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Policy

Those *&%$ Acronyms

March 30, 2015 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 93, Issue 13

March 9, page 16: TaiGen Biotechnology has initiated Phase II clinical trials of burixafor in China for use in chemotherapy sensitization in leukemia patients. The trials are not yet complete.

A source of aggravation for me in reading the literature, newspapers, and e-mails today is the use of acronyms without identifying what the letters represent. I checked out my most recent issue of C&EN (Jan. 19) to see how often acronyms are used and, if so, identified. It was a most pleasant surprise that there were 13 acronyms used throughout the magazine and all were appropriately identified.

A few are listed here as examples of the consistency of your style: SOCMA—Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates (page 3); ROMP—ring-opening metathesis polymerization (page 6); STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (page 8); and GMO—genetically modified organism (page 11).

C&EN’s editorial style has set a fine example for the chemical profession.

John L. Neumeyer
Wayland, Mass.

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