CSSG_16 IEEE TC 2016CSStyle Guide

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IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY

STYLE GUIDE

Style Guide version October 2016

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

 Mission statement

 General information

 Resolving differences with authors

 Acknowledgments

Abbreviations 3

Acronyms and Abbreviated Terms 5

Authors and Affiliations 6

Best Practices 7

 Abstracts

 Acknowledgments

 Article titles

 Figures

 File and folder conventions

 Main text

 Sidebars

 Tables

 URLs

Biographical Sketches 12

Capitalization 13

 Internal capitals

 Titles

 Department names

Copyrights, Trademarks, US Government Work, and Image

Permissions 14

File Extensions and Their Meanings 15

Lists 16

Locations 18

 Standard and postal abbreviations: US states and Canadian provinces

 Postal code placement

Mathematical Expressions 22

 Miscellaneous math style issues

 Equation formatting guidelines

 Math guidelines

Non-English Words and Phrases 26

Numbers and Symbols 27

 Dates

 Numerals

 Symbols and signs

 Telephone and fax numbers

Program Code 29

 Punctuation

 Capitalization

 Tokens in text

Punctuation 31

 Colons

 Ellipses

 Em dashes

 En dashes

 Quotation marks

 Slashes (virgules)

References 32

 Sample formats

 General style

Alphabetical Listing 41

Usages not identified or adequately defined in accepted external sources

Style Guide version October 2016 1

Introduction

Mission statement

The IEEE Computer Society Style Guide Committee’s mission is to clarify the editorial styles

and standards that the Society’s publications use. We maintain and periodically update a style

guide to clarify those usages not adequately defined in accepted external sources. Our purpose is

to promote coherence, consistency, and identity of style, making it easier for CS editors and our

authors to produce quality submissions and publications that communicate clearly to all our

readers.

General information

This revised (October 2016) edition of the IEEE Computer Society Style Guide complements

these primary references:

 Preferred dictionary: Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., 2003.

 General style guide: The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed., 2010 (called CMS in this style

guide).

The CS style guide defines and explains unique IEEE Computer Society usages, particularly

where they differ from other usages. It also defines specialized terms to help editors determine

proper usage and phraseology.

Entries in the alphabetical listing include commonly used acronyms, definitions, and brief re-

marks on points of style. Entries for terms are listed with their initial letter in lowercase, unless

the term is a proper name or conventionally appears with an initial capital letter. A keyword given

in italics denotes entries for remarks on style. Where topics can’t be covered by short explana-

tions, they’re presented in the special sections listed in the Table of Contents.

An * denotes entries in the alphabetical listing that can be used as acronyms on first

reference. An individual magazine’s editorial staff can make determinations about applying this

designation to other acronyms on the list. Because some terms look like acronyms and some

acronyms look like terms, the style guide provides overlapping entries to make it easier to use.

Likewise, the listings include cross-references where necessary.

This style guide will be updated as required. An electronic version is available at

www.computer.org/web/publications/styleguide.

The Style Guide Committee is a permanent body with a mandate to rule on questions of style and

to provide guidelines where none exist. If you have a question to pose, or you find an entry that

needs to be added or changed, please send your request by e-mail to style@computer.org. The

committee will endeavor to reply within 30 days.

Style Guide version October 2016 2

Resolving differences with authors

The Style Guide Committee’s goal is to direct editors to published works and offer guidelines that

they should consider and follow, except when they have good reasons to do otherwise. We

recognize that each CS publication has its own minor style variations. Moreover, a good editor

knows when to bend a good rule in order to maintain clarity of meaning within a written passage.

Authors provide the technical content for Computer Society publications and, together with

referees, bear the major responsibility for ensuring technical accuracy. The editor’s job is to

present the material in the most effective manner possible, consistent with established CS

publishing practices.

Computer Society style isn’t intended to alienate authors, universities, or corporations; its goal is

to achieve professionalism and consistency while treating all firms, organizations, and individuals

equally. This house style is generally supported by US trademark law.

Occasional author–editor disagreements can be expected, and compromises are often necessary.

Each party should recognize that the other has a stake in the outcome. The author’s name appears

on the book or article for all the world (and numerous colleagues) to see, and the editor must

follow guidelines established by senior editors, managers, the publisher, and accepted CS editing

practices.

Authors frequently feel that a particular usage is correct because it has appeared in a variety of

printed communications. However, if these communications are conference proceedings, in-house

technical reports, or unpublished papers that haven’t been professionally edited, no one has yet

applied standard publishing rules. Once in a while, though, CS style might indeed be out of step,

and questionable cases should be referred to the Style Guide Committee. Willingness to view a

situation from another’s vantage point is a big step toward resolving differences.

Editors should be flexible enough to compromise when firm publishing and editing principles

aren’t being violated. If an author’s preference violates strict grammar rules or firm CS

guidelines, the editor should make clear what that violation is, explain why it’s not good practice,

and suggest an alternative.

An editor’s decisions shouldn’t be, or appear to be, arbitrary. Explaining that the Style Guide

Committee has given considerable thought to CS policies and has established guidelines intended

to enhance the authority, effectiveness, and prestige of CS publications is usually the best way to

enlist an author’s cooperation in the search for a solution. Unresolved disputes between an

equally adamant author and editor should be referred to the department manager.

Acknowledgments

The participation of the following IEEE Computer Society staff members in revising this manual

is gratefully acknowledged: Carrie Clark, Chris Nelson, Lisa O’Conner, Meghan O’Dell, Dennis

Taylor, and Rebecca Torres.

Style Guide version October 2016 3

Abbreviations

Styles differ on whether periods should be used with particular abbreviations. The Society

discourages the use of periods in certain abbreviations, such as those for academic degrees, names

of countries, and other abbreviations that are in all capitals. When periods are removed from

abbreviations, the internal space should also be removed—for example, MIT, PhD, or US. The

internal space is also removed from other abbreviations with internal periods, as with author

initials. If an abbreviation also spells a word, removing the following period could cause

confusion in some contexts—for example, in. and no.

Although many style manuals decry the use of abbreviations, some words are seldom spelled out.

Among these are abbreviations for affiliations or scholarly degrees after a name (BA or PhD), and

abbreviations such as AD, CPA, and Ltd. A symbol or figure beginning a sentence, on the other

hand, is usually spelled out; if it can’t be, the sentence is rewritten—for example, “Two hundred

miles,” not “200 miles.”

Style tips

The abbreviations Jr., Sr., II and so forth don’t require a comma because they’re part of the

person’s name (John Smith Jr.).

Mr., Mrs., and Dr. are dropped if another title is also used (not Dr. John Smith Jr., PhD).

The preferred format avoids using a descriptor unless the company name might not be clear

without it—for example, Data Co. However, if it’s necessary to use Limited, Incorporated,

Corporation, or Company, they’re abbreviated to Ltd., Inc., Corp., or Co., respectively, and the

abbreviation isn’t preceded by a comma.

The abbreviations Nat’l and Int’l (for national and international) don’t take a period.

The standard abbreviations for most degrees we encounter in our authors’ biographies are BS,

MS, MSc, and PhD. For additional rules on abbreviating academic degrees, see the entry under

academic degrees in the alphabetical section.

Centuries use the ordinal symbol—for example, 21st century.

Also see the References section; for a more complete discussion of abbreviations, see CMS,

Chapter 10.

Abbreviations for units of measurement

The following abbreviations don’t need to be spelled out when used with numbers, except

to avoid possible confusion.

Abbreviation Meaning

A ampere

C degree Celsius

cm centimeter

d day

dB decibel

dpi dots per inch

Style Guide version October 2016 4

F degree Fahrenheit

ft foot

g gram

Gbyte gigabyte

GHz gigahertz

h hour

Hz hertz

in inch

J joule

K (degree) kelvin

kHz kilohertz

km kilometer

kmph kilometers per

hour

kW kilowatt

kWh kilowatt hour

L liter

lb pound

s microsecond

m meter

Mbyte megabyte

MHz megahertz

mi mile

min minute

mm millimeter

mo., mos. month, months

mph miles per hour

ms millisecond

mV millivolt

mW milliwatt

N newton

ns nanosecond

Pa pascal

s second

sq ft square foot

Tbyte terabyte

V volt

W watt

y year, years

Style Guide version October 2016 5

Acronyms and Abbreviated Terms

A true acronym is formed by using the first letter from two or more separate words—for example,

DEC for Digital Equipment Corporation. Articles or prepositions falling in between (for example,

and, of, in, and the) generally aren’t part of the acronym. Use all capitals only for true acronyms.

Many acronyms or abbreviated terms used for measurements are traditionally all lowercase—for

example, cpi (characters per inch) and dpi (dots per inch). A few are mixed, such as kHz

(kilohertz). Capitalization also can differ depending on meaning—for example, MW (megawatt)

and mW (milliwatt). See the alphabetical section when in doubt.

As a general rule, spell out all acronyms on first use, but don’t use initial capitals just because the

letters form the acronym. There must be another reason for the caps; for example, the words

constitute a proper noun. In other words, CAD is computer-aided design, not Computer-Aided

Design.

Exceptions to the spell-out-on-first-use rule are acronyms so well known to a particular

magazine’s readers that spelling them out would be insulting. In the alphabetical section, the

Style Guide Committee has determined that acronyms marked with an asterisk are so familiar to

all our readers that they don’t need to be spelled out on first use. Examples include RAM, ROM,

and CD-ROM.

Put the acronym in parentheses immediately after the spelled-out term. In long articles with

unfamiliar acronyms, it helps to spell out the words occasionally throughout to refresh readers’

memories and aid those who browse. If an article includes many unfamiliar acronyms, consider

creating a glossary or sidebar.

Use judgment before allowing a short common term to be reduced to an acronym (for example,

operating system to OS). Readers have difficulty with articles that read like alphabet soup.

Provided that an acronym isn’t visually distracting (use your judgment), capitalize it as the author

submitted it, so long as the CS Style Guide doesn’t already prescribe a style for it and its

formatting agrees with the official version. (For example, the www.flossproject.org provides the

project’s preferred capitalization: FLOSS.) When deciding whether to revise acronym

capitalization, first consider clarity, followed by author preference.

The Style Guide’s alphabetical section includes combinations of words and acronyms, such as

MiniDIP, which generally follow both capitalization and acronym rules.

For a list of units of measurement that don’t need to be spelled out, see the “Abbreviations”

section and the related entries in the Style Guide’s alphabetical section. For unfamiliar units of

measurement, spell them out on first use.

Style Guide version October 2016 6

Authors and Affiliations

On an article’s first page, list the authors in the order in which they appeared on the original

accepted paper’s first page. (If no names appeared there, use the order of the author bios, if there

are any. Otherwise, contact the authors.) If authors listed next to each other share an affiliation,

group them together. If authors share an affiliation but aren’t listed next to each other, don’t

group them together. For example, note the first and third lines of this list:

Khairi Reda and Alessandro Febretti, University of Illinois at Chicago

Aaron Knoll, University of Texas at Austin

Jillian Aurisano, Jason Leigh, and Andrew Johnson, University of Illinois at Chicago

Michael E. Papka and Mark Hereld, Argonne National Laboratory

The author order on the first page and in the bios should be the same. Also, an author’s name on

the first page and in the bio should match exactly.

Normally, each author should have only one affiliation on the article’s first page—usually, the

affiliation at which the research occurred. (You can list other affiliations in the bio. If an author

must have more than one affiliation on the first page, inform Monette Velasco or Jennie Zhu-Mai

before the issue ships.) If the affiliation is an institute or organization associated primarily with a

university, use just the university name as the affiliation. However, in IEEE Software, you can list

Software Engineering Institute as the affiliation without listing Carnegie Mellon University. If

confusion about an affiliation name is possible (for example, school names that could apply to

multiple institutions, such as Concordia University), add the location. Otherwise, the location

isn’t necessary.

On the first page, an author’s name and affiliation both take the “AUTHOR” tag (we no longer

use the “AUTHOR AFFILIATION” tag). In author bios, the author’s name takes the “vita name”

tag, but the affiliation doesn’t get a special tag. After an affiliation first appears in a bio, you can

abbreviate subsequent instances of that affiliation (in that or any following bio) to save space. In

this case, the abbreviation should appear in parentheses after the first instance of the affiliation.

Style Guide version October 2016 7

Best Practices

Here are a variety of guidelines for editing articles conforming to CS style. Some guidelines are

specific to particular magazines.

Abstracts

Print abstracts (the short abstracts that appear at the article’s beginning) should have a maximum

of 45 words for Computer (35 words for department articles), 35 to 40 words for IEEE Security &

Privacy, and 40 words for IEEE Software.

Acknowledgments

We use the plural form for this section heading.

Article titles

Capitalize both parts of a hyphenated compound unless the first part is a prefix; in that case,

capitalize only the prefix.

Compound adjectives

For compound adjectives with three or more words, normally use hyphens between each word if

the words combine to make one concept—for example, “sparse-time-series tasks” and “near-real-

time performance.” Note that in “near-real-time performance,” “near” modifies “real time,” not

“performance.”

Figures

For figure callouts, use “(see Figure X)” if the sentence doesn’t already mention the figure. The

callout normally shouldn’t give the page number.

For figure captions, the preferred style is to use a phrase to describe the figure and a sentence (or

more) to describe the figure’s significance. For example, “Figure 1. Blue marshmallows. The

campers mix blue dye with sugar and the mucilaginous root of the marshmallow, thus turning a

pink-flowered European perennial herb into a tasty campfire treat.”

For abbreviations in captions, spell them out in the first caption in which they appear (with the

abbreviation in parentheses immediately following the related term). Later captions can use just

the abbreviation.

To acknowledge outside sources of figures, use this style: “(Source: NameOfSource; used with

permission.)”

For program code examples that are part of a figure, input the code into the Word file (and tag it

properly) if at all possible. Don’t send the code to the layout artist for input.

Style Guide version October 2016 8

File and folder conventions

File names start with a letter specific to the related magazine: r = Computer, j = IEEE Security &

Privacy, and s = IEEE Software.

Here are examples of the optional magazines’ file name format, using the May/June IEEE

Software Bellomo article as an example:

 s3bel.org.pdf (original file that the author sent)

 s3bel.tag.docx (original tagged but unedited file)

 s3bel.dt.docx (1st edit by Dennis Taylor)

 s3bel.dt-bb.docx (2nd read by Brian Brannon. This version usually replaces the previous

one.)

 s3bel.gal.docx (version sent to author)

 s3bel.au.docx (version with author corrections)

 s3bel.fin.docx (version ready for layout)

Here are the guidelines for naming electronic folders, with examples.

 Theme article (only one theme in the issue): a-Bellomo

 First theme in a multitheme issue: a1-Bellomo

 Second theme: a2-Jones

 Third theme: a3-Smith

 Nontheme: q-Harris (Computer also inserts “r” at the beginning of folder names for queue

articles—for example, rq-Harris.)

 Column: c-Opinions

 Department: d-Projects

 Track: t-Virtualization

The electronic folder should initially contain the current version of the article, figures, author

photos (when necessary), copyright, and a Versions folder that holds all the other files. When the

layout is ready, move all the files to the Versions folder except the copyright and figure files. You

don’t need to clean out the folders before they’re archived.

Software uses “Focus” to indicate theme articles and “Feature” to indicate nontheme articles.

Main text

If an article begins with a quote, don’t insert a quotation mark before the initial drop cap.

Style Guide version October 2016 9

Introductions should be three paragraphs, although a little longer is okay if necessary.

In the optional magazines, use title caps on first- and second-level headings. In Computer, first-

level headings use all caps, and second-level headings use just an initial cap.

On multiline headings, try to make the lower lines the longer ones.

Don’t indent the paragraph immediately following a first- or second-level heading.

When first referring to a group of more than two authors, use this style: “Jane Doe and her

colleagues.” For two authors, give their first and last names.

When referring to a specific table or figure in the text, use capitalization: Figure 3, Table 2, and

so on.

Avoid having a line with a drop cap on the last line of a column.

Use the appropriate punctuation at the end of a display equation.

When referring to a numbered and displayed item in an article, use an initial capital letter (Figure

1, Table 2, Equation 3, Algorithm 4, …). Otherwise, for nouns accompanied by numbers or

letters, don’t capitalize the noun (level 5, participant B, step 1, and so on) unless it’s a proper

noun or it’s from a specification or standard.

For a quote that starts in the middle of a sentence, use an ellipsis at the beginning and an initial

lowercase letter for the first word.

For names of software patterns, use an initial capital letter for each word and no special

formatting.

Use a drop cap, not a heading, to start the conclusion.

Professional-Society Titles

Capitalize terms such as Fellow and Senior Member.

Sidebars

For sidebar titles, use normal title capitalization.

For titles of related-work sidebars, use “Related Work in …,” not “Related Work on ….”

Tables

Table titles use initial caps for only the first word.

Normally, each table column should have a heading. For guidelines on aligning column headings,

see CMS 3.69.

Normally, text in columns is left aligned; numbers are right aligned or decimal aligned and then

centered in the column.

Style Guide version October 2016 10

If the table contains many abbreviations, you can insert an asterisk at the end of the table title and

insert a footnote at the bottom of the table listing the abbreviations and their meanings. The list

can be in the order in which the abbreviations appear in the table or in alphabetical order,

whichever makes more sense in that context.

When referring to table columns or rows in the main text, normally use quotation marks and no

capital letters (“In the ‘total characters’ column, …”).

We no longer use the TABLE ROWz tag.

URLs

If you have to put a URL in parentheses after an acronym, use a semicolon to separate the two.

When referring to URLs in a string of text, don’t apply extra formatting.

Omit “http://” or “https://” in all URLs,” and omit “/index.html” in homepage URLs.

Verify URLs by copying and pasting them into your browser. Some addresses don’t start with

http://. Other protocols are also legitimate (for example, ftp:), and some addresses don’t need or

even won’t work with www. Omit the http:// if the URL starts with www. Check URLs that start

with https:// to see whether it’s required.

Be sure to include all punctuation exactly as supplied (hyphens and tildes, in particular, are very

common in Web addresses).

If a URL must run across more than one line, follow these guidelines:

 Break after a colon or double slash. Don’t split the double slash.

 Break before a slash, a tilde, a period, a comma, a hyphen, an underline, a question mark, a

number sign, or a percent symbol.

 Break before or after an equals sign or an ampersand.

 Don’t introduce hyphens to break words (be very careful about this because Word might try

to hyphenate automatically).

 Separating the extension (for example, the html at the end) is discouraged.

Some URL examples using www.web-pac.com/mall/pacific/start.html:

Acceptable:

www.web-pac.com/mall/pacific/start.html

www.web-pac

.com/mall/pacific/start.html

www.web

-pac.com/mall/pacific/start.html

www.web-pac.com/mall

/pacific/start.html

www.web-pac.com/mall/pacific/start

.html

Style Guide version October 2016 11

Unacceptable:

www.web-

pac.com/mall/pacific/start.html

www.web-pac.com/mall/paci-

fic/start.html

www.web-pac.com/mall/pacific/start.

html

Webpages

When referring to various portions of a webpage in text, use an initial cap for the designated item.

Don’t set it off with quotes, parentheses, or italics. Thus, a sample reference could be, “The

proper way to search the page is to click on the Go button,” or “The text can be found in the

Publications section of the company’s website.”

When referring to hypertext links found on a webpage (the highlighted underlined words), put the

entire text of the link in quotes. For example, “Click on the ‘go here’ link to reach the table.”

