammar, punctuation and writing style

Active and passive voice | Adjectives as nouns | And/or | Compared to/compared with | Prefixes | Punctuation | Simple and accessible English | Tautology | Tense | Upper-case letters | Verbs: single or plural

International considerations

Country names: general guidance; specific examples; abbreviations; further resources | Currency | English language: regional differences | Ethnic group names

Names, common terms and terminology

Common terms and terminology | Names: frequently used names; names specific to Cochrane; family names; pharmaceutical drug names; organism names; virus names; countries and ethnic group names

Numbers, statistics, and units

Dates: standard date format; regional considerations; decades and centuries; examples of formatting dates and time periods | Numbers: overview of number formatting; examples of number formatting; exceptions for numbers and ordered events less than 10; numbers with five or more digits; ranges of numbers; number hyphenation; large numbers | Statistical and mathematical presentation | Units and systems of measurement: standard units; commonly used units; prefixes for SI units; general guidance on SI units; currencies
 

References

Entering and citing references | Reference fields | Reference types: overview; journal articles; Cochrane publications; conference proceedings; books, monographs, theses; internet references; software; other reference types | Differences between Cochrane and NLM style

Tables and figures

General guidelines for figures and tables | Tables: table size; automatic renumbering and positioning of tables in the review; types of tables; formatting: cell alignment - width and height; title; column headings; row headings; table body; footnotes: examples - positioning - multiple footnotes | Figures: image size; automatic renumbering and positioning of figures in the review; types of figures

About this manual

Using the manual | Revising the manual | Contributors | Latest changes | History of the manual | How to cite

Cochrane Style Essentials

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