Cochrane Style Manual
Adjectives as nouns

This is an archived version of a historic website. For up-to-date information, please go to cochrane.org.

Avoid using adjectives as nouns when they are not used as nouns by a general readership.

A statement such as 'There is growing evidence of the impact of overweight on the incidence of diabetes' could be changed to 'There is growing evidence of the impact of being overweight on the incidence of diabetes'.