Style Guide version October 2016 12

Biographical Sketches

The preferred format for biographical sketches can vary depending on the publication. But full

articles should generally follow this format:

//Author Name// is a //position// at //name of institution or company, with department name if

applicable//. //His/Her// research interests include //list three or four topics//. //Last name//

received a //highest academic degree [use an abbreviation if possible]// in //name of discipline

[use lowercase]// from //name of degree-granting institution//. //He/She// has received //names of

awards//. //He/She// is in on the editorial board of //name of publication// and has been //name of

volunteer position// at //name of conference//. //He/She// is a member of //list up to three relevant

professional organizations [okay to use an acronym or initialism for organizations]//. Contact

//him/her// at //email address//.

Note: If there are space issues—for example, an unusually large number of authors—the

professional organizations and research interests can be deleted (in that order).

For columns and departments, IEEE Security & Privacy uses the same format as for regular

articles. Computer and IEEE Software follow this format:

//Author Name// is a //position// at //name of institution or company, with department name if

applicable//. Contact //him/her// at //email//.

After an affiliation first appears in a bio, you can abbreviate subsequent instances of that

affiliation (in that or any following bio) to save space. In this case, the abbreviation should appear

in parentheses after the first instance of the affiliation.

If confusion about an affiliation name is possible (for example, school names that could apply to

multiple institutions, such as Concordia University), add the location. Otherwise, the location

isn’t necessary.

Style Guide version October 2016 13

Capitalization

The Computer Society style is conservative in the use of capital letters. A company’s or public

relations firm’s wishes about capitalization rarely carry any weight.

For company, product, system, and language names, use an initial capital only. Editors should

determine whether the term is really a proper noun or merely descriptive or generic.

Internal capitals

For many years, Computer Society style prohibited the use of internal capitals in words, insisting

on an initial capital only for product names, system names, and so forth. Words such as MiniDIP

and AutoCAD were accepted as combinations of words and acronyms. This strict approach hasn’t

been sustainable in the real world. We now permit one internal capital when it’s the first letter of

another word, as in PostScript, MacDraw, or dBase. Only a few exceptions exist—for example,

NeXT and LaTeX. If in doubt, see the alphabetical section of this style guide.

Titles

In the titles of articles, books, and so forth, capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs,

and first and last words. Function words (articles, coordinate conjunctions, and prepositions)

aren’t capitalized, regardless of their length: “Better Health through Psychotherapy,” “Keeping

the Peace without Creating Conflict.” The exception is following a colon—for example, “Along a

Different Path: A Case Study.” For hyphenated words in titles, see CMS 8.159.

In references, use standard capitalization for titles but don’t lowercase internal capitals or

improper acronyms that appear as part of a product or system name, even if it conflicts with the

style guidelines.

Department names

Names of departments, divisions, laboratories, and so forth are capitalized when used as part of

an organization’s proper name: the University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer Science;

the university’s computer science department; the IBM Almaden Research Center; Hewlett

Packard’s advertising department.

Style Guide version October 2016 14

Copyrights

The IEEE owns the copyright for material published by the IEEE Computer Society. Authors

must sign the IEEE copyright form, available online along with detailed information about IEEE

intellectual property rights at www.ieee.org/copyright.

Authors shouldn’t include a copyright notice of their own in published articles or department

submissions. Authors transfer copyright to the IEEE as part of the publication agreement. Staff

members don’t need to complete a copyright agreement because its terms are part of the general

conditions of their employment.

Each feature article carries a notice of IEEE ownership of copyright at the bottom of the first

page. The two acceptable versions (with the symbol and with text) of the standard format are

Address questions regarding copyright issues to:

IEEE Intellectual Property Rights Office

IEEE Service Center

445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854-1331

Phone: +1 732 562 3966; Fax: +1 732 981 8062

e-mail: copyrights@ieee.org

Trademarks

We don’t include the trademark symbol in articles published in IEEE Computer Society

periodicals and proceedings. Trademark law doesn’t apply to the press because using a product

name in the headline or text of an article doesn’t constitute an attempt to capitalize on the

reputation of the company or the product.

US Government Work

When an author is (or all authors are) employed by the US government, the following wording is

used instead of the IEEE copyright line: “US Government Work Not Protected by US

IEEE Intellectual Property Rights website, www.ieee.org/copyright.

Image Permissions

If an image has been published elsewhere, the author must obtain permission from the

publisher or the creator of the image for the IEEE Computer Society to reproduce it in the

publication’s print and electronic versions. Obtaining permission and paying any fees the

publisher requires are the author’s responsibility. If permission isn’t obtained, the figure

shouldn’t be used in the article.

Style Guide version October 2016 15

File Extensions and Their Meanings

.arj relatively uncommon archive file

.bak backup file

.bin binhex file—Macintosh

.bmp bitmap file

.cca cc:Mail archive file

.cdr Corel Draw data file

.cfg configuration file

.cnt MS Office file

.com command file

.cpl current privilege level file for WWW

.dat data file

.dbf database file

.dir directory

.dll dynamic link library—Windows file system

.doc MS Word document

.dos DOS file

.dot MS Word template

.drv printer driver file

.eps encapsulated PostScript file

.exe executable file—a program

.fon font file

.ftg MS Office file

.gid MS Access file

.gif graphics interchange format—an art file

.gz G-zipped file—Unix-based compressed file

.hgx Harvard Graphics file

.hlp help file

.hqx BinHex compressed file

.htm or

.html hypertext file—WWW page file

.ico icon file

.inf information file

.ini initialization file—Windows file

.jpg JPEG image file

.kbd keyboard layout file

.lan local area network file—a Novell system file

.lha relatively uncommon archive file

.lo QuarkXPress document—Macintosh

.log log file

.lst list file

.lzh relatively uncommon archive file

.mim mime-encoded file

.mpl MS Project data file

.mpg MPEG image file

.msg message file

.nlm NetWare Loadable Module—Novell

.nls NetWare License Server—Novell

.pcd photo CD file

.pct PICT graphic

.pcx PC Paintbrush graphic

.pdf portable document format file—Adobe Acrobat

.pdr printer description file—Macintosh

.pfb Adobe printer font—binary

.pfm Adobe printer font—metric

.pif program information file—Windows shortcut file

.png portable network graphics—image file format

.ppa PowerPoint presentation file

.ppd PostScript printer definition file

.ppt PowerPoint document

.prn MS Word print file—PostScript format

.ps PostScript file

.psd Adobe Photoshop native format file

.pub MS Publisher document

.qxp QuarkXPress document

.reg registry file—Windows file systems

.rtf rich text format—a form of text formatting

.rul cc:Mail rule file

.sam AmiPro file

.smi system management interrupt—Intel

.sty LaTeX style file

.swp Windows swap file

.sys DOS/Windows system file

.tar tape archive file—Unix-based compressed file

.taz .tar file that has been .z compressed

.tbl Adobe table editor file

.tex LaTeX file—a form of text formatting

.tif tagged information format file—an image file

.tlb MS Office executable file

.tmp temporary file—Windows applications

.ttf TrueType font file

.txt text file, usually plain ASCII

.vbx Visual Basic file

.vxd virtual driver file—Windows

.wav wave sound file

.wk1 Lotus 123 spreadsheet file

.wks MS Works file

.wmf Windows metafile—a graphics file

.wpd WordPerfect document

.wpg WordPerfect graphic

.wq1 Quattro Pro spreadsheet

.wri MS Write document

.ws2 WordStart 2 document

.xls Excel spreadsheet file

.xtg QuarkXPress document—PC

.z compressed file from a Unix-based system

.zip compressed file from WinZip

.zoo relatively uncommon archive file

Style Guide version October 2016 16

Lists

How to use punctuation in a list depends on whether the introductory phrase is a dependent clause

(it’s not a complete sentence) or an independent clause (it’s a complete sentence).

If the introductory phrase is a dependent clause, there is no colon.

In the past few months, I’ve been

• dressing more casually;

• finding unusual combinations of styles, colors, and textures; and

• looking for bargains.

If the introductory phrase is an independent clause, there is a colon.

People describe my wardrobe in many ways:

• sporty,

• colorful, and

• distinctive.

Here’s what I think:

• My wardrobe is distinctive.

• I can decide what to wear depending on my mood.

• I need some new clothes.

My wardrobe has many distinct characteristics:

• Unusual. Most people wouldn’t be comfortable making the same choices.

• Versatile. I can dress comfortably for a business meeting or casual Friday.

• Color-coordinated. I can mix and match garments to achieve a new look.

The following are examples of formatting alternatives for more complicated lists.

The major architectural components include

• a thin client terminal hosting a Web browser—the client terminals periodically send location

updates to the network;

• an application server that delivers Web content prioritized according to user preferences—the

application server formats the generated information content and adapts it for display on the

client terminal; and

• a context and profile manager (CPM) that tracks the user’s dynamic context—the CPM also

queries Web services and filters Web content data according to user profile context.

The architecture has three major components:

• A thin client terminal hosts a Web browser. The client terminals periodically send location

updates to the network.

• An application server delivers Web content prioritized according to user preferences. The

application server formats the generated information content and adapts it for display on the

client terminal.

• A context and profile manager (CPM) tracks the user’s dynamic context. The CPM also

queries Web services and filters Web content data according to user profile context.

Style Guide version October 2016 17

The architecture has three major components:

• a thin client terminal,

• an application server, and

• a context and profile manager (CPM).

The client terminal hosts a Web browser and periodically sends location updates to the network.

The application server delivers Web content prioritized according to user preferences; it formats

the generated information content and adapts it for display on the client terminal. The CPM tracks

the user’s dynamic context and queries Web services and filters Web content data according to

user profile context.

Style Guide version October 2016 18

Note: With the exception of running text—where the state name is spelled out—use

of the postal abbreviation is preferred (CMS 10.28).

Locations

United States

State Standard abbreviation Postal abbreviation

Alabama Ala. AL

Alaska Alaska AK

Arizona Ariz. AZ

Arkansas Ark. AR

California Calif. CA

Colorado Colo. CO

Connecticut Conn. CT

Delaware Del. DE

District of Columbia D.C. DC

Florida Fla. FL

Georgia Ga. GA

Guam Guam GU

Hawaii Hawaii HI

Idaho Idaho ID

Illinois Ill. IL

Indiana Ind. IN

Iowa Iowa IA

Kansas Kan. KS

Kentucky Ky. KY

Louisiana La. LA

Maine Maine ME

Maryland Md. MD

Massachusetts Mass. MA

Michigan Mich. MI

Minnesota Minn. MN

Mississippi Miss. MS

Missouri Mo. MO

Montana Mont. MT

Nebraska Neb. NE

Nevada Nev. NV

New Hampshire N.H. NH

New Jersey N.J. NJ

New Mexico N.M. NM

New York N.Y. NY

Style Guide version October 2016 19

North Carolina N.C. NC

North Dakota N.D. ND

Ohio Ohio OH

Oklahoma Okla. OK

Oregon Ore. OR

Pennsylvania Pa. PA

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico PR

Rhode Island R.I. RI

South Carolina S.C. SC

South Dakota S.D. SD

Tennessee Tenn. TN

Texas Texas TX

Trust Territories of the Pacific Trust Territories TT

Utah Utah UT

Vermont Vt. VT

Virginia Va. VA

Virgin Islands Virgin Islands VI

Washington Wash. WA

West Virginia W.Va. WV

Wisconsin Wis. WI

Wyoming Wyo. WY

Note: State names with five letters or fewer are never abbreviated. The names of states and

territories outside the 48 contiguous US states are abbreviated only when used with a postal code.

Postal code placement: ZIP (Zone Improvement Program) codes follow the state code and are

separated by a space: Los Alamitos, CA 90720. The Postal Service has expanded the original

five-digit code to nine digits, known as ZIP+4. The added digits follow a hyphen appended to the

original code: Los Alamitos, CA 90720-1314.

Style Guide version October 2016 20

Canada

Province Standard abbreviation Postal abbreviation

Alberta Alta. AB

British Columbia B.C. BC

Manitoba Man. MB

New Brunswick N.B. NB

Newfoundland and Labrador N.L. NL

Northwest Territories N.W.T. NT

Nova Scotia N.S. NS

Nunavut NU

Ontario Ont. ON

Prince Edward Island P.E.I. PE

Quebec Que. QC

Saskatchewan Sask. SK

Yukon Territory Yukon YT

Note: Quebec used to be abbreviated P.Q. for Province du Québec, but this is now obsolete.

Francophones in Québec often use the postal abbreviation Qc.

Postal code placement: Canada’s postal code system is similar to the US ZIP code system. Postal

codes are placed after the province code. The six-character codes are broken into two groups of

three characters separated by a space. The format is letter, number, letter, space, number, letter,

number—for example, Kingston, ON K1A 0S2.

United Kingdom

UK postal codes are placed after the country (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales)

and are separated by a space. Add the nation (UK) after the postal code. The six-character codes

are usually broken into two groups of three characters separated by a space. The usual format is

letter, letter, number, space, number, letter, letter—for example, Stirling, Scotland FK9 4LA, UK.

However, some cities use variations on this format.

Europe

Postal codes are placed before the city name: D-4054 Nettetal, Germany. The number of digits

varies among countries. The European postal union includes country prefixes with the postal

codes. These prefixes, which are separated from the postal code by a hyphen, include

B Belgium

CH Switzerland

D Germany

DK Denmark

E Spain

F France

I Italy

N Norway

NL Netherlands

S Sweden

UK United Kingdom

Style Guide version October 2016 21

Include the state for all US cities except Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver,

Detroit, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York,

Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, and

Seattle.

Don’t list the state name or province for cities outside the US and Canada. For most cities

outside the US, list the nation after the city. However, don’t include the nation for these

locations:

Amsterdam

Athens

Bangkok

Barcelona

Beijing

Berlin

Brussels

Budapest

Cairo

Copenhagen

Edinburgh

Geneva

Helsinki

Hong Kong

Istanbul

Jerusalem

Rome

Kyoto

Seoul

London

Shanghai

Madrid

Singapore

Melbourne

Stockholm

Mexico City

Sydney

Montreal

Taipei

Moscow

Taiwan

Munich

Tokyo

Oslo

Toronto

Ottawa

Vienna

Paris

Warsaw

Prague

Zurich

Reykjavik

Rio de Janeiro

Style Guide version October 2016 22

Mathematical Expressions

Most style manuals don’t cover mathematical style well. CMS has some good suggestions in

Chapter 12 but is insufficient. Another reference source is N.J. Higham, The Handbook of Writing

for the Mathematical Sciences, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 1998. Although

this book is largely about how to write mathematics clearly, it also has some suggestions about

math typography and other stylistic matters.

Miscellaneous math style issues

If authors use punctuation after mathematical expressions, including displayed equations, leave it

in (or revise as necessary).

 Include a space on either side of multiplication signs, equals signs, and other operators when

they’re at full size—for example, 100  100 matrix, and a + b = c. MathType automatically

inserts thin spaces around these symbols. In subscripts and superscripts, omit these thin

spaces unless the formula becomes confusing without them. Also, when < or > precedes a

number in text (that isn’t a formula), there should be no space after the symbol.

 If line breaks are needed in equations that appear in a paragraph, they should come after a

plus sign, equals sign, or similar character.

 Characters with overbars must be set in MathType. If an article has many symbols with

overbars or other symbols that make typesetting difficult, consider asking the author if there

is an easier alternative.

 Equation numbers are put in parentheses to the right of displayed formulas. They shouldn’t be

boldface. Generally, only formulas called out in the text need to be numbered.

 Use italic type for lowercase Greek variables; don’t use italic type for uppercase Greek

variables.

 Variables denoting vectors are set in boldface, not italic. Don’t use the small arrows above

the variable to denote vectors.

 Set the label that denotes a matrix in italic—for example, A.

 If the vectors are simply mathematical and don’t represent physical quantities and direction

(that is, they don’t need to be clearly differentiated from scalars), boldface is less important,

and you can use lightface italic type if the author has styled them that way.

If the author consistently uses another scheme, consider going along with it.

Style Guide version October 2016 23

Equation formatting guidelines

Display equations can be broken down a number of ways to fit in a column. First, each line of an

equation must be aligned to either a relation symbol or a binary operator in the first line of the

equation (if one exists). These symbols work in a hierarchy. Relation symbols are aligned with

other relation symbols, binary operators are aligned with other binary operators, and binary

operators are indented from relation symbols. For example:



11 11 11

22 22

(,) (,) (,)

(,) ,

wz pwv pvz

wv pvz

pw z





 



,,log

log , !

(, )log

,log

bbb

lsw sxy N

sxy

sxy N



















 



  



  

srs

dr s

srs ds

drs

srs





 

If an equation has only one relation symbol or binary operator, break the equation after the

relation symbol or binary operator and indent the second line slightly:



 



 



,1 2

;,,

syn

obs B

KB Ap

EH KA Bp

























If there’s room, align the equation like this:













112

lnn

Mdzxy





 

If a display equation can’t be centered, the first line can be made flush left to the column to allow

more room for the following lines of the equation. If an equation number won’t fit to the right of

an equation, it’s acceptable to have the equation number fall one line below the equation and to

keep it right-justified to the column.

Style Guide version October 2016 24

Math guidelines

When should you italicize, when should you use bold, and when should you do neither? If you

edit Computer Society articles, you need to have a good handle on the answers to these questions.

The detailed answers below are meant to help you see the logic behind these answers, so that

you’ll be able to consistently make the right decisions when confronted with a math-heavy article.

Constants

A constant is a letter that represents one distinct value that never changes, no matter what. Don’t

italicize constants. For example, k often represents Boltzmann’s constant, which is always equal

to 1.380622  10–23 Joules/Kelvin. We use k to avoid having to write out this long number in our

equations, but it’s not a variable because its value can never change; it remains constant. In most

cases, the author will identify the letter as a constant. If he or she doesn’t, you can probably

assume it’s not a constant.

One exception is the speed of light (2.997925  108 m/s), a constant typically represented by c.

Authors probably wouldn’t explicitly refer to it as “a constant,” but it is, and you shouldn’t

italicize it. By the way, this is the same c that appears in Einstein’s most famous equation, E =

mc2. Written properly, the E (energy) and m (mass) should be italicized (because they’re

variables), but the c (the speed of light) shouldn’t.

Variables

A variable, unlike a constant, is a letter that can represent more than one possible value. Italicize

all such letters (except uppercase Greek). For example, you could represent time by t, a variable.

Time can be 3, 4, 5, … seconds. Even when the author is referring to one instance (for example, t

= 4), or even if the author says something like “we’re keeping the time constant,” you should still

italicize t because it’s possible in another situation that t wouldn’t be kept constant at 4 ms or

whatever. Time isn’t a constant that’s universally always equal to 4.

Matrices

Matrices represent an array of numbers (columns and rows), like the desks in a classroom. Make

them italic and uppercase. The individual matrix elements should be italic (not bold) because

they’re actually variables.

For example, imagine classroom A, a matrix. The person in the 1st row, 1st column is element

a11. Second row, first column is a21. If you sit in the 2nd row from the front, 3rd column from the

left, you are a23. Rows go across the classroom (side to side); columns go from front to back

(even though, for some reason, in school what people call “rows” are actually columns). The

person behind you (3rd row, 3rd column) is a33. The person to your right (second row, fourth

column) is a24, and so on.

Vectors

Vectors are variables that have a direction associated with them. However, don’t italicize them.

Make them bold and lowercase—for example, the vector v.

Units

Units are letters that stand for words, not numbers. Don’t italicize them. For example, when s

means second, don’t italicize it. The same goes for Greek letters. Italicize lowercase Greek

variables, but don’t italicize lowercase Greek units, such as the  in s (microseconds).

Style Guide version October 2016 25

Acronyms disguised as variables

Beware of acronyms disguised as variables. Don’t italicize them. Editors sometimes mistakenly

italicize a subscript or superscript that looks like a variable but actually isn’t.

For example, in VDD, V is a variable and should be italicized, but the letters DD are neither

variables nor constants. They’re more akin to acronyms. They don’t stand for numbers; they stand

for words. That’s the test. If you can’t put a number in for a letter, don’t italicize it because it’s

not a variable. In this case, DD stands for a transistor’s drain voltage.

Now, consider VT. This T probably refers to temperature and thus isn’t a variable. You’ll have to

consider its context. However, usually these subscripts aren’t variables. A common exception is n

or i (or even t) when it indicates a series of numbers such as V1, V2, …, Vn. In this case, a number

could be inserted in place of n, so you should italicize it.

Here’s another example of an acronym in disguise, but one that isn’t a subscript: “The NMOS

transistor’s source (n+), bulk (p–), and drain (n+) terminals form an npn bipolar transistor.” In

this case, the n and p are neither variables nor constants. They are, once again, more akin to

acronyms but typically appear in lowercase. You can’t substitute a number for either of these.

Using MathType

If you can easily insert equations into text without using MathType, do so. Otherwise, use

MathType.

Style Guide version October 2016 26

Non-English Words and Phrases

The IEEE Computer Society is a worldwide organization, but its publications are produced in the

US in English. The way Society publications deal with non-English terms and phrases depends on

several factors—namely,

 the true “foreignness” of the expression—many non-English expressions have

entered mainstream English,

 the availability of appropriate accented fonts,

 the staff’s familiarity with languages other than English, and

 the extent of the non-English readership of a publication and the degree to which the

Society desires to appeal to that audience.

Here are some guidelines for using non-English terms:

 Use accents in anglicized foreign terms when they affect pronunciation or will

prevent confusion between English words that are spelled the same.

 Italicize terms not commonly accepted in English, but generally use such terms in

text only when there’s no suitable English equivalent. The way to determine whether

a term is commonly accepted in English is to see whether it’s in the main body of

Webster’s—if it is, don’t italicize.

 Transliterate non-Roman languages into the Roman alphabet. Use the transliterated

phrase, an English translation, or both.

 For non-English institutional names, use the original name for spellings using the

Roman alphabet, providing a translation if the reader might not understand. This

approach works well with organizations whose acronyms are well known, such as

CCITT (Comité Consultatif International de Télégraphique et Téléphonique),

because using a translation (International Consultative Committee for Telegraphy and

Telephony) followed by the acronym could confuse some readers. This same

guideline applies to university names in bylines and references. In some cases, the

non-English acronym is well known and always associated with the English

translation. An example is the European Center for Nuclear Research, which is

widely known by its French acronym, CERN.

 For non-English references, provide the original title first, but follow it with the

English translation in brackets so that English-only readers can understand it. Follow

English capitalization rules in the translated title. If you don’t have a translation or

can’t translate the title, query the article’s author (who presumably has read the work

and can translate the title). If the author can’t provide a translation, propose deleting

the reference.

 For author names, always follow the author’s preference. However, if the accents

required aren’t readily available in the Society font list, ask the author for English

equivalents.

Style Guide version October 2016 27

Numbers and Symbols

Dates

The IEEE Policies and Procedures (Jan. 2000) specify the following formats for dates:

 Email and formal correspondence: day, month, year—for example, 6 January 2004.

 Software applications: four-digit year, two-digit month, two-digit day—for example, 2004-

01-06.

 Centuries: Use the symbol for ordinal numbers—for example, 20th century. Note: CMS

spells out the century—for example, twentieth century.

 Decades: The abbreviation is ’90s, not ‘90s.

Numerals

Spell out the integers one through nine and use numerals for 10 on, except in these cases:

Generally, use numerals even for one through nine when the integer is coupled with a symbol or

unit of measurement (2°, 3 V). Use numerals with percentages even for one through nine (a 5

percent drop; 3 percent responded; 3 to 6 percent). However, in nontechnical passages, numbers

less than 10 used with common units, especially time units, might look better spelled out, as do

numbers used with approximate measurements:

the program ran in 8 minutes [exact measurement]

but a report from eight years ago said [nontechnical]

he lives eight miles down the road [nontechnical]

about eight or nine centimeters [approximate]

Spell out a number at the beginning of a sentence, or recast the sentence.

For a list of units of measurement that don’t need to be spelled out, see the “Abbreviations”

section and the related entries in the Style Guide’s alphabetical section. For unfamiliar units of

measurement, spell them out on first use and abbreviate them thereafter. However, use

abbreviations in figures or tables, but explain any unusual or nonstandard abbreviations.

When a sentence includes both an integer less than nine and an integer greater than nine to

describe something in the same category, use numerals for consistency—for example, “The

network can have 4, 8, or 16 nodes.”

Hyphenate a compound adjective consisting of a number and an abbreviation—for example, 24-

Kbyte memory.

Numbers with four digits or more have commas: 1,000, 10,000. Exceptions include page numbers

and dates (CMS 9.55). Precede decimal fractions with values of less than one with a zero to

prevent the reader from overlooking the decimal point: 0.1 (however, observe the exceptions in

CMS 3.70 and 9.19). And remember, they’re singular: 0.1 inch, not 0.1 inches.

Use an s to create plurals of numerals:

 the early 1920s

 in twos, threes, and zeros

Style Guide version October 2016 28

 he had a collection of 386s and 486s

Fonts and computers are inconsistent in the treatment and availability of fraction symbols. So, for

in-text fractions, full-size numerals with a slash are usually preferred: 1/2, not ½. In more

complicated mathematical expressions set in MathType, built-up fractions are generally used:

numerator over denominator, separated by a horizontal line. In mixed numerals, put a hyphen

between the integer and the fraction:

 8-1/2 inches wide

 24-5/8-mile track

For further reference, see CMS Chapter 9, especially the parts on scientific and technical usage.

Symbols and signs

Use symbols in text only when you’re certain that readers are familiar with them.

Multiplication symbol: Use the multiplication sign “” instead of “by” when numerals refer to

dimensions: 3  5 cm box; 3 in.  5 ft. board. When indicating the use of “times” with a number,

use a multiplication sign instead of x—for example, 2 speedup. However, you may use “times”

when it seems appropriate—for example, “The new version has 10 times the memory.”

Spacing of characters for units of measurement and symbols: Abbreviations for units of

measurement, even if one letter, are separated from the numeral by a space (3 V, 5 m, 14 mm).

Actual symbols, as opposed to abbreviations for units, can be closed up—for example, 42°30' for

42 degrees, 30 minutes latitude.

Use “sq ft,” not “ft2.”

Don’t use abbreviations when the reference is indefinite or casual—say “several gigahertz,” not

“several GHz.” However, where brevity is a key factor—for example, in new product write-ups

and tables—use symbols liberally.

When defining variables in run-in text, use “is” rather than “=”—for example, “where t is the

temperature,” not “where t = the temperature.”

Use the word “percent” in text; use the % symbol only in figures and tables.

Don’t insert “US” in front of the dollar sign except to avoid confusion.

Telephone and fax numbers

The IEEE Policies and Procedures specify the following format for phone and fax

numbers:

In North America: +1 area code xxx xxxx—for example, +1 714 821 8380

Outside North America: +country code city code xxx xxxx—for example, in

Belgium, +32 3 770 2242

Style Guide version October 2016 29

Program Code

Use the “program code” tag for program code that appears inline; use the “PROGRAM

SEGMENT” tag for code that’s set off from the main text.

If the lines of code are longer than a column width and can’t be easily broken, consider turning

the code into a figure.

If a program line doesn’t fit on a single printed line, break and indent it to indicate the

continuation. Never add extra punctuation. Authors will often request continuation lines to be

right-justified or will otherwise express strong preferences on this issue.

In general, try to duplicate the spacing, indentation, punctuation, and capitalization in the author’s

manuscript. Programming languages don’t normally recognize boldface or italics, but the author

might use them for emphasis.

Spacing is very important because omitting a space will often prevent a computer from

recognizing a command or variable.

Indentations often indicate subsets of the program. Although they aren’t necessary to the

computer, they make a program easier to understand.

Punctuation

 Don’t substitute two single typesetting quotation marks (‘ ’) or normal double typesetting

quotation marks (“ ”) for typewriter quotation marks (").

 Don’t substitute a hyphen (-) for a minus sign ().

 Don’t substitute a raised asterisk (*) for a multiplication asterisk ().

 Don’t substitute an em dash (—) for two hyphens (--), which is a comment symbol in some

languages.

Capitalization

Words or letters in programming languages generally represent commands (tokens) or variables.

In Fortran and Basic, the general convention is to capitalize commands (such as IF, PRINT,

FORMAT, GOTO) and variables (often I, N, X(n.)). In C, Algol, and PostScript, these words and

letters are lowercase.

Tokens in text

Use the “program code” tag for program commands to distinguish them in text. Resist using

boldface, italics, underlining, superscript, or subscript. If the language is case-sensitive (where a

compiler doesn’t see “do,” “Do,” “dO,” and “DO” as equivalent), follow the language’s rules.

Most popular languages aren’t case-sensitive.

Style Guide version October 2016 30

Case-insensitive

Ada, Algol, Anna, APL, assembly, Basic, Clu, Cobol, Fortran, job-control languages, Lisp

(including Common Lisp), Logo, MS-DOS and other operating-system-level command

interpreters (micro and mainframe), Occam, Pascal, PL/I, Prolog, SISAL, Snobol, and SQL.

Case-sensitive

ABC, C, C++, Eiffel, Interlisp, Loops (including the Common Loops and Concurrent Loops

dialects), Modula-2, Prolog, and Smalltalk. Most case-sensitive languages are object oriented,

although some (for example, ABC) aren’t. Some newer dialects of these languages might not be

case-sensitive; check with the author.

Style Guide version October 2016 31

Punctuation

In general, punctuation is such a complex topic that referring to the appropriate CMS sections is

the preferred option. However, here we present some specific guidelines.

Colons

When a colon introduces text within a sentence, the following word starts with a lowercase letter.

Otherwise, the following word has an initial cap.

Ellipses

Because the correct use of an ellipsis is sometimes mysterious, we provide these guidelines:

 For omissions within a sentence when using Word, insert a space, the ellipsis symbol, and a

space.

 For omissions between sentences, use closing punctuation before an ellipsis if the preceding

sentence is grammatically complete. If the preceding sentence isn’t grammatically complete,

don’t use closing punctuation. Place a space directly before and after the ellipsis.

For more complete information about using an ellipsis, see CMS 13.48–13.56.

En dashes

Use en dashes for page ranges and other cases where the CMS calls for them; see CMS 6.78–681.

Quotation marks

Use double quotation marks for quoted text inside block quotations, decks, headings, and

interviews. Don’t put quotation marks around the entire quotation, deck, and so on.

Slashes (virgules)

Use your judgment regarding the use of slashes. Normally, there should be no space on either side

of the slash. For an exception, see CMS 6.104.

Style Guide version October 2016 32

References

This special section consists of two subsections: sample formats and general style. The first

presents examples of most of the reference types that arise in Computer Society publications. The

second delineates the policies and style principles underlying the formats.

To save time, ask the authors for any missing reference information. If they don’t provide it, then

search for it if possible.

Sample formats

Article in a collection

A.J. Albrecht, “Measuring Application-Development Productivity,” Programmer Productivity

Issues for the Eighties, 2nd ed., C. Jones, ed., IEEE CS, 1981, pp. 34–43.

Article in a conference proceedings

In general, delete prepositions in conference titles where the meaning is clear without them (see

the “Abbreviations” section). Use the ordinal symbol (2nd, 14th, 23rd) for annual conferences. If

available, include the conference initialism in parentheses—for example, (ICDE 98)—following

the abbreviated name of the conference. Include the sponsor’s name if it’s part of the official

proceedings title. The publisher’s name is unnecessary. Use the page numbers, article number, or

DOI.

H. Yuan et al., “Sparse Representation Using Contextual Information for Hyperspectral Image

Classification,” Proc. 2013 IEEE Conf. Cybernetics (CYBCONF 13), 2013, pp. 138–143.

N. Zhong, “Toward Web Intelligence,” Advances in Web Intelligence: 1st Int’l Atlantic Web

Intelligence Conf. (AWIC 03), LNCS 2663, 2003, pp. 1–14.

Article in a journal or magazine

Use lowercase for vol. and no. The default is to use the volume and issue number, but for popular

publications, you can use the publication date instead. Page numbers through 9999 don’t require a

comma.

I.E. Sutherland, R.F. Sproull, and R.A. Schumaker, “A Characterization of Ten Hidden-Surface

Algorithms,” ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 6, no. 1, 1974, pp. 1–55.

Blog

To cite the blog itself:

The Official Google Blog, Google; http://googleblog.blogspot.com. (Google is listed as the

publisher here.)

M. Watson, Artificial Intelligence Blog; http://markwatson.com/aiblog.

Artificial Intelligence and Robots, blog; http://smart-machines.blogspot.com. (no named author or

publisher)

Style Guide version October 2016 33

Entries in a blog:

M. Sahami, “About the Google Education Summit,” blog, 26 Oct. 2007;

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/about-google-education-summit.html.

M. Watson, “Using the PowerLoom Reasoning System with JRuby,” blog, 2 Oct. 2007;

http://markwatson.com/aiblog.

“Reinforcement Learning Is Cool,” blog; 24 Oct. 2007; http://smart-

machines.blogspot.com/2007/10/reinforcement-learning-is-cool.html. (no named author)

Book

W.M. Newman and R.F. Sproull, Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics, McGraw-Hill,

1979, p. 402.

M.A. Arbib, ed., The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks, MIT Press, 1998.

Book series

Y. Yao et al., “Web Intelligence (WI): Research Challenges and Trends in the New Information

Age,” Web Intelligence: Research and Development, LNAI 2198, N. Zhong et al., eds., Springer,

2001, pp. 1–17.

R. Focardi and R. Gorrieri, eds., Foundations of Security Analysis and Design, LNCS 2171,

Springer, 2001.

Note: According to CMS 14.128, if the book can be located without the series title, it can be

omitted to save space.

Dissertation or thesis

B. Fagin, “A Parallel Execution Model for Prolog,” PhD dissertation, Dept. Computer Sciences,

Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1987.

M. Nichols, “The Graphical Kernel System in Prolog,” master’s thesis, Dept. Computer Science

and Eng., Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., 1985.

Electronic publication

DOIs

Note: If the volume and issue number, date, and page numbers are available, it isn’t necessary to

include the DOI. If they aren’t available, use the DOI, if possible.

Article in a journal

D. Kornack and P. Rakic, “Cell Proliferation without Neurogenesis in Adult Primate Neocortex,”

Science; doi:10.1126/science.1065467.

Style Guide version October 2016 34

Article in a conference proceedings

H. Goto, Y. Hasegawa, and M. Tanaka, “Efficient Scheduling Focusing on the Duality of MPL

Representation,” Proc. IEEE Symp. Computational Intelligence in Scheduling (SCIS 07), 2007;

doi:10.1109/SCIS.2007.367670.

Online-only publication

F. Kaplan, “From Baghdad to Manila: Another Lousy Analogy for the Occupation of Iraq,” Slate,

21 Oct. 2003; http://slate.msn.com/id/2090114.

Website

R. Bartle, “Early MUD History,” Nov. 1990; www.ludd.luth.se/aber/mud-history.html.

Executive order

B. Obama, “Termination of Emergency with Respect to the Risk of Nuclear Proliferation Created

by the Accumulation of a Large Volume of Weapons-Usable Fissile Material in the Territory of

the Russian Federation,” Executive Order 13695, Federal Register, vol. 80, no. 102, 28 May

2015, p. 30331.

Government report

“Quality Care for Moms and Babies Act,” US Senate Report 114-100, 30 July 2015.

Legal citations

Note: In text, italicize the names of court cases.

US Supreme Court decisions

 Olmstead v. United States, US Reports, vol. 277, 1928, p. 438.

 Olmstead v. United States, US Reports, vol. 277, 1928, p. 478 (Justice Brandeis, dissenting).

Lower-court decisions

 US v. Councilman, Federal Supplement, 2nd Series, vol. 245, 2003, p. 321 (US District Court

for the District of Mass.).

 US v. Councilman, Federal Reporter, 3rd Series, vol. 373, 2004, p. 204 (US Court of

Appeals for the First Circuit).

US laws

 US Code, Title 18, section 3123(a)(1),(2), 2000 and 2002 Supplement.

 Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools to Intercept and Obstruct

Terrorism, Public Law No. 107-56, section 209, US Statutes at Large, vol. 115, 2001, p. 285.

 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, Public Law No. 90-351, sections 801–

804, US Statutes at Large, vol. 82, pp. 211–223 (codified as amended in US Code, Title 18,

sections 2510–2522, 2000 and 2002 Supplement).

Style Guide version October 2016 35

Newsletter

J. Butler, “CASE Outlook,” System Development Newsletter, Applied Computer Research,

Phoenix, Ariz., Nov. 1987, p. 3.

Non-English source

Including original title

A.N. Zhirabok and A.E. Shumskii, Electronnoe Modelirovanie [Electronic Modeling],

Energoatomizdat, Leningrad, 1984 (in Russian).

Original title unprintable

T. Nakayama et al., “NEC Corporation Develops 32-Bit RISC Microprocessor,” Nikkei

Electronics, vol. 6, no. 12, 1995, pp. 111–121 (in Japanese).

Patent

With patentee information

M. Hoff, S. Mazor, and F. Faggin, Memory System for Multi-Chip Digital Computer, US patent

3,821,715, to Intel Corp., Patent and Trademark Office, 1974.

Without patentee information

Digital-to-Analog Converting Unit with Improved Linearity, US patent 5,162,800, Patent and

Trademark Office, 1992.

Pending publication

For an article or paper, include the name of the publication and date if known:

R. Lee, “New-Media Processing,” to be published in IEEE Micro, Nov./Dec. 2012.

For a book, include the publisher and year of publication:

R. Lee, Writing New Programs, McMillan, to be published in 2012.

Personal communication and unpublished materials

These usually aren’t referenced because they aren’t available to the reader. Authors who insist on

attributing material obtained through personal communication should identify the source of the

information in the main text (for example, “As Maria Youngblood stated during a conference

panel, ...”).

Preprint

J.M.P. Martinez et al., “Integrating Data Warehouses with Web Data: A Survey,” IEEE Trans.

Knowledge and Data Eng., preprint, 21 Dec. 2007; doi:10.1109/TKDE.2007.190746.

Style Guide version October 2016 36

Special issue

Computing in Science & Eng., special issue on computing in optics, Nov./Dec. 2003;

http://csdl.computer.org/comp/mags/cs/2003/06/c6toc.htm.

Standard

Recommendation ITU-R BT.601, Encoding Parameters of Digital Television for Studios, Int’l

Telecommunication Union, 1992.

IEEE Std. 1596-1992, Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI), IEEE, 1992.

IETF working draft

L. Martini et al., “Transport of Layer 2 Frames over MPLS,” IETF Internet draft, work in

progress, Feb. 2001.

Note: Per IETF guidelines, references to working drafts shouldn’t include URLs because they

expire after six months; use “work in progress” instead.

Industry specification

C. Evans et al., Web Services Reliability (WS-Reliability), v. 1.0, joint specification by Fujitsu,

NEC, Oracle, Sonic Software, and Sun Microsystems, Jan. 2003;

www.developers.sun.com/sw/platform/technologies/ws-reliability.html.

MPEG specification

MPEG-21 Overview, ISO/MPEG N5231, MPEG Requirements Group, Oct. 2002.

RFC

C. Perkins and E. Guttman, DHCP Options for Service Location Protocol, IETF RFC 2610, June

1999; www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2610.txt.

W3C note

D. Box et al., Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1, W3C note, May 2000;

www.w3.org/TR/SOAP.

W3C recommendation

N. Mitra, SOAP v.1.2, Part 0: Primer, W3C recommendation, June 2003;

www.w3.org/TR/soap12-part0.

Supplemental material

K. Xu et al., “Spherical Piecewise Constant Basis Functions for All-Frequency Precomputed

Radiance Transfer,” IEEE Trans. Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 14, no. 2, 2008, pp.

454–467, supplemental material; http://csdl.computer.org/comp/trans/tg/2008/02/ttg2008020454s

.avi.

Style Guide version October 2016 37

Technical memo, technical report, technical or user manual

Include the department name for technical memos, technical reports, and other material that

might not be indexed in a company-wide or university-wide library or by an abstracting service.

Technical memo

“Requirements for Software-Engineering Databases,” tech. memo, Imperial Software

Technology, London, 1983.

Technical report with report number

C. Hoffman and J. Hopcroft, Quadratic Blending Surfaces, tech. report TR-85-674, Computer

Science Dept., Cornell Univ., 1985.

Technical report without report number

E. Yarwood, Toward Program Illustration, tech. report, Computer Systems Research Group,

Univ. of Toronto, 1977.

Technical or user manual

The Unix System V Interface Definition, vol. 1, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J., 1991.

White paper

Consolidating the IT Infrastructure, white paper, Oracle Corp., Dec. 2003.

Wikipedia

Avoid citing as a reference if a more standardized source is available.

Style Guide version October 2016 38

General style

Author names

Use each author’s initials and last name. Leave no space between initials, but leave a space be-

tween the period following the last initial and the first letter of the last name (for example, E.F.

Codd). For hyphenated first names, use a period for each initial (for example, J.-L. Picard).

If an entry has more than three authors, use the first author’s name and follow it with “et al.”—for

example, T.G. Lewis et al.

Dates

Include just the year of publication for books. For periodicals, normally include the volume num-

ber, issue number, and year. However, for popular periodicals, include the month and year. If a

periodical appears more frequently than monthly, include the date with the month—for example,

15 Mar. 2000. If a periodical appears quarterly, use the season or issue number, depending on the

periodical’s usage. For periodicals that appear irregularly, don’t use the month—for example, vol.

16, no. 5, 1997.

Spell out May, June, and July; abbreviate the other months: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept.,

Oct., Nov., and Dec. Use a slash for bimonthly issues (Aug./Sept. 2000) and an en dash for a

quarterly (July–Sept. 2000). Capitalize the names of seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Electronic references

References to electronic repositories are acceptable in IEEE Computer Society publications, but

they aren’t the references of choice for formal archival use. Whenever possible, use references to

printed material. However, when this isn’t possible, cite the electronic address along with as

much additional information as possible. If the address itself becomes invalid in the future, the

other information might help researchers find the same document elsewhere on the Internet. At

the very least, a reference to an electronic source must include the URL.

When citing an electronic reference simply to give the reader a place to go for more information,

instead of including it in a formal reference list, noting it in parentheses in the running text is

acceptable. Because such references break the flow of the text, use them sparingly and don’t set

them off in italic, boldface, or typewriter font. If an article includes many electronic references,

consider placing them in a sidebar or a broken-out list.

Page numbers

If a reference’s page numbers start with page 1 (for example, “pp. 1–10”), verify that those are

the actual page numbers and not just the number of pages. If that information refers to the number

of pages, use the DOI instead, if possible.

Publications

Italicize names of books (including collections), magazines, journals, newsletters, technical

reports, white papers, and manuals. Use quotation marks to enclose names of articles, papers,

theses, dissertations, technical notes, and technical memos.

Style Guide version October 2016 39

When listing conference abbreviations in a reference, use the conference abbreviation and the last

two digits of the year: AAAI 07.

After the name of a book, thesis, proceedings, or other book-like material, list the publisher, year

of publication, and inclusive page numbers if applicable. Delete terms such as Co., & Co., Ltd.,

S.A., Publisher, and Publishing Co.; retain Press. Where the publisher is a university, add its

location if needed for clarity—for example, Miami Univ., Ohio.

Don’t include the editor’s name for a conference proceedings unless it’s an edited volume

published as a book.

References for proceedings should tell where an interested reader can find the source, not where

the conference took place. If a proceedings didn’t use a traditional publisher, provide the

sponsoring organization.

Use an en dash to indicate multiple issue numbers—for example, vol. 5, nos. 1–4. If the name of

a column is cited in the reference, use initial caps without quotation marks—for example,

Embedded Computing.

If a reference’s page numbers start with page 1 (for example, pp. 1–10), verify that those are the

actual page numbers and not just the number of pages. If that information refers to the number of

pages, use the DOI instead, if possible.

Titles

Capitalize the first and last words, and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and

subordinating conjunctions. Lowercase articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions,

regardless of length. Example: “Toward Better Real-Time Programming through Dataflow.”

To make a source easy for researchers to find, use the title as it originally appears. Don’t add or

remove hyphens, change words to preferred spellings, or lowercase internal capitals.

For foreign-language references, provide the original title first, followed by its English translation

(if available) in brackets: Zur experimentalen Aesthetic [Toward an Experimental Aesthetic].

For a complete treatment of titles, see CMS 8.154-8.195.

Style Guide version October 2016 40

Abbreviations in references

Use the following abbreviations in the titles of periodicals and proceedings and when naming

publishing institutions:

Am. American

Ann. Annual

Assoc. Association

Bull. Bulletin

Comm. Communications (of)

Conf. Conference (on)

CS Computer Society

Dept. Department (of)

ed. edition, editor

Eng. Engineering

Fed. Federal

Govt. Government

Inst. Institute

Int’l International

J. Journal (of)

Lab(s) Laboratory (Laboratories)

Math. Mathematics, Mathematical

Nat’l National

no. Number

Org. Organization

Proc. Proceedings (of)

Q. Quarterly

Rev. Review

Soc. Society

Symp. Symposium (of or on)

Trans. Transactions (on)

Univ. University

vol. Volume

Use “Comm.” (for Communications) when the term refers to the type of periodical (and is part of

the periodical’s name), not when it refers to the topic of communications.

Use “Eng.” (for Engineering) in the titles of periodicals and conference proceedings and in the

names of professional organizations, not in article or book titles.

Drop the “on” from “Workshop on” constructions. When abbreviating institution names, drop

“of” except in “University of” constructions—for example, Inst. Systems Research, Univ. of

Wisconsin.

Use “ch.” for “chapter” (of a book).

Style Guide version October 2016 41

* Denotes entries for which it’s okay to use the acronym or abbreviated term on first

use

* A: ampere—for example, 25 A (n.); 25-A current (adj.)

AAAI: American Association for Artificial Intelligence

AAAS: American Association for the Advancement of Science

AACP: American Association of Computing Professionals

ABET: Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology

* AC: alternating current

academic degrees: BS, MS, and PhD are the standard abbreviations for the bachelor’s,

master’s, and doctoral degrees that we encounter in most of our authors’ biographies.

However, if an author insists, using BSME or BSEE instead of “BS in mechanical

engineering” or MSc instead of MS is acceptable. These and other variants have the

sanction of being included in the Webster’s list of abbreviations. In general, reproduce non-

US degrees as authors submit them (except for periods)—for example, BEng, BTech, and

DPhil. See also bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate.

accents: Use accents in anglicized non-English terms when important for pronunciation, to

avoid confusion with another word, or where context makes it unclear. Use accents in non-

English names, especially names of individuals. In general, lean toward the author’s

preference. See also the “Non-English Words and Phrases” section.

ACE: Advanced Computing Environment

ACID: atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability (a test)

ACK: acknowledgment

Acknowledgments: not Acknowledgements. Use the plural form for the section of the

same name at the end of an article.

ACL: Association for Computational Linguistics

ACM: Association for Computing Machinery; includes several special-interest groups

(SIGs). With the exception of Siggraph and Sigmod, use the ACM style for each SIG in

text or references. See www.acm.org/sigs for a current listing. Use “is a Member of ACM”

in bios. In references, use ACM instead of ACM Press (old format). Don’t insert “the”

before ACM.

acronyms: See the “Acronyms and Abbreviated Terms” section for general style

guidelines.

ACS: Australian Computer Society

ActiveX: software technology from Microsoft

A/D: analog/digital

Ada: a programming language (named for Augusta Ada Lovelace) developed by the US

Defense Department

ADAPSO: Association of Data Processing Service Organizations; renamed as Information

Technology Association of America (ITAA) in 1991

Style Guide version October 2016 42

ADC: analog-to-digital converter

add-in board

Addison-Wesley or Addison Wesley Longman; Addison-Wesley Professional

add-on (adj.)

address mode (n.): the way the processor is addressed. It includes sequential, forward, and

backward addressing, among other modes; hyphenate it when it’s used as an adjective.

ADSL: asymmetric digital subscriber line (for fast Internet access)

admin: okay to use instead of “administration” in appropriate cases

AEA: American Electronics Association

AEC (adj.): architecture-engineering-construction; no hyphens in the acronym

AES: Advanced Encryption Standard; NIST standard for symmetric key encryption

AFCET: Association Française pour la Cybernétique Économique et Technique

AFIPS: American Federation of Information Processing Societies (no longer exists)

agile: not capitalized when it refers to programming techniques

* AI: artificial intelligence

AIAA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

AIChE: American Institute of Chemical Engineers

AIIM: Association for Information and Image Management

AIM: advanced instruction module

AIP: American Institute of Physics

Ajax: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

A K Peters: Publisher (no periods after initials)

Algol: stands for algorithmic language

ALPG: algorithmic pattern generator (hardware and software)

Al Qaeda

ALU: arithmetic logic unit

* a.m.: ante meridiem “before noon” (also includes 12:00 midnight). See also p.m.

ampersand: Retain the symbol in proper names when the name owner uses it that way;

otherwise avoid it.

Amazon.com

Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk)

AMS: American Mathematical Society

AMU: Association of Minicomputer Users

analog: not analogue

and/or: Avoid this construction.

ANOVA: analysis of variance; a statistical test

* ANSI: American National Standards Institute

Ansys: finite-element analysis software by Swanson Analysis Systems

anti-: not hyphenated as a compound modifier unless the root word is a proper noun or

begins with “i”—for example, antialiasing, anti-intellectual

apa: all points addressable

Style Guide version October 2016 43

APDA: Apple Programmers and Developers Association

* API: application programming interface

* APL: A Programming Language

appendices: not appendixes

Apple IIe, IIgs; Macintosh IIc, IIcx, IIfx, and so on

apps: acceptable abbreviation for applications

AR: augmented reality

Arcnet: Attached Resource Computer Network; developed by Datapoint Corp.

ARO: after receipt of order; Army Research Office (preceded by US if spelled out)

ARPA: Advanced Research Projects Agency, a part of the US Defense Department;

DARPA is the preferred usage.

Arpanet: the oldest of the networks on the Internet; initial capital only

artificial intelligence: AI is acceptable on first reference if the context makes it clear. The

term loosely includes expert systems, knowledge bases, natural-language interfaces,

pattern recognition (voice, image, and signal), and neural networks.

ASC: American Society for Cybernetics

ASCI: Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative

* ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASIC: application-specific integrated circuit.

ASIS: American Society for Information Science and Technology

ASME: American Society of Mechanical Engineers

ASP: application service provider; application-specific processor; Active Server Pages

ASPLOS: Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems; the

name of a conference

assembly language (lowercase; not “assembler”): a computer language that assembles the

assembly-language code, as a compiler compiles high-level code

ASTI: Association for Science, Technology, and Innovation

ATE: automatic test equipment

ATM: asynchronous transfer mode

ATPG: automatic test-pattern generation

AutoCAD: software from Autodesk Inc.; exception to normal style because of common

usage

Autoprobe

avatar: a graphical image that represents a person

Awk: a language based on the authors’ names—Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan

Style Guide version October 2016 44

B2B: business-to-business

B2C: business-to-consumer

bachelor’s degree

back door (n.), backdoor (adj.)

back end (n.), back-end (adj.)

backplane (n.): an electronic circuit board containing circuitry and sockets into which

additional electronic devices on other circuit boards or cards can be plugged; generally

synonymous with or part of a computer motherboard

backup (n., adj.): for example, “the system served as a backup;” “a backup copy”

back up (v.): as in, “you can back up the database”

bandwidth

bar code

Basic: a programming language; allegedly stands for “beginner’s all-purpose symbolic

instruction code,” but this is etymologically suspect

BasicA: Microsoft advanced Basic; known as “GW-Basic” on non-IBM, MS-DOS

computers

baud (sing. or pl.): transmission speed in units per second, originally used to measure

telegraph transmission. In computing, the units are usually bits, hence the common practice

of using baud and bps interchangeably. However, this is technically inaccurate because the

unit in a baud can be any discrete element.

BCS: British Computer Society

BDI: beliefs, desires, intentions—a model of human reasoning

BEEP: Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol

Beijing: the Pinyin form used instead of “Peking”

benchmark: a standardized problem, test, or suite of tests that serves as a basis for the

repeatable, objective comparison of hardware or software. Examples include Dhrystone,

Mflops, Sim, and Whetstone.

beta site: the secondary (hence beta) site

Beta-spline (n., adj.): not the same as a B-spline

beta test (n., v.)

Bezier: no accent mark on the first syllable

BFL: buffered field-effect transistor logic

BIFS: binary format for scenes

BGP: Border Gateway Protocol

“Big Blue”: informal name for IBM

big data (n., adj.): not capitalized

BIOS: basic input/output system; operating system software that handles communications

with devices, including monitors, keyboards, disk drives, processors, and ports

Birkhäuser Boston: North American branch of the Swiss publisher, Birkhäuser Publishing

Style Guide version October 2016 45

BIST: built-in self-test

bit: a binary digit, 0 or 1; the basic element making up digital data

-bit (suffix): Adjectives formed with numbers and bit are hyphenated—for example, “64-

bit processor.”

bitblt: Previous CS Style Guide versions defined this term as “bit block-level transfer,” but

some authors insist on “bit block transfer.”

bitline

bitmap: a digital representation of an image in which bits are mapped into pixels; in color

graphics, a different bitmap is used for each red, green, and blue value

bitmapped graphics

Bitnet: a communications network between universities and research centers. Although it’s

reputed to stand for “Because It’s Time Network,” the term isn’t a true acronym.

bit rate

bit-slice processor

bit-sliced (adj.)

bitstream (n., adj.)

bitwise (n.): dealing with bits rather than a larger structure such as a byte. Bitwise operators

are programming commands or statements that work with individual bits.

black-and-white (adj.)

BlackBerry

black box: a complicated electronic device whose internal mechanism is usually hidden

from or mysterious to the user

BLAS: basic linear algebra subroutines

blog: a shared online journal

Bluetooth

Blu-ray

BNF: Backus-Naur Form, a metalanguage

boldface: Strictly limit its use as an emphasis technique; italic type is preferred and should

be used whenever possible.

Boolean: from George Boole; spelling with a capital B is preferred

bootup (n.), boot up (v.): more commonly just boot

botnet: jargon term for a collection of software robots, or bots, that run autonomously

bottom-up design: design that starts at the system level as opposed to top-down design,

which starts at the logic level and works down. In middle-out design, design starts at the

middle level and proceeds up or down.

boundary scan: a self-test technique; not synonymous with scan

BPEL4WS: Business Process Execution Language for Web Services

bpi: bits per inch—for example, 1,600-bpi magnetic tape unit; 1,600 bpi

BPML: Business Process Modeling Language

BPMN: Business Process Model and Notation

bps: bits per second, as in 1,200 bps; see also baud

BPSS: Business Process Specification Schema

BRDF: bidirectional reflectance distribution function

Style Guide version October 2016 46

B-rep: boundary representation

broadband (n.): a technique for high-speed data transmission

broadcast bus: sends a single data item to all bus destinations in a unit of time

brute-force attack

BSA: Business Software Alliance

Bsafe: encryption software

BSD: Berkeley Software Distribution, an extended and modified version of AT&T Unix

from the University of California, Berkeley

B-spline (n., adj.): not the same as a Beta-spline

Bsquare

b-trieve: random-access search technique used in databases

burn-in (n., adj.), burn in (v.)

bus, bused, busing, buses: The s isn’t doubled.

byte: an eight-bit string that a processor reads as a group. Generally, one byte equals one

alphanumeric character.

bytecode: one word

Style Guide version October 2016 47

* C: degree Celsius

C: a programming language

C++: a programming language based on C and extended to include object-oriented

features (++ is not super- or subscripted)

C3: command, control, and communications

C3I: command, control, communications, and intelligence

Cx: (x is an integer or an algebraic representation of an integer); a mathematical notation

referring to the continuity of a function and therefore its differentiability (in calculus)

because derivatives are undefined where functions are discontinuous. Less formally,

continuity refers to the “smoothness” of a function or curve. C0 means the function is

continuous but its derivatives aren’t. C1 means both the function and its first derivative are

continuous, but the second derivative might not be. More complicated forms, such as CK-1,

also occur. Some authors make the C calligraphic, but this isn’t necessary.

* CAD: computer-aided design

CADAM: computer graphics augmented design and manufacturing system

* CAD/CAM: computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing

CADD: computer-aided design and drafting

CAE: computer-aided engineering

CAGD: computer-aided geometric design

CAI: computer-assisted instruction or computer-aided instruction

CalArts: California Institute of the Arts; abbreviated term acceptable only on second

reference

Calcomp, Calcomp IGS-500, Calcomp 960 plotter

CALM: Common Assembly Language for Microprocessors

Caltech: California Institute of Technology

CAM: contact addressable memory

CAM-I: Computer-Aided Manufacturing International

Carnegie Mellon University: The Pittsburgh-based university removed the hyphen from

its name in 1986.

Cartesian: initial capital

CASE: computer-aided software engineering

CASA/SME: Computer and Automated Systems Association of the Society of Mechanical

Engineers

CAT: computer-aided testing (not computerized axial tomography); see CT

catalog (not catalogue)

CAVE: Cave Automatic Virtual Environment

CavernSoft: note internal cap

CBEMA: Computer Business Equipment Manufacturers Association

CCALI: Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction

Style Guide version October 2016 48

CCD: charge-coupled device

CCIA: Computer and Communications Industry Association

CCITT: Comité Consultatif International de Télégraphique et Téléphonique (International

Consultative Committee for Telegraphy and Telephony), a Geneva-based division of the

International Telecommunications Union, a New York-based United Nations organization;

rarely spelled out. Now ITU-T; see the listing in the “I” section.

CDA: DEC’s compound document architecture

CD-I: compact disc-interactive

CDMA: code division multiple access—a wireless communications technology

* CD-ROM: compact-disc read-only memory. The preferred spelling is with the hyphen.

Cedar: a Xerox programming language

Cedex: a French postal pickup station, used in addresses

cel: a clear acetate sheet onto which animators’ drawings are traced and painted for

photographing

cell phone

century: Use the symbol for ordinal numbers—for example, 20th century. Note: CMS

spells out the century (twentieth century).

CerDIP: trademark name for a ceramic dual in-line package

* CERN: Centre Européen des Recherches Nucléaires (European Center for Nuclear

Research)

CERT Coordination Center: CERT/CC, a center of Internet security expertise, located at

the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

CGA: color graphics adapter (or array); an IBM color-display standard allowing eight

colors

CGI: common gateway interface

CGS: Computer Graphics Society

CHI: The annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

child: one of several family words used to describe relationships among nodes in

databases. The terms are legitimate—don’t edit them out.

chipmaker, chipset

CHMOS: Intel’s CMOS

* CIA: US Central Intelligence Agency

CIDR: classless interdomain routing

CIE: International Commission on Illumination (Commission Internationale de

l’Eclairage)

CIELUV: perceptually based color space

CIM: computer-integrated manufacturing

ciphertext: no hyphen; i not y

CIPS: Canadian Information Processing Society

CISC: complex-instruction-set computing

CLB: configurable logic block

cleanroom: a software development approach aimed at producing software with the

minimum number of errors

Style Guide version October 2016 49

cleanup (n., adj.), clean up (v.)

cleartext (n.)

client-server: Use a hyphen, not a slash.

clk: clock

clock cycle: the time it takes the CPU to fetch and execute an instruction. Don’t substitute

“clock.”

closed-loop (adj.)

(the) cloud, cloud computing

CLUT: color lookup table

* cm: centimeter

CMM: Capability Maturity Model, Levels 1–5. Don’t spell this out in IEEE Software.

* CMOS: complementary metal-oxide semiconductor

co-: Compounds formed with this prefix generally aren’t hyphenated. Exceptions are

compounds that result in a double o (co-op, co-official) and a compound such as co-edition

that could be confusing or suggests infelicitous reading. However, this doesn’t apply to

words such as coincidence or cooperate where the first two letters, through long-standing

use, are viewed more as an integral part of the word than as prefixes. See Webster’s and

CMS 7.85, Table 4, for other examples.

Co.: abbreviated when used in text as part of a company name. Avoid using it unless a

company’s name might not be clear without it—for example, Data Co.

CO2e: equivalent carbon dioxide

Cobol: Common Business-Oriented Language; Cobol on all references

CoCom: an informal abbreviation for Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Expert

Controls

* Cocomo: Cost Constructive Model, a project-estimation system developed by Barry

Boehm

Codasyl: Conference on Data Systems Languages, an obsolete organization devoted to

developing a universal data system language for business; active from 1959 to about 1971

code base

codesign; hardware-software codesign

Codiac: centralized operation deterministic interface access control

colocate: locate together, as in putting two things close together to share common facilities

COM: Component Object Model

compiler: a program that translates code in a high-level language into instructions a

machine can execute

complex-instruction-set computing: also CISC

compute: Resist the tendency to use this as an adjective or adverb. Use “computationally

intensive” instead of “compute-intensive” and “computation server” instead of “compute

server.”

Computer (magazine): not IEEE Computer

computer games: Italicize the names of computer games but not the names of other types

of games.

Computer Science Press: an imprint of W.H. Freeman. Spell out the name to avoid

confusion with CS Press.

Style Guide version October 2016 50

Computer Society: Use “the IEEE Computer Society” on first reference; “Computer

Society” without “IEEE” is acceptable on second reference. The executive staff often uses

IEEE-CS in its official communications.

Computer Society publications: Use IEEE CS in references.

cooltown: a ubiquitous-computing initiative sponsored by Hewlett Packard. Don’t call it

“CoolTown.”

copyleft: a general method for making a software program free and requiring all modified

and extended versions of the program to be free software as well

Corba: common object request broker architecture. Don’t spell this out in IEEE Software.

Corp.: abbreviated when used in text as part of a company name; spelled out when used in

a byline or biography. Generally used only if a company’s name might not be clear

without it—for example, Logic Corp.

Cosmic Cube: a supercomputer at the University of Illinois

cost-effective: always hyphenated

* COTS: commercial off-the-shelf

counter-: prefix, not hyphenated

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences: an institute at New York University

CPA: Computer Press Association

CP/M, CP/M-86: two of many early operating systems

cpi: characters per inch

cpl: characters per line; spell it out

CPS: a single cyber-physical system or the domain or concept of cyber-physical systems.

The plural form is CPSs.

cps: characters per second, as in 125-cps printer

* CPU: central processing unit; plural is CPUs

Cray-1, Cray-2, Cray X-MP/24, Cray X-MP/48, Cray-MP: parallel processors from

Cray Research (now Cray Inc.)

CRM: customer relationship management

cross-assembler, cross-compiler: an assembler or compiler that assembles or compiles

code on one machine for use on another, normally incompatible, machine

crossbar (adj.)

cross-hair cursor

cross section (n.), cross-section (adj.)

Crosstalk: communications software

cross validation (n.), cross-validation (adj.)

crowdfunding

crowdsource

* CRT: cathode-ray tube; acceptable on first reference; use VDT when talking about video

displays in general

CS: informal acronym for IEEE Computer Society; rarely used alone in publications

CSCW: computer-supported cooperative work

CSE: computational science and engineering; also, “computer science and engineering”

Style Guide version October 2016 51

CSG: constructive solid geometry

CSI: Computer Security Institute

CSIC: customer-specific integrated circuit; pronounced “seasick”

CSMA/CA: carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance

CSnet: Computer Science Network. It was established to connect institutions that have

Arpanet to each other and to those that don’t. Merged with Bitnet in 1989.

CS Press: no longer used except for books as of 2011.

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets; a style sheet language

* CT: computerized tomography; a 3D-scanning technique (not CAT)

CUDA: (Compute Unified Device Architecture) Not commonly spelled out.

CURE: an algorithm

CUT: circuit under test

cyber: (adj.) relating to computers or computer networks

cyber- (prefix): cyberattack, cyberinfrastructure, cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, cyberworld

cyber-physical systems

Style Guide version October 2016 52

d: day (unit of measurement)

DA: design automation

D/A: digital/analog

DAC: digital–analog converter; Design Automation Conference

DAG: directed acyclic graph; a data structure for representing computer graphics

daisy chain (n.), daisy-chained (adj.)

daisywheel

DAML: DARPA Agent Markup Language

DAML+OIL: DARPA Agent Markup Language + ontology inference layer. Spell this

out on first use.

* DARPA: US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DASD: direct-access storage device

DASH: Design Aid Schematic Helpmate

data: Follow the author’s preference for use as singular or plural, but maintain

consistency within an article (unless the context clearly demands inconsistency).

database, datacenter, datapath, dataset, datastream, datatype

data-entry (adj.): as in “data-entry switch”

dataflow (n., adj.)

data mining

Data General: The Westboro, Mass.-based company’s products include the Eclipse

MV/8000, Eclipse MV/1000 superminicomputer, Eclipse S130, and GW/4000 graphics

workstation.

daughter: one of several family words used in computer-based relationships. Although

the preferred usage is the gender-neutral “child,” the term is legitimate; don’t edit it out.

Davic: Digital Audio Video Interactive Council

* dB: decibel (40 dB)

dBase II, dBase III, dBase III+: database products produced by Ashton-Tate

DBMS: database management system. The plural form is DBMSs.

* DC: direct current

DCE: Distributed Computing Environment

DCFL: direct coupled field-effect transistor logic

DCOM: Distributed Component Object Model

DCT: discrete cosine transform

DDL: document-description language

DDN: Defense Data Network

DDN PMO: Defense Data Network Program Management Office

DEC: Use Digital Equipment Corp. on first reference in text; DEC or Digital is acceptable

for subsequent references.

DEC 10: The DEC 10 is the same computer as the PDP-10. Digital Equipment Corp.

Style Guide version October 2016 53

changed the name to DEC 10 around 1973.

decimals: See the “Numbers and Symbols” section.

decision maker (n.), decision making (n.), decision-making (adj.)

DECnet: A Digital Equipment Corp. facilities’ network

DECsystem-10

DECUS: Digital Equipment Corp. Users Society; absorbed into Encompass, an HP users

group

deep-submicron (adj.)

degrees: Spell this out in text when it’s used as a unit of measure. For educational

degrees, see academic degrees. Use the degree symbol for temperatures.

Denelcor: a defunct company famous for making the HEP, a parallel processor no longer

in production

denial-of-service (adj.): The abbreviation is DoS.

depth buffer: see z-buffer

DES: Data Encryption Standard

design by contract (n.)

desktop

device-independent (adj.): capable of making I/O requests without regard for the

characteristics of I/O equipment

* DevOps: a portmanteau of “development” and “operations”

DFM: design for manufacturability

DFT: discrete Fourier transform; design for testability

DHCP: dynamic host configuration protocol

Dhrystone: a benchmark

DHTML: Dynamic HTML

dialog: as in “dialog box”

dialogue: a conversation. Be consistent regarding spelling if dialogue and dialog appear in

proximity.

dial-up (adj.)

Diffserv: differentiated services

Digital Equipment Corp.: Spell this out on first reference in text; use DEC or Digital for

subsequent references.

dimensions: Whether you spell out the term or use abbreviations, be consistent: 8 ft.



ft. or eight feet by five feet. See the “Numbers and Symbols” section.

DIMM: dual inline memory module

DIP: dual in-line package; also, MiniDIP with no hyphen

disk: preferred, as in “floppy disk.” However, “disc” is the standard in optics, farming,

and medical applications.

display-list (adj.)

Disspla: initial cap only; product of Computer Associates Int’l

distributed computing system: a system in which storage and processing facilities are

dispersed and loosely coupled by transmission media; also a system in which many

processors perform a computation in parallel

Style Guide version October 2016 54

DIVE: Distributed Interactive Virtual Environment

DLL: dynamic linked library

DMA: direct memory access

* DNS: Domain Name System

doctorate: preferred over “doctor’s degree”

DoD: Use Department of Defense on first reference; consider using Defense Department

instead. Add US if the context isn’t clear.

DoD-Std: Department of Defense standard; not the same as Mil-Std

DoE: Use Department of Energy on first reference; consider using Energy Department

instead. Add US if the context isn’t clear.

DOF: degrees of freedom

* DOI: digital object identifier

DoJ: Use Department of Justice on first reference; consider using Justice Department

instead. Add US if the context isn’t clear.

dollar sign: Don’t place “US” in front of the dollar sign except to avoid confusion.

DOM: document object model

* DOS: disk operating system

DoS: see denial-of-service

dot-com: Internet-based business

dot matrix printer: no hyphen

double-buffer (adj.): as in “a double-buffer scheme”

double buffering

download (v.)

downtime (n.)

DPA attack: differential power analysis

* dpi: dots per inch

DPMA: Data Processing Management Association

DPMI: DOS protected-mode interface

* DRAM: dynamic RAM (pronounced “dee-ram”)

DRAM module: a group of dynamic RAM chips packaged together

DRM: digital rights management

* DSL: digital subscriber line

DSL: domain-specific language

DSP: digital signal processor (chips); digital signal processing (applications, systems).

DSS: decision support system

DSSS: direct sequence spread spectrum

DTD: document type definition; an SGML term

DTF: dielectric thin film (filters)

DTR: data terminal ready

DUT: device under test

* DVD: digital video disc or digital versatile disc

Style Guide version October 2016 55

DXF: data exchange file (format)

Style Guide version October 2016 56

E.: “east” in addresses

e-: prefix denoting “electronic,” as in e-commerce, e-health, e-learning, e-publishing, e-

science, but not in email. When using in an article title or headings, capitalize both the “e”

and the word following the hyphen, as in “E-Commerce in Asia.”

on Earth (planet), of the earth (soil)

EasyLiving: a ubiquitous-computing project of the Vision Group at Microsoft Research.

Don’t call it “easy living.”

eBay

EBCDIC: extended binary-coded decimal-interchange code; compare with ASCII

ebook

ECC: error-correcting code

ECL: emitter-coupled logic

E/D: enhancement/depletion mode

EDI: electronic data interchange

editor in chief (n.), editor-in-chief (adj.): Editor in Chief Bill Smith; Bill Smith, the

magazine’s editor in chief; editor-in-chief position

EDSAC: Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator

EDVAC: Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

Eeprom: electrically erasable programmable read-only memory

e.g.: exempli gratia; substitute “such as” or “for example”

EGA: extended graphics adapter or array; an IBM color-display standard allowing 16

colors

EIA: Electronic Industries Alliance

EIAJ: Electronic Industries Association of Japan

eigen-: prefix meaning “characteristic”

EISA: extended international standard architecture

Eispack: benchmark

EJB: Enterprise JavaBeans

E-JFET: n-channel enhancement mode junction field-effect transistor

electron beam (n.), electron-beam (adj.)

ellipsis: See the “Punctuation” section or CMS 13.48-13.56.

email: electronic mail. Use curly brackets to list multiple persons at the same email

address—for example, {jsmith, pjones, abrown}@computer.org.

EMS: Expanded Memory Specification; a standard developed by Lotus Development,

Intel, Microsoft, and AST Research for configuring and addressing memory above the MS-

DOS direct-address 640-Kbyte limit. Also known as LIM EMS, from the companies’

names. AST became a development partner after the acronym was coined.

end-fire coupling

endpoint (n.): Use this in a geometric context and when referring to networks; otherwise,

Style Guide version October 2016 57

use two words: end point.

end user (n.), end-user (adj.): the ultimate user or customer. Use just “user” unless

distinguishing different types of users, such as a testing user or support user. Consider

substituting “customer.”

* ENIAC: Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer; an early-generation computer

* EPFL: Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Eprom: erasable programmable read-only memory

* EPS: encapsulated PostScript

ERP: enterprise resource planning

Esprit: European Strategic Programme for Research and Development; retain the spelling

of Programme

et al.: et alia. Use this for more than three authors in a bibliography, including a period

after al.; it’s okay to substitute “and colleagues” or “and coauthors” in text.

etc.: et cetera. Substitute “and so forth” or “and so on.”

Ethernet: LAN technology; also, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet

* EU: European Union, formerly the European Community

euclidean: lowercase in most uses except when referring to the Euclidean algorithm

Euler: an adjective describing a mathematical concept. It’s pronounced “oiler” and takes

“an” as its article.

Euler–Poincaré formula: a graphics algorithm

euro: European monetary unit

EuroASIC: European Conference on Application Specific Integrated Circuits

EuroDAC: European Design Automation Conference

European Federation of National Engineering Associations

EuroVHDL: European Conference on VHSIC Hardware Description Language

EUUG: European Unix Users Group; now known as EurOpen

* Extensible Markup Language: XML; okay to use acronym on first use

Extreme Progamming (XP): not eXtreme Programming

Style Guide version October 2016 58

* F: degree Fahrenheit

fail-soft-features

fan-in, fan-out (n., adj.): types of logic networks

fan in, fan out (v.)

* FAQ

farad: unit of capacitance

Fastbus: an IEEE standard

Fast Ethernet

fast Fourier transform (FFT): (not hyphenated) decoding algorithm

father: one of several family words used to describe relationships among nodes in

databases. Although the preferred usage is the gender-neutral “parent,” both terms are

legitimate; don’t edit them out.

fault tolerance (n.), fault-tolerant (adj.): a system’s capability to keep executing in the

presence of a limited number of faults

* fax: document facsimile, document facsimile telecommunications equipment

* FBI: US Federal Bureau of Investigation

FDDI: Fiber Distributed Data Interface

FDM: frequency-division multiplexing

FEA: finite-element analysis; also the acronym for Fast Ethernet Alliance

Fellow: always uppercase in “IEEE Fellow” and other similar titles—for example, “she’s

a Fellow of IEEE”

FEM: finite-element method

femtosecond: one quadrillionth of a second

FET: field-effect transistor; also occurs in combinations, such as MESFET

ff: femtofarad

FF: flip-flop. Spell this out in text.

FFT: fast Fourier transform

Fhourstone: a benchmark

FHSS: frequency hopping spread spectrum

Fibre Channel: a computer communications protocol for high-performance information

transfer

fiber optic (n.), fiber-optic (adj.)

field testing (n.), field-testing (adj., v.), field-test (v.)

FIFO (adj.): first-in, first-out—for example, “first-in, first-out accounting”

filename: can be used as two words when not relevant to computers

file system

finite-element analysis

FIPA: Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents

Style Guide version October 2016 59

FIPS: federal information-processing standard

FIR: finite-length impulse response

FireWire: trademarked name for IEEE 1394, an external bus standard

fixed-bubble memory

fixed-length field

fixed point (n.): notation in which the position of the point is fixed in relation to the

numerals, according to some convention

fixed-point (adj.): as in “fixed-point arithmetic”

fJ: femtojoule

Flash: a proprietary Adobe software platform

flash memory

flat-panel display

Flex/32: a system from Flexible Computer Corp.

flip-flop (n.): a circuit or device capable of assuming one of two states at a given time;

abbreviated FF

flits: flow-control digits

floating point (n.); floating-point (adj.): notation in which a point’s location isn’t fixed

but is regularly recalculated. The location is usually expressed as a power of the base.

floorplan

flops: floating-point operations per second; never “flop,” except when quoting the use of

this incorrect form. For example, the 1993 Branscomb Report is titled “From Desktop to

Teraflop ...” Don’t change the title, but the report talks about building a teraflops, not

teraflop, computer.

flowchart

flow control (n.), flow-control (adj.): the sequence of operations performed in the

execution of an algorithm

flowgraph

flowtime

FOAF: Friend-of-a-Friend Protocol

focused, focusing

follow-up (n., adj.), follow up (v.)

footprint: loosely defined as the amount of space a machine takes on a surface (usually a

floor or desktop) or as the system resources an application uses in a computer

foreign: Because the IEEE is an international society, “foreign” isn’t truly applicable in

our publications when referring to nationalities; use “non-US” or “international” instead.

Italicize terms that aren’t commonly accepted in English, but use such terms only when

there’s no suitable English equivalent. See the “Non-English Words and Phrases” section

and CMS 7.49-7.53.

formulas: not formulae

Forth: a programming language

Fortran: for formula translator, a programming language. Dialects include Fortran 77.

FOTS: fiber-optics transmission system

FPGA: field-programmable gate array.

Style Guide version October 2016 60

fps: frames per second.

ractions: Use slash notation (1/1,000) for a general, rounded-off measurement; use

decimals (0.001) for a specific, precise measurement. See the “Numbers and Symbols”

section and appropriate sections in CMS.

frame buffer (n.)

Free Software Foundation: supports GNU Linux

front end (n.): usually refers to a small computer that serves as an interface between the

host system and its peripherals

front-end (adj.): as in “front-end processing”

FSM: finite-state machine

* ft: foot

FTAM: file transfer and management

F-test

* FTP: File Transfer Protocol

full-scale (adj.)

full-screen (adj.)

Futurebus (n.): IEEE Standard 896 bus

fuzzy set (n.), fuzzy-set (adj.)

Style Guide version October 2016 61

G: giga; standard prefix meaning one billion

* g: gram

g: gravity (“6-g acceleration”; “passengers in a BMW are exposed to 2 g”). The

gravitational notation, g, is often italicized to differentiate it from “g” for “gram” or

“grams”

GaAs: gallium arsenide; a semiconducting material, like silicon, used for integrated

circuits. Spell this out on first use.

Game Boy; Game Boy Advance; GameCube

gameplay

GB: gigabyte. Use Gbyte (instead of GB) or spell it out.

Gbit: gigabit. Use Gbit or spell it out.

Gbps: gigabits per second.

GBps: gigabytes per second.

* Gbyte: gigabyte—for example, 25 Gbytes and 25-Gbyte memory

GEM: Digital Research’s Graphics Environment Manager, an operating environment for

MS-DOS PCs

general-purpose processors

genlock: to superimpose computer-generated graphics over videotaped images (from a

camera, VCR, or VTR)

Georgia Tech

Gflops: gigaflops

* GHz: gigahertz

* GIF: graphic interchange format—an electronic file format

giga-: standard prefix meaning one billion

Gigabit Ethernet

GIGI: DEC’s General Imaging Generator and Interpreter

GIGO: garbage in, garbage out

GIPS: billion instructions per second

GIS: geographic information system

GKS: Graphical Kernel System, an international graphics standard

GlobeCom: an IEEE conference

* GNP: gross national product

GNU: supports GNU Linux; GNU’s not Unix

googling

GOPS: giga operations per second

GPL: GNU General Public License

GPRS: general packet radio service

* GPS: Global Positioning System; a constellation of 24 satellites used for navigation and

precise geodetic position measurements

Style Guide version October 2016 62

* GPU: graphics processing (or processor) unit

graftal: an image constructed using parallel graph grammars to define complex objects

grandparent, grandmother, grandfather: a group of family words used to describe

relationships among nodes in databases. The terms are legitimate—don’t edit them out.

Use the gender-neutral “grandparent” when possible.

grand challenge: a difficult problem at the leading edge of a computing field

Grappa: a Java graph-drawing package from AT&T

gray: not “grey,” except in quoted material

Gray code: a binary sequence in which two contiguous numbers differ in only one bit.

Capitalize Gray because it’s the inventor’s name.

gray scale (n.), gray-scale (adj.): for example, “displayed in gray scale,” “a gray-scale

display”

grid; grid computing

GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications.

* GUI: graphical user interface

GW-Basic: the Microsoft version of Basic for MS-DOS computers; BasicA is the IBM

version

Style Guide version October 2016 63

* h: hour (unit of measurement)

hacker: an expert who explores the details of programmable systems to stretch their

capabilities

halfword: half a computer word

halftone: an image reproduced from a photo or similar original medium, comprising a

series of lines arrayed in a screen, to facilitate sharp, clear printing of images when

producing books. Also the preferred format for images in electronic text for camera-ready

and other forms. A 100- to 110-line screen is best; lines per inch is the US unit of measure.

handheld (adj., n.)

handshaking: identification protocol for modems

hard copy (n.), hard-copy (adj.)

hardwired: describes circuits with only wire and terminal connections, with no

intervening switching (no resistors, inductors, or capacitors)

HarperBusiness, HarperCollins

hashtag

HCI: human-computer interaction.

HD (adj.): high-definition

HDL: hardware description language—any language from a class of computer languages

* HDTV: high-definition TV

head-mounted display

healthcare

help desk

hertz: see Hz

Hewlett Packard Labs

hexadecimal: A numbering system with a base of 16. “A” through “F” represent the

decimal numbers 10 through 15.

HID: human interface device

hidden-line removal

hidden Markov model

hidden-surface algorithm

hidden-surface removal: in computer graphics, removing from the display the surfaces

that ordinarily would be obscured by the rest of the object.

high level (n.), high-level (adj.)

high-performance computing

high-speed (adj.): for example, “high-speed computing” and “high-speed switch,” but

“very high speed switch”; also, International Journal of High Speed Computing.

HiperLan2

Hippi: high-performance parallel interface; also written as HiPPI and HIPPI—be prepared

to negotiate

Style Guide version October 2016 64

hither, yon: in computer graphics, the near and far clipping planes.

HMM: hidden Markov model

homepage

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST): “the Hong Kong

University of Science and Technology” in text

hostname

HPC: high-performance computing

HPCwire: an online weekly publication about high-performance computing. Paper copy

doesn’t exist. Italicize it as with the name of any periodical.

HPGL: Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language

* HTML: Hypertext Markup Language

* HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. In Web addresses, use lowercase—http://.

HVAC: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Always spell this out on first

occurrence.

hyper- (prefix): not hyphenated when used to form a compound

hypercube: a parallel computer architecture

hyphenation: If you can’t resolve a hyphenation question by consulting Webster’s, review

CMS 7.77-7.85. If you feel a word that technically doesn’t require hyphenation (for

example, reallocate) might be confusing, consider hyphenating it.

* Hz: hertz; the standard term for cycles per second

Style Guide version October 2016 65

IAB: Internet Architecture Board

IAMA: Internet Assigned Members Authority

IANA: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

IAP: Internet access provider

IBE: identity-based encryption

* IBM: International Business Machines Corporation; sometimes informally called “Big Blue”

IBM 3740-formatted disk, IBM 370-type controllers (note the hyphenation)

IBM PC, IBM PC AT, IBM PC XT, IBM RT PC, IBM PS/2 (Models 25, 30, 50, 60, and

80): no hyphens. IBM PC AT-compatible (adj.).

IBM System/360, IBM System/370: IBM mainframes

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

IC: integrated circuit; acceptable on first reference if context warrants

* ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

ICASE: Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering, at NASA’s Langley

Research Center

ICCC: International Council for Computer Communication, Washington, D.C.

ICOT: Japan’s Institute of New Generation Computer Technology, the so-called Fifth

Generation project. The initials refer to the Japanese transliteration of the program, not the

English translation.

* ICQ: an instant-messaging program

ICT: information and communications technology

* ID: identification

IDC: formerly International Data Corp.

* IDD

IDE: integrated drive electronics; also, integrated development environment. Don’t spell this

out in IEEE Software when it means the latter.

IDL: Interface Definition Language

i.e.: that is—spell it out

IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission—an international standards organization

IEE: Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK; as of May 2006, renamed as Institution of

Engineering and Technology (IET)—merged with Institution of Incorporated Engineers

IEEE 488 bus

* IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. When it’s used to refer to a

document’s publisher, it’s no longer IEEE Press—just IEEE. Also, don’t insert “the” in front

of it.

IEEE Computer Society: Insert “the” in front of this in text.

IESG: Internet Engineering Steering Group

IET: Institution of Engineering and Technology, formerly IEE (see IEE)

IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force

Style Guide version October 2016 66

IFIP: International Federation for Information Processing

IGES: International Graphics Exchange Standard

iff: if and only if. Spell this out.

if-then

IIL: integrated interconnection logic

-ility, -ilities: This is an IEEE Software-related term. On its first appearance in an article, use

quotes (“-ilities”) but no italics. On subsequent appearances, drop the quotes but keep the

hyphen.

Illiac IV: An early computer, retired from NASA use at Ames Research Center, Moffett

Field, Calif., in 1985

IMACS: International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation

i-mode: a wireless service

IMP: interface-message processor

implementer

* in: inch

Inc.: Abbreviate this when it’s used in text as part of a company name, but avoid using it

unless a company’s name might not be clear without it (for example, Lisp Inc.). Don’t set it

off with a comma.

inches: Whether you use symbols or spell them out, be consistent when describing

dimensions—for example, “three inches by five inches” or “3″  5″.” See also the “Numbers

and Symbols” section.

indexes: use “indices” in mathematical contexts

informatics: a term often used to refer to computer science

Information Age

INFORMS: the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences; formed in

1995 when the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) merged with the Institute of

Management Sciences (IMS)

infoserver

in-house (adj.)

ink-jet printers

inline (adj.)

in queue: Hyphenate this when using it as an adjective—for example, “an in-queue

directory.”

* INRIA: Institut National de Récherche en Informatique et en Automatique (French National

Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control)

in-service (adj.)

INSPEC: Information Services for Physics, Electronics, and Computing; an IET database of

English-language research papers. Not a true acronym, but handle as one.

integrated circuit: IC is acceptable on first reference.

Intel’s XScale processor

interconnect or interconnection (n., adj.): Either is acceptable, but follow the author’s usage

and be consistent throughout an article.

International standard: use “ISO standard”

Style Guide version October 2016 67

Internet: normally “the Internet”; Internet 2

Internet Stream Protocol: ST

intranet: internal network

* I/O (n., adj.): input/output

IOP: Internetworking Operating System

IoT: Internet of Things

IP: Internet Protocol; intellectual property

iPhone: acceptable at the beginning of a sentence.

iPSC: a parallel processor from Intel

IPsec: Internet Protocol security

IPv6: Internet Protocol version 6

IPX: internetwork packet exchange

IR: infrared.

IrDA: Infrared Data Association.

IRDS: information-resource dictionary system, a de facto CASE standard

IRQ: interrupt request

ISAM: indexed sequential access method

iSBX bus: an Intel product

ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network, a telecommunications service

ISM band: Industry, Science, Medicine band

ISMM: International Society of Mini- and Microcomputers

ISO: International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Use ISO when referring to

standards (for example, ISO 9000 or “an ISO standard”), but use the entire name with the

letters in parentheses when referring to the organization. ISO was originally a true acronym

for the International Standards Organization, but the name has been changed and the letters

are now only an identifier. Don’t spell this out in IEEE Software.

* ISP: Internet service provider

italics: Use sparingly for emphasis or to introduce new terms; use also for foreign expressions

not commonly accepted in English (that is, not found in the main body of Webster’s), single-

letter variables, longer variables that might be confused with text if not in italics, book titles

(including manuals), movie titles, and TV-series titles.

* IT: information technology

ITC: International Test Conference

item set; some publications use itemset

iterator (n.): a programmed action that sets up a counter to control the number of times the

action is performed

ith: Note: no space, no hyphen, no superscript.

ITU-T: International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector;

formerly, CCITT

Style Guide version October 2016 68

* J: Joule

J2EE: Java 2 Enterprise Edition; J2ME: Java 2 Micro Edition; J2SE: Java 2 Standard

Edition. For more information on emerging Java technologies, see http://java.sun.com.

Jabber: streaming XML protocol

Java: cross-platform programming language from Sun Microsystems

JavaOne, JavaBeans, JavaScript, JavaServer Pages (JSP)

Java RMI: Java remote method invocation

JDK: Java development kit

JEDEC: the JEDEC Solid State Technology Assoc., once known as the Joint Electron

Device Engineering Council

JEIDA: Japan Electronic Industry Development Association

JFIF: J-PEG file interchange format

jif: an electronic file format

Jini: Java wireless technology

JMS: Java Message Service

John Wiley & Sons

Josephson junction (n.): an electronic switching device

Jossey-Bass: a subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons

joystick

* JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group; also an electronic-file format

* JPL: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Jr.: doesn’t require a preceding comma

JSON: JavaScript Object Notation

JTAG: Joint Test Action Group; founders of the boundary scan standard

just-in-time (jit): an inventory management method; no capitals needed. It’s almost always

used as a modifier.

JVM: Java virtual machine

JXTA: a platform-independent peer-to-peer distributed networking protocol developed by

Sun

Jython

Style Guide version October 2016 69

* K: (degree) Kelvin

K: 1,024, the binary thousand (25 Kbytes, 25-Kbyte memory); also used as temperature

designator for Kelvin scale, as in 273 K. However, when used as $10K (with no space),

“K” means 1,000. The use of “K” when referring to monetary quantities is discouraged.

k: 1,000, the decimal thousand (164 km); used in metric designations; see CMS 10.57

KAoS: knowledgeable agent-oriented system (nonstandard, but accepted acronym)

KB: kilobyte; use Kbyte (25 Kbytes, 25-Kbyte memory)

Kb: kilobit; use Kbit or spell out, but use Kbps for kilobits per second

KBES: knowledge-based expert system (as opposed to rule-based)

Kbit: kilobit; use Kbit or spell out

Kbps: kilobits per second, preferred over Kb/s; spell out on first use

Kbyte: kilobyte (25 Kbytes, 25-Kbyte memory). Don’t use KB.

KEE: Knowledge Engineering Environment, an Intellicorp product

keiretsu: a group of companies

kernel: the central part of a program or operating system that does the bulk of the

calculations; not to be confused with the mathematical meaning

keyboard, keyframe, keyshare, keystream, keyword

Kflops: thousand floating-point operations per second. Spell this out or convert it to

Mflops notation.

Khornerstone: benchmark

* kHz: kilohertz (50 kHz)

kiloWhetstone: measure of floating-point capacity. See benchmarks.

KIPS: thousand instructions per second. Spell this out or convert it to MIPS notation.

* KLOC: thousands of lines of code

kludge (n.), kludgy (adj.): a quick fix on a computer or in code

Kluwer Academic Publishers

KM: knowledge management

* km: kilometer

km2: okay to use instead of “square kilometers”

k-means: a type of algorithm

* kmph: kilometers per hour

knowledge base

KSR1: no internal hyphen; a parallel supercomputer from Kendal Square Research

kVA: kilovoltampere

* kW: kilowatt

* kWh: kilowatt hour

Style Guide version October 2016 70

* L: liter

LALR(1): left-to-right scan with one look-ahead token; compare to LL(1)

* LAMP: an open source Web server software bundle

* LAN: local area network

Lapack: a benchmark. See also ScaLapack.

large-scale integration: See LSI.

laser disk: preferred spelling over “laser disc” (unless the word appears as a trademark)

LASSO: least absolute shrinkage and selection operator

LaTeX (TeX, PCTeX, PCLaTeX): a formatting language for typesetting math-heavy

articles; pronounced “lah-tech” or “lay-tech.” Don’t set this in small caps or shift any

characters above or below the baseline. LaTeX is a superset of TeX, the original format

devised by Donald Knuth.

* lb: pound

* LCD: liquid crystal display

LCCC: leadless ceramic-chip carriers; chip packaging

LDAP: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

Lear Siegler: hardware manufacturer

least worst: an acceptable term in decision theory

* LED: light-emitting diode

LiDAR: light detection and ranging (scanning technology)

lifecycle (n., adj.): the software product-development process, usually divided into typical

phases: requirements specification, design, validation, development, testing (verification),

implementation, and maintenance

LIFO (adj.): last-in, first-out

light pen

LIM EMS: Lotus/Intel/Microsoft/AST Research expanded memory specification, a

standard for configuring and addressing memory above the MS-DOS direct-address 640-

Kbyte limit. AST became a development partner after the acronym was coined.

Lincages: Linkage Interactive Computer Analysis and Graphically Enhanced Synthesis

package (not a true acronym, but handle as one); a synthesis program for mechanism design

developed at the University of Minnesota

Linpack: See benchmark.

Linux: an open operating system based on the Unix platform

LIPS: logical inferences per second

Lisp: from “list processing”; a programming language used mainly in artificial intelligence

liveness: the quality of making sure that something good happens (not just ensuring that

nothing bad happens). Liveness ensures, for example, that a calculation’s results are

returned for use, not just calculated. Don’t use this term without an explanation. Compare

with safety

LL(1): left-to-right scan with one look-ahead token producing a leftmost derivation; short

Style Guide version October 2016 71

for “leftmost LALR(1)”; see LALR(1)

* LNAI: Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence

* LNCS: Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Use this abbreviation in reference lists.

* LOC: lines of code

LOCS: lines of code in service

LoD: learning on demand

look-ahead (adj.)

lookaside

lookup (n., adj.); look up (v.): the process of matching by computer the words of a text

with material stored in memory

LOTOS: logic of temporal ordering system

low-cost (adj.)

low-end (adj.)

lowercase (n., adj.)

lpi: lines per inch (300-lpi resolution, 300 lpi)

lpm: lines per minute (145-lpm printer, 145 lpm)

LSI: large-scale integration, about 1,000 to 10,000 circuits per chip

LUT: lookup table. Avoid using this acronym.

Style Guide version October 2016 72

µ: mu. See mu and micro-.

* µs: microsecond

M: SI prefix for million or mega (40-Mbyte hard disk, 12 Mbytes of memory)

* m: meter

m: one one-thousandth or milli- (18 mm)

mA: milliampere (20-mA current loop, 20 mA)

MAA: Mathematical Association of America

MAC: media access control

MacDraw, MacPaint, MacWrite

Macintosh: computer from Apple

Macro II: Digital Equipment Corp. assembly language

macro- (prefix): not hyphenated when used to form a compound (macroassembler). An

exception is when a double “o” occurs—for example, macro-object.

Macsyma: a symbolic manipulation program developed at MIT

mainframe: a computer housed in a large frame or cabinet, usually used for multiuser

applications, which usually requires a temperature-controlled environment and special

power supply. Examples are the Digital Equipment Corporation VAX and IBM System

370 computers; saying “mainframe computer” is redundant.

makefile

MAN: metropolitan area network

manet: mobile ad hoc network

man-hour, man-month, man-year (n.): Try to use a non-gender-specific term, such as

staff-hour.

man-in-the-middle attack; MITM attack

MAP: Manufacturing Automation Protocol; MAP/TOP: Manufacturing Automation

Protocol/Technical Office Protocol; communications standards supported by General

Motors and Boeing. Both standards follow OSI (Open Systems Interconnection)

protocols.

marked up: When it’s used as an adjective, hyphenate it when it comes before the word

it modifies but not when it comes after.

market research firm

markup (adj., n.)

mashup (n.); mash up (v.)

master’s degree

master slice (n.): a nonmetalized wafer containing arrays of circuit elements

interconnected to perform different functions

matrices: preferred over “matrixes” in a mathematical context. In other contexts such as

structural composition, use “matrixes”—for example, “matrixes of materials.”

Matlab

Style Guide version October 2016 73

matrix, -es: See matrices.

MB: megabyte. Use Mbyte—for example, 40-Mbyte hard disk, 12 Mbytes of memory.

Mb: megabit. Use Mbit or spell it out.

Mbit: megabit. Use Mbit or spell it out.

Mbps: megabits per second (spell out on first use); Mbps, not MBPS.

Mbone: multicast backbone; Internet broadcasting technology

* Mbyte: megabyte (40-Mbyte hard disk, 12 Mbytes of memory)

MCAE: mechanical computer-aided engineering

MCM: multichip module

MDA: Model Driven Architecture

MEMS: microelectromechanical systems

MEPS: millions of events per second

meta- (prefix): not hyphenated when used to form a compound (for example, metarule)

unless it looks weird, as when the second term starts with a vowel (for example, meta-

analysis)

Mflops: megaflops; million floating-point operations per second

mHealth: mobile health

MHEG: Multimedia and Hypermedia Experts Group

* MHz: megahertz (50-MHz channel, 50 MHz)

* mi: mile

micro, micros: acceptable as nouns when referring to microcomputers

micro- (prefix): one-millionth part of a specified unit (for example, microgram); not

hyphenated when used to form a compound (for example, microelectronics)

micro-BGA: micro-ball-grid array

microCAD, microCADD: computer-aided design and computer-aided design and

drafting performed on a microcomputer—no longer relevant because most CAD or

CADD is performed on microcomputers

microelectromechanical: one word, no hyphens or capitals; often seen as

“microelectromechanical systems,” abbreviated as MEMS

micrometer (m): SI abbreviation for one-millionth part of a meter. The accepted

abbreviation is .

micron: millionth part of a meter. However, the SI term is “micrometer.” Usage varies;

for example, “micron” is used in integrated circuit production. Can also be written as .

microphotograph: a small photograph normally magnified for viewing (such as

microfilm). The field is called micrographics. Do not confuse with “photomicrograph,” a

magnified picture of small things.

microsecond (s): The letter “u” isn’t a replacement. If a Greek font isn’t available, spell

the greek letter out as “mu.” In magazines, the spelled-out form is preferred, at least on

first reference, except perhaps in tables and figures.

MicroVAX, MicroVAX II, MicroVMS

mid: Check Webster’s for the preferred format.

middle-out design

midframe: a computer housed in a small frame or cabinet, usually used for multiuser

Style Guide version October 2016 74

applications, that doesn’t require a temperature-controlled environment or special power

supply. Saying “midframe computer” is redundant.

* MIDI: musical instrument digital interface

millisecond: the abbreviation is ms

Milnet: along with Arpanet, the main constituent of the Defense Data Network (DDN).

Minet is the European split-off from Milnet.

Mil-Std: military standard; not the same as DoD-Std

MIMD: multiple instruction, multiple data. Pronounced “mimdee” and takes “a” as its

article. Spell it out on first use unless the context dictates otherwise; add hyphens when

it’s used as a modifier.

* MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

MIMO: multiple input, multiple output

* min: minute

mini- (prefix): not hyphenated when used to form a compound (for example,

minicartridges)

MiniDIP: trademark name for a dual in-line package

MINX: Multimedia Information Network Exchange

MIP mapping: multiple texture mapping technique

MIPS: million instructions per second; also, MIPS Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of

SGI. Use the full name when the context requires it.

* MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Spell this out on first use if the context

dictates it.

MITI: Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry

MITRE: the preferred format for this company’s name

mL: millilambert

ml: milliliter (5-ml strip, 0.5 ml)

* mm: millimeter (35-mm film, 0.5 mm)

MMOG: massively multiplayer online game

MMU: memory management unit

* mo., mos.: month, months

MobiCom: For 1999 and before, the conference acronym format is MobiCom 99; for

2000 and afterwards, the format is MobiCom 2000. The full conference name is, for

example, 6th Ann. Int’l Conf. Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom 2000),

2000.

mobile phone: not hyphenated, even when it’s an adjective

mockup: (n., adj.)

MODFET: modulation doped field-effect transistor

molecular dynamics: hyphenated when it’s an adjective

Moore’s law: a theory predicting that the number of transistors on a chip doubles as

technology advances

MOPS: million operations per second

Morgan Kaufmann: publisher

MOS (adj.): metal-oxide-semiconductor

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MOSFET: metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor

MOSI: Microprocessor Operating Systems Interface, IEEE Standard 855-1990

mother: one of several family words used to describe relationships among nodes in

databases. The preferred usage is gender-neutral “parent”; however, don’t change this

without checking with the author.

motherboard: a circuit board into which various processor boards are plugged

Motorola: Don’t follow this with “Inc.” because confusion exists in the company about

whether “Inc.” or “Corp.” is appropriate, even though company stationery uses “Inc.”

Use the prefix “MC” when referring to the specific microprocessor from Motorola—for

example, MC68030. Use “M68000” when referring to the family of devices that share

the M68000 architecture.

Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG): a family of standards for coding audio-visual

information

* MP3, MP4: audio file formats

* MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-3, MPEG-4

* mph: miles per hour

MPI: message passing interface

MPU: microprocessing unit

MPW: an Apple development environment for the Mac

* MRI: magnetic resonance imaging

* ms: millisecond

* MS-DOS: Microsoft’s version of DOS; see also DOS

MSI: medium-scale integration

MSPS: million searches per second

MTBF: mean time between failures

MTTR: mean time to repair, mean time to restore

MTU: maximum transmission unit

mu (): Greek letter used as a symbol for micron

multi- (prefix): Don’t hyphenate this when it’s used to form a compound, except with

“double-i” combinations—for example, multimeter and multi-integral.

Multibus, Multibus II: Intel trademarks. IEEE 796 is the multibus standard.

multiplexer (n.)

multiplication symbol: Use the multiplication sign “



” instead of “by” when numerals

refer to dimensions—for example, 3  5 cm box, 3 in  5 ft board. When indicating the

use of “times” with a number, use a multiplication sign instead of x—for example, 2

speedup. However, you may use “times” when it seems appropriate—for example, “The

new version has 10 times the memory.”

MUT: module under test

mux: multiplexer; muxes (pl.): Spell this out on first reference.

* mV: millivolt

MVP: matrix-vector product, the primary operation around which supercomputers are

designed

MVS: an IBM mainframe operating system

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MW: megawatt (2 MW, 2-MW system)

* mW: milliwatt (200 mW, 200-mW system)

Mycin: an expert system that can be programmed with knowledge databases for different

domains

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9/07 Xen: open source virtualization software

9/11; September 11, 2001

* N: Newton (unit of measurement)

N.: “north” in addresses

n: SI prefix for one billionth or nano (100 ns)

n: variable designation for an integer; italicized

* N/A: not applicable or not available

NAA: formerly the National Association of Accountants; reincarnated as the Institute of

Management Accountants (IMA)

naive

namespace

nano- (prefix): one billionth. Don’t use a hyphen—for example, nanoseconds, 100 ns.

narrow band (n.), narrow-band (adj.): However, according to the IEEE Dictionary of

Electrical and Electronic Terms, narrowband or narrow band are used as adjectives in

some contexts.

* NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C.

Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

Dryden Research Center, Edwards AFB, Calif.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.

Johnson Space Flight Center, Houston

Kennedy Space Flight Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.

Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

NASA Massively Parallel Processor

NAT: network address translator

national laboratories: The names of US national laboratories (for example, Los Alamos

National Laboratory) don’t have a “the” before them in text.

NBS: National Bureau of Standards, an agency of the US Commerce Dept.; obsolete, now

called NIST

NC: numerical control

NCCCD: National Center for Computer Crime Data

NCGA: National Computer Graphics Association

n-channel; n-channel device: insulated-gate field-effect transistor where source and drain

are regions of n-type conductivity

NCSA: National Center for Supercomputing Applications

nCube: in preference to nCUBE or nCUBE

NCP: Network-Control Protocol

Style Guide version October 2016 78

near real time (n.), near-real-time (adj.)

Net: short name for the Internet

.NET

NetBIOS: a product that provides basic I/O services for a network. Don’t use this as a

synonym for “network BIOS” or “LAN BIOS,” which are generic terms for a BIOS

designed for a local area network

Netherlands: use “the” in front

netlist (n., adj.): a list of the pin connections (pin network) that appear on a printed circuit

board

newsfeed

Newton-Raphson: a well-known algorithm for solving equations

NFS: Network File System (from Sun Microsystems’ application, SunSoft)

NGSCB: Microsoft’s next-generation secure computing base

* NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology; formerly NBS

nm: nanometer

NMOS: n-channel metal-oxide semiconductor

no.: the abbreviation for number; nos. (pl.)

NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency in the US Dept. of

Commerce. Although sometimes pronounced “noah,” it takes “an” as an article, as if each

letter were pronounced (“an NOAA study”).

NoD: news on demand

node: Family words—mother, daughter, child—describe relationships among nodes in

databases. The terms are legitimate; don’t try to edit them out.

non- (prefix): not usually hyphenated. Be flexible with words that are difficult to read—for

example, non-negligible, non-real-time mode.

non–von Neumann: See von Neumann. In this case, an en dash is recommended over a

hyphen.

NoSQL: not SQL; a generic term

NP-hard, NP-complete: classes of difficult problems

n-queen’s solver

* ns: nanosecond (3,000 ns)

* NSA: National Security Agency

NSERC: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; a Canadian research agency

similar to the US National Science Foundation

* NSF: US National Science Foundation. NSF is acceptable on second reference or on first

reference in the acknowledgments section of a feature when used with a grant number.

NSFnet

NSPE: National Society of Professional Engineers

NuBus

numbers and symbols: See the related section and CMS Section 9.

NTSC: National TV Standards Committee. The committee and standard use the same

acronym.

Nurbs: nonuniform rational B-spline

Style Guide version October 2016 79

Nvidia

NW: northwest in addresses, no periods

NYU/IBS Ultracomputer

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OASI: Office Automation Society International

OASIS: Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards;

www.oasis-open.org

Object Management Group: OMG

Object Modeling Technique: OMT

object orientation

object-oriented (OO): An approach to programming that stresses the creation of

functions (objects) that are linked in various relationships, usually in hierarchies, to

provide the desired functionality. Compare this with traditional approaches such as

imperative programming, which stresses actions to be taken rather than relationships

between objects.

Objective-C: a computer language

Occam: the language used by Inmos for its transputer chip

OCR: optical character recognition. The machine is an OCR scanner.

octree: a tree structure that describes the division of a cubic region into smaller cubes

OCX: optical cross-connect

ODBC: open database connectivity

* OEM: original equipment manufacturer

OFDM: orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing

off-chip (adj.)

offline: all uses—for example, “the printer is offline” and “offline equipment”

offload, offscreen, offsite

The Ohio State University: “the Ohio State University” in text

ohm (n.): a unit of electrical resistance

OIL: ontology inference layer; see also DAML+OIL

okay

OLAP: online analytical processing

OLE: object linking and embedding; a Microsoft item

OLED: organic light-emitting diode

OLTP: online transaction processing

OMG: Object Management Group

Omnimax (n., adj.): a stereoscopic, eggshell-shaped theater

OMT: object modeling technique

ONA: Open Network Architecture

onboard: all uses—for example, “onboard regulation”

on-chip (adj.): as in on-chip logic

on-demand: (adj.)

online: all uses—for example, “the printer is online” and “online equipment”

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ONR: US Office of Naval Research

onscreen, onsite

OO: object-oriented

op amp: operation amplifier. Spell this out in text on first use.

opcode (n.): operation code

OpenGL: a graphics programming language

open-loop (adj.): for example, “an open-loop program”

open loop (n.): A system in which there is no feedback mechanism for self-correction as

there is in a closed loop

open source (n., adj.): Don’t use this as a verb (instead, consider wording such as

“released X as open source”).

order-of-magnitude (adj.)

ORB: object request broker

ORSA: merged with the Institute of Management Sciences in 1995 to become the Institute

for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)

orthogonal: In linear algebra, the term describes a set of vectors that are independent, in

that no element is a linear combination of the others. In programming, the term is used

more loosely to refer to independent—although possibly related—concepts.

* OS: operating system

OSI: open systems interconnection; a concept whereby different vendors’ products work

together

OSPF: Open Shortest Path First Protocol

OS X

out queue (n.), out-queue (adj.)

OWL: Web Ontology Language

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P2P: peer-to-peer

P3P: Platform for Privacy Preferences; a W3C standard

: italicized; usually indicates probability

p: SI prefix for one trillionth or pico (3 ps)

p.: abbreviation for page when referred to in text; use pp. for multiple pages

* Pa: pascal (unit of measurement)

PABX: private automated branch exchange, a telephone system

packet: a packed block of data for data transmission

PAD: packet assembler/disassembler

PADL: Part and Assembly Description Language, developed at the University of Rochester

pairwise

PAL: phase alternating line—a European video standard; also the acronym for Paradox

Application Language

Palm Pilot

PAN: personal area network

PAR: project authorization request

parameterization: not “parametrization.” To split this at the end of a line, note that

“parameter” and like words are split after the m—for example: param-eter; but “parametric”

is split before the m: para-metric. Automatic hyphenation programs tend to split

“parameter” incorrectly.

PARC: Palo Alto Research Center

ParcTab: the first context-sensitive computer, developed at Xerox PARC. Note the

capitalization.

parseable (alternate spelling: parsable)

PASC: Portable Applications Standards Committee

Pascal: a programming language (named for mathematician Blaise Pascal)

pascal: a unit of measurement. The abbreviation is Pa (no period).

parent: one of several family words used to describe relationships among nodes in

databases. The terms are legitimate; don’t try to edit them out.

pass/fail

pathname

Pbps: petabits per second

p-channel (adj.)

* PC: personal computer; see also IBM PC

PC-DOS: IBM’s version of MS-DOS

PCB: printed circuit board. The plural form is PCBs.

* PCI: peripheral component interconnect

PCM: pulse-code modulation

PCMCIA: Personal Computer Memory Card International Assoc.

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* PDA: personal digital assistant

* PDF: portable document format

PDL: page-description language

PDP-11, PDP-11/03, PDP-11/70: Digital Equipment Corporation computers

percent: Spell it out; don’t use %. Don’t use it without a number as a replacement for

“percentage.”

* Perl: Practical Extraction and Report Language

pervasive computing (n.), pervasive-computing (adj.)

PET: positron emission tomography

peta: a thousand trillion (petaflops = a thousand teraflops)

petabit

Petri net (n.): a graphical model of information flow, showing static and dynamic

properties of a system; named after Karl Petri, a German mathematician

pF: picofarad; a unit of capacitance equal to one-trillionth of a farad

PhD: no periods

PHIGS: Programmer’s Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System, an ANSI and ISO

standard

photo-: no hyphen when used as a modifier—for example, “photomultiplier”

photomicrograph: a magnified picture of small things. Don’t confuse it with

“microphotograph.”

* PHP: recursive acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor, a scripting language

pico- (prefix): one trillionth, no hyphen—for example, “pictogram” and “picosecond”

Pict: an image-file format (generally produced by Apple Macintosh programs); not the

same as a .PIC graphics file, which is produced primarily by MS-DOS spreadsheet

programs

PID: proportional, integral, derivative

PIM: peripheral interface module; Protocol-Independent Multicast (SM = Sparse Mode;

SSM = Single-Source Multicast)

* PIN: personal identification number. Don’t use “PIN number.”

pinout

Pisces: parallel implementation of scientific computing environments

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center: one of the four US national supercomputer centers

funded by the National Science Foundation

pixel (n.): Derived from “pix” (short for “picture”) and “element,” it’s the smallest

resolvable dot in an image display.

PKI: public-key infrastructure

PL/I: a programming language developed by IBM (roman “I” per textbook by developer)

PLA: programmable logic array

plaintext: the intelligible form of an encrypted text—for example, “Plaintext contains

routing information.” Use “plain text” when referring to unencrypted text—for example,

“User entries are in italics; the computer’s response is in plain text.”

PlayStation

plug-in (n., adj.)

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lurals: The general rule is to add an “s”—for example, 1980s (year), 40s (temperature),

HP-1000s (name), and Apple IIs (name). See CMS 7.14 and 9.54.

* p.m.: post meridiem, meaning “after noon” (also includes 12:00 noon); see also a.m.

PMU: processor management unit

PMOS: p-channel metal-oxide semiconductor

PNG: portable network graphics

PnP: plug and play

PO: post office. In addresses, use no periods—for example, “PO Box 33.”

PocketPC: brand name; pocket PC: generic term

podcast

policymaker

* POP3: Post Office Protocol, version 3

popup

Posix: The IEEE standard for a portable operating systems interface. The initial standard

deals with portability standards for C programs on computers running Unix.

post-: no hyphen unless the root is based on a proper noun—for example, “postprocessing”

and “post-Victorian”)

postmortem

PostScript: a graphics- and font-description language from Adobe Systems, used primarily

in desktop publishing

power down (v.)

PowerPC

pp.: the abbreviation for multiple pages. Single-page references are denoted by p.

PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol

pre-: no hyphen unless the root is based on a proper noun—for example, “preeminent” and

“pre-Columbian”)

refixes: see CMS 7.85, Table 4

Prentice Hall

repositions in titles: See the “Capitalization” section.

president: Capitalize this only when it refers to the president of a country and comes before

that person’s name—for example, “President George Washington” and “George

Washington, first president of the United States.”

prettyprinting: the process of reformatting source code so that it has a consistent layout

price/performance ratio: written with a slash (“/”), not a hyphen

printed circuit board: the board on which most components are connected by printed

circuitry. PCB or PCBs is acceptable on second reference.

printout

Prism: parallel reduced-instruction-set multiprocessing (Apollo architecture)

rograms and tokens: See the “Program Code” section.

Prolog: a logic programming language

PROM: programmable read-only memory

pronouns: Instead of “he” or “she,” try to use a gender-neutral alternative—for example, a

plural pronoun (and verb), “he or she,” or “the user.”

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ps: picosecond

PS/2: Personal System/2, an IBM PC family based on Intel 80286/80386 processors. Unlike

the IBM PC AT, it has a proprietary Micro Channel bus; it can run OS/2 or MS-DOS.

PSB: parallel system bus

pseudo- (prefix): no hyphen when used to form a compound—for example,

“pseudorandom.” Word processors might hyphenate after “pseu,” but be careful to

hyphenate after “pseudo.”

PSN: packet-switch node

PSP: Personal Software Process or PlayStation Portable

PSTN: public switched telephone network

test

pulsewidth: not the same as pulse duration

PUMA: programmable universal mechanical assembly

value

PWB: printed wiring board

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Q-bus: from Digital Equipment Corp.

QCD: quantum chromodynamics

QED: quantum electrodynamics; also quod erat demonstrandum, “which was to be

demonstrated,” commonly used at the end of mathematical proofs.

QoS: (n.) quality of service; (adj.) quality-of-service

* QR code (n.) quick response code

quadword: a 48-bit or 32-bit piece of data

quasi, quasi-: This is hyphenated for adjectives—for example, “quasi-parenthetical.” It’s

open for nouns, except for some established closed compounds—for example, “quasi

system” and “quasiparticle.”

Quel: a relational calculus language

quicksort routine: memory sorting

QuickTime: the Macintosh movie/animation application

quotation marks: Use them around direct quotations, chapter titles, episode titles, words

when referred to as words, and letters when referred to as letters. In an article that begins

with a quotation, don’t use an opening quotation mark with the initial drop cap (an

oversized, boldface capital at the beginning of a paragraph), but close the quotation with a

quotation mark. Block quotations don’t take quotation marks. For more information, see

CMS 13.20-13.22 and 13.37-13.41.

QVGA: quarter VGA

qwerty: the standard typewriter or computer keyboard, with the letters q, w, e, r, t, and y at

the upper left; no initial capital

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R8000: a 64-bit RISC microprocessor introduced in 1994 by MIPS Technologies Inc. It

was formerly code-named TFP. Other processors made by MIPS include the R4400 and

R4600.

rackmount (adj.): computer equipment that’s standardized to 19 inches in width

* RAID: redundant array of independent disks (originally “inexpensive” disks)

* RAM: random-access memory

RAND Corp.: the official format for the name of the nonprofit research corporation. In

IEEE Security & Privacy, use “Rand Corporation” in affiliations and bios.

* R&D: research and development

raster (n.): the scan lines that form the graphic output on a computer display; also referred

to as bitmap

raster-op: raster operation

ray tracer (n.): an algorithm for drawing computer-generated shaded or highlighted

images (also, a ray-tracing algorithm)

RC: resistance-capacitance

RCS: radar cross-section

RDBMS, RDBMSs (pl.): relational database management system

RDF: Resource Description Framework

RDFS: RDF Schema

re-: no hyphenation in most cases. See Webster’s for individual examples; watch the

context for words such as resign (to quit a job) or re-sign (to sign again).

readback: a way to ensure the accuracy of output by comparing the transmitted data with

the original data

readout (n.): a visual display of data stored electronically; read out (v.)

read/write

RealNetworks

real time (n.), real-time (adj.): the actual time during which something takes place

reengineer: to examine and alter a subject system to reconstitute it into a new form and to

subsequently implement the new form; contrast with “reverse engineering”

registered trademark (): See trademark.

relational database: a database with data organized into tables

REST: Representational State Transfer, an XML protocol

reverse engineering (n.), reverse-engineering (adj.), reverse-engineer (v.): to deduce the

plans of something already built as opposed to reengineering an entity

Rexx: IBM’s Restructured Extended Executor

* RF: radio frequency

* RFC: request for comments

* RFID: radio frequency identification

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RFP: request for proposal. Spell this out on first use.

RGB: red, green, blue; an additive color model used in TV and raster displays

RISC: reduced-instruction-set computing or computer

RMI: remote method invocation. See Java RMI.

road map

ROI: return on investment

rollout (n.), roll out (v.)

* ROM: read-only memory (nonerasable)

roman: a type style that isn’t italic or boldface; no initial capital when referring to the type

style

round-off error

royalty-free images

* RPC: Remote Procedure Call; a protocol

RPF: reverse path forwarding

rpm: revolutions per minute

RS-232, RS-232C: hardware interface protocols

RS/6000: RISC System/6000, a workstation from IBM. It comes in a variety of models,

such as the IBM RS/6000 Model 350.

RSCS: Remote Spooling and Communications Subsystem, the spooling protocol used in

Vnet and Bitnet

* RSS: Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, or RDF Site Summary—a method

of describing Web content that’s available for distribution or syndication from an online

publisher to Web users

RSVP: Resource Reservation Protocol

RT: register transfer

RT-11: the operating system for Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-11 computers

RTCP: Real-Time Control Protocol

RTL: register transfer level or Register Transfer Language

RTP: Real-Time Transfer Protocol

RTSP: Real-Time Streaming Protocol

RTTP: Real-Time Transport Protocol; also seen as RTP

rubberbanding: a computer graphics technique that lets lines in an image be stretched and

moved as if elastic

rule set

runtime (n., adj.)

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* s: SI abbreviation for second—for example, 30 s and 30 ns. See sec.

S.: “south” in addresses

SaaS: software as a service. It takes “a” when used as an adjective.

SAE: Society of Automotive Engineers

safety: In some computing contexts, this is a technical term meaning the quality of making

sure that nothing bad happens. Safety, for example, ensures that a calculation is performed

but not that the calculation’s results are actually returned to a user or program module. Don’t

use this term without an explanation; compare with liveness.

SAML: Security Assertion Markup Language; an OASIS standard

SAN: storage area network; system area network

SATAN: Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks. Don’t lowercase the

acronym.

SAX: Simple API for XML

scalable

ScaLapack: a benchmarking package. See also Lapack.

scan-in; scan-out (n.)

scan line (n.): one of the lines that make up a graphics display

scatterplot

Scene: Scientific Computation Environment for Numerical Experimentation; a scientific

visualization environment developed at Rutgers

schema: a term used in artificial intelligence and in modeling to represent an approach,

scheme, or relation precisely and usually diagrammatically. Ensure that the generic

“scheme” is inappropriate before using “schema.” The plural is “schemas,” not the Greek

schemata.

Scheme: an artificial intelligence language

Schrödinger equation: Spell this with an umlaut, not oe.

SCI: scalable coherent interface

scratchpad: a fast auxiliary computer memory, usually used for temporary data storage

screen dump (n.), screenshot (n.), screensaver (n.)

scroll bar (n.)

Scrum: a framework for software development

SCSI: Small Computer System Interface. It’s pronounced “skuzzy” and takes “a” as its

article.

SDI: serial digital interface

SDK: software developer’s kit

SDRAM: synchronous DRAM (dynamic random access memory)

SE: “southeast” in addresses

SEBoK Guide: This is the preferred abbreviated form when referring to the Systems

Engineering Body of Knowledge. Don’t confuse this with the SWEBOK Guide.

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sec.: nontechnical abbreviation for second. Use “s” unless confusion could result.

second sourcing (n.): in manufacturing, the practice of using an alternate company to

produce something that the original manufacturer designed and produces itself—for

example, when the original manufacturer can’t make enough to meet demand

SEI: Software Engineering Institute, a US Defense Dept. research arm (managed by the US

Navy) based at Carnegie Mellon University. In IEEE Software, SEI doesn’t need CMU with

it.

Semantic Web: an extension of the current Web using standards such as RDF along with

ontologies and other mechanisms to define meaning for abstract data to facilitate machine–

machine communication

semi (prefix): Don’t hyphenate this.

Senior Fellow, Senior Member

September 11, 2001 (9/11)

Serial ATA

Series 1000: but “the 1000 series”

servocontroller: “Servo” by itself isn’t sufficient.

servomechanism: an automatic feedback system that monitors an operation and makes

necessary adjustments. “Servo” by itself isn’t sufficient.

set-top box: an interactive television device that sits on top of the television

setup (n.), set up (v.)

SGI: formerly Silicon Graphics Inc.

SGML: Standard Generalized Markup Language

SGMP: Simple Gateway-Monitoring Protocol

shar: shell archive; a file combination protocol

shrink-wrapped

SI: an acronym for the French version of International System of Units, a scientific method

of expressing the magnitude or quantity of seven specific natural phenomena

SIA: Semiconductor Industry Association

SIAM: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

SID: Society for Information Display

SIG: special-interest group. See ACM.

Siggraph; Sigmod

Sigma: a project to develop a software development workstation environment, staffed by a

consortium of companies working under the direction of Japan’s Ministry of International

Trade and Industry (MITI) through the Information-Processing Technology Agency (IPA)

signs: See the “Numbers and Symbols” section.

SIIA: Software Information Industry Assoc.

Sim: a benchmark

SIMD: single instruction, multiple data—the simplest form of parallel architecture. It’s

pronounced “sim-dee” and takes “a” as its article. Spell it out on first use if necessary for

contextual clarity. Use hyphens when it’s written out and used as a modifier.

* SIMM: single, in-line memory module

Simox: separation by implanted oxygen

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single-sign-on

single-stuck-at fault model: See stuck-at.

the singularity: Note the lowercase s.

SIP: Session Initiation Protocol

SITA: Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques

sizeable: Webster’s also uses “sizable.”

SkinnyDIP: a trademark name for thin-packaged DIP chips. DIP stands for “dual in-line

package.”

Slim: Software Life-Cycle Management, a project-estimation system developed by

Lawrence Putnam

SLOC: source lines of code. Don’t spell this out in IEEE Software.

SLP: Service Location Protocol

small-scale (adj.)

smart card (n.)

smart home (n.), smart-home (adj.)

smartphone (n.)

SMD: surface-mount device

SME: Society of Manufacturing Engineers; small and medium enterprise

SMEs: small and medium enterprises

SMIL: Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language. Use “a” before the acronym. It’s

pronounced “smile.”

S/MIME: secure MIME

SMS: short message service

SMT: surface-mount technology

SMTP: Simple Mail-Transfer Protocol

SNAP: scalable networks and platforms; a phrase coined by Gordon Bell and Jim Gray at

the University of California, Berkeley

SNMP: Simple Network Management Protocol

SNR: signal-to-noise ratio

SOA: service-oriented architecture. It’s pronounced “soh-uh,” as in “a SOA.”

* SOAP: a Web services messaging protocol. Originally the acronym for Simple Object

Access Protocol, the term is no longer defined in common use.

SOC: service-oriented computing; service-oriented collaboration

SoC: system-on-chip (adj.); system on chip (n.); systems on chip (n. pl.). The abbreviated

plural noun form is SoCs.

social media (n., adj.)

social network

soft copy (n.), soft-copy (adj.)

software engineering (n., adj.)

software-hardware development (n.)

Softwire

soho: small office/home office

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SOJ: small-outline, J-lead

solid modeling (n.), solid-modeling (adj.).

son: one of several family words used to describe relationships among nodes in databases.

The term is legitimate; don’t edit it out.

Sonet: Synchronous Optical Network; a Bellcore standard

Sony PlayStation

source code (n., adj.): no hyphen

SPA: Software Publishers Association, now part of SIIA (see the related entry); also

“scratchpad area” (from IEEE)

spam: junk email

Sparc: Sun Microsystems’ scalable processor architecture; a RISC-based CPU used

primarily in engineering workstations

Sparcstation: Examples are Sparcstation IPX and Sparcstation 2.

SPC: Software Productivity Consortium, a research group

SPEC: Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (formerly System Performance

Evaluation Cooperative); a vendor-sponsored source of the SPEC benchmarks. Examples

are the SPECint92 and SPECfp92.

Speedup (n.)

Spice: a simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis

* SPIE: Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. The organization now styles

itself “the international society for optical engineering.”

Spreadsheet (n.)

Springer: a book publisher. Use this in all references (instead of Springer-Verlag, for

example).

* sq ft: sqare foot

* SQL: Structured Query Language

squash-and-stretch (n.): a function that enlarges and reduces, not necessarily in proportion

to all dimensions; also called rubberbanding

SRAM: static RAM. Takes “an” when used as an adjective.

SRI: Stanford Research Institute

SSH: Secure Shell or Secure Socket Shell; a security protocol

SSI: small-scale integration, typically from one to four circuits

* SSL: Secure Sockets Layer; a security protocol

* SSL/TLS

stand-alone (adj.)

Staran

Stars: Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems; a US Defense Dept. project

Star Tap

StartTLS

start-up (n., adj.)

statechart: not state chart or state-chart

state of the art (n.), state-of-the-art (adj.): represents the highest level of available

technology (as compared with “state of the practice,” which is the highest level in general

Style Guide version October 2016 93

use). It’s an overworked phrase; consider substituting “current technology.”

state-transition (adj.)

stereo pair (n.): two pictures that produce a 3D image

stuck-at (adj.), stuck-at fault (n.): a type of circuit defect in which a gate can be stuck at

either 1 or 0—for example, “stuck-at-1 fault” or “stuck-at-0 fault”; can also be abbreviated

as SA1 and SA0

stuck-open fault (n.): not synonymous with stuck-at fault

stylesheet (n., adj.)

Styrofoam: use “foam” or “plastic foam” when referring to generic consumer or packaging

products. Capitalize this term when it’s used as a trademark.

subsystem (n.)

Sun OS: Sun Microsystems’ version of the Unix operating system

SunSoft: a division of Sun Microsystems that provides system software

Sun workstation: initial capital on “Sun”; from Sun Microsystems

Sunmos: a Sandia / University of New Mexico operating system; an operating system for

the Intel Paragon parallel supercomputer

super: no hyphen when used to form a compound word—for example, supercomputer

supercomputer (n.): There’s no fixed processing speed definition for a supercomputer; it

changes with advances in technology.

supermini: short for superminicomputer, which is the preferred usage

surface: Don’t use this as a transitive verb in the sense of “bringing to the top.” A whale

surfaces, but a speaker doesn’t surface an idea. If you must give buoyancy to ideas, “float”

them. However, “surface” can be used as a transitive verb in the sense of “refining or

smoothing a physical surface,” as in “surfacing lumber.”

surface-mount device, surface-mount technology: a board manufacturing method in

which chips are “glued” to boards

SW: “southwest” in addresses

SWEBOK Guide: The preferred abbreviated format to use when referring to the Guide to

the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge.

SWIG: simplified wrapper and interface generator

system on chip (n.); system-on-chip (adj.); systems on chip (n. pl.): The abbreviations are

SoC (sing.) and SoCs (pl.).

systemwide

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24/7

* 2D: two-dimensional, no hyphen

* 3D: three-dimensional, no hyphen

3DES: (say “triple DES”)

T1: digital transmission at 1.544 Mbits per second; T3 is a faster line

tape out

tar: tape archive; file combination protocol

task ID: Use the one-word form, taskid, only in program statements.

task type: Use the one-word form, tasktype, only in program statements.

* Tbyte: terabyte; one billion bytes

TC: technical committee. Spell this out on first use.

Tcl/Tk: a computer language developed by John Ousterhout of UC Berkeley. The elements

can also be separate—Tcl and Tk.

* TCP: Transmission Control Protocol

TCPA: Microsoft’s Trusted Computing Platform Architecture, formerly called Palladium

* TCP/IP

TDM: time-division multiplexing

TDMA: time division multiple access

telephone numbers: See the “Numbers and Symbols” section and CMS 6.77.

teletext: a noninteractive (broadcast) text and graphics communications system

Teletype: use only when describing Teletype Corp. equipment. The generic word is

teletypewriter.

teletypewriter: See above; abbreviated TTY.

television: okay to abbreviate as TV

telex: the acronym for teletype exchange, a service that permits the transmission of data

using commercial telecommunication facilities comprising a network of teletypewriters

Tell-A-Graf: graphics software by Computer Associates International

Telenet (n.): Terminal Emulation Protocol; US Sprint’s switching network originally

developed for Arpanet

testbed (n.): an environment containing all the components necessary for testing a system

tests (statistical): F-test; t-test, chi-square test; p value; Wilcoxon rank sum test

TeX: see LaTeX; pronounced “tech”

Tflops: teraflops; one billion flops

TFT: thin-film transistor

the: Normally, when referring to the name of an academic institution or corporate entity

that starts with “the” (such as “the University of Texas”), lowercase or delete “the.” Delete

“the” in a byline (except for “The Ohio State University” and “The Hong Kong University

of Science and Technology).

ThinDIP: a trademark name for thin-packaged DIP chips; “DIP” stands for dual in-line

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package

Thomas J. Watson Research Center, T.J. Watson Research Center: an IBM facility;

refer to as the “IBM T.J. Watson Research Center” on first use

Thomas J. Watson: When referring to the persons, distinguish between Jr. and Sr.

three-space, three-dimensional space: a mathematical term; also 3-space. It can be

written as S3 or R3.

throughput

tif: an electronic file format

* TIFF: tagged image-file format; graphics-file format. Even though the filename extension

is .tif, the acronym is TIFF.

tiling: a nonoverlapping approach to window management

time-consuming

time frame

time line: a description of events during a particular historical period; timeline: a schedule

of events or procedures

time-multiplexed (adj.)

time-out (n.), time out (v.)

times: When indicating the use of “times” with a number, use a multiplication sign instead

of x—for example, 2 speedup. However, you may use “times” when it seems

appropriate—for example, “The new version has 10 times the memory.”

time-shared (adj.)

time-sharing (n.): simultaneous use of a central computer by many users at remote

locations

time sheet (n.)

time stamp (n.)

time step (n.), time-step (adj.)

time to market

TI OMAP: Texas Instruments Open Multimedia Applications Platform

TIP: terminal interface processor

TLB: translation look-aside buffer

* TLS: Transport Layer Security

TMS32010, TMS34010: processors from Texas Instruments; no space between the letters

and numbers

toolbox (n.), toolkit (n.), toolset (n.): one word when used in computer contexts

tonnes: Use “metric tons” instead.

TOP: Technical Office Protocol. See MAP/TOP.

top-down design

touch pad (n.): a touch-sensitive user interface

touchscreen (n.): a touch-sensitive user interface

TP0-TP4: Transport Protocol Class 0 to 4; a set of transmission protocols in the ISO

protocol suite

traceable; traceback; traceroute

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trackball (n.)

trademark: The registered-trademark () symbol indicates that the trademark is registered

in the US Patent and Trademark Office; () indicates that it’s pending. Avoid using

trademark symbols in text. However, oblige an author who owns a trademark and insists on

its use. In this case, use the company’s name before the product on first reference to

establish ownership—for example, Sun’s Sbus. Thereafter, use the product name by itself.

tradeoff (n.); trade off (v.)

transition: Don’t use this as a verb.

transputer (n.) (transister computer): a microprocessor with local memory and

communication links. It’s both an Inmos product and a generic term.

troff: text run-off; a Unix text-format front-end (coding) and output (printing) processor.

It’s pronounced “tee-roff.” Variations include nroff and ditroff (device-independent troff)

Trojan horse

TRON: The Real-Time Operating-System Nucleus; a Japanese computer project to

develop hardware and software technology to run household systems that are independent

but communicate with each other for smart homes and the like. Modules include MTRON,

BTRON, ITRON, CTRON, and ITRON.

TSR: terminate-and-stay-resident

TTL: transistor-transistor logic

TTS (adj.): text-to-speech

t-test: a statistical test that deals with the problems associated with inference based on

small samples

-tuple: a suffix for a set of <<so many>> elements

turnaround

turnkey (adj.): describes a system delivered ready to run without adding any hardware or

software; a synonym for “off the shelf”

* TU Wien

* TV: the abbreviation for television

TWAIN: technology without an interesting name; a programming interface that lets a

graphics application activate a scanner or other image-capturing device

tweet (n., v.)

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UBE: unsolicited bulk e-mail

ubicomp: abbreviation for ubiquitous computing

ubiquitous computing (n.), ubiquitous-computing (adj.)

UCE: unsolicited commercial email

UCS: universal character set

* UDDI: universal description, discovery, and integration

UDP: User Datagram Protocol

UHD: ultra-high-definition

UI: unit interval; a measure of time

UIMS: user-interface management system; UIMSs (pl.)

UIP: user-interface presentation

UIST: user-interface software and technology

UK: United Kingdom (no periods), comprising England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and

Wales; not synonymous with Britain. Don’t use UK if the country name is sufficient.

ULSI: ultralarge-scale integration; can be used as a stand-alone noun when referring to the

concept but not to physical objects—for example, “ULSI circuit” or “ULSI chip”

Ultracomputer: IBM and New York University’s supercomputer

ultra-high-definition (adj.): The abbreviation is UHD.

Ultranet

ultrawideband (adj.): See also UWB.

UML: Unified Modeling Language. Don’t spell this out in IEEE Software.

UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

UN: United Nations (no periods)

underway (adv.), under way (adj.)

Uni (prefix): not hyphenated—for example, uniprocessor

unicode

UniForum

Univac: Universal Automatic Computer

University X at Y, or University X, Y, or University X–Y: Follow the specific institution’s

usage. Although some universities capitalize “the” and consider it part of their name,

Computer Society style either deletes or lowercases the word when the name appears in

regular text. So, it’s “the Ohio State University” (not “The Ohio State University”) and

“the University of Kansas” (not “The University of Kansas”). Also delete “the” in a byline

(except for “The Ohio State University” and “The Hong Kong University of Science and

Technology). It’s “the University of California at Santa Barbara,” but all other UC

campuses use this format: University of California, Berkeley.

Unix: a multilanguage operating system developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Various

versions exist.

upgradable

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UPnP: universal plug and play

uppercase

* URI: uniform resource identifier

* URL: uniform resource locator

URN: uniform resource name

* US (n., adj.): United States; no periods

US$: Don’t place “US” in front of the dollar sign except to avoid confusion.

* USB: Universal Serial Bus

USENIX

user-friendly (adj.): frequently overused; avoid unless appropriate to the context

username

USRA: Universities Space Research Association

UTF-8: Unicode Transformation Format-8

UUCPnet: Unix-to-Unix copy network

* UV: ultraviolet

UWB: ultrawideband, a wireless communication technology

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* V: volts—for example, 45 V (n.) and 45-V (adj.) power supply

v.: the abbreviation for “versus” in a legal context—for example, Smith v. Jones. See also

vs.

Vac: volts of alternating current—for example, 25 Vac.

validation: testing a product or product specification to ensure that it meets the

requirements (that it has the specified functions); compare with verification

Vanet: vehicular ad hoc network

VAR: value-added reseller

variable-length field

VAX: a mainframe made by Digital Equipment Corp. The plural is VAXs; “VAX”

reportedly comes from “virtual address extension” (to the PDP-11)

VAX 11/725, 11/730, 11/750, 11/780, 11/782, 11/785, 8600: Note the slash, not a hyphen.

VAX/VMS: an operating system for VAX computers. VMS stands for VAX Management

System.

VCCS: voltage-controlled current source

* VCR: videocassette recorder

Vdc: volts of direct current—for example, 25 Vdc

VDT: video display terminal; a generic term; not interchangeable with CRT

verification: determining whether a product meets its requirements (whether it does what

it’s supposed to); compare with validation

Versabus

VersaDOS

version: Capitalize it only when it’s used with the name of a product—for example,

Microsoft Word Version 6.0. An acceptable informal abbreviation (except at the

beginning of a sentence) is v, closed up next to a number—for example, Macsyma v2.0.

The word “version” or its abbreviation isn’t always necessary—for example, “Word 6.0 is

a major release.”

versus: see v. and vs.

vertices: the plural of vertex

* VGA: video graphics adapter (or array); an IBM color-display standard allowing 256

colors

VHDL: very high density logic; also VHSIC Hardware Description Language.

VHSIC: very high speed integrated circuit

via: Use this word sparingly (It means “by way of,” “through the medium or agency of,”

or “by means of.”) Often, “through” works just as well and sounds less formal.

VIC: video interface chip

vice president: see CMS 8.21; capitalize when referring to the Vice President of the

United States

videocassette, videocassette recorder

videoconference, videoconferencing

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videodisk; video game

video on demand (n.), video-on-demand (adj.), VoD (abbrev.)

videotape (n., v.)

videotex: an interactive text and graphics communications system; also called “viewdata”

video over IP

viewport

virtual memory

virtual reality (n.), virtual-reality (adj.): The abbreviation is VR.

VisiCalc: a financial spreadsheet program from now-defunct Software Arts Products

* VLSI: very large-scale integration. VLSI can be used as a stand-alone noun when

referring to the concept but not to physical objects—for example VLSI circuit or VLSI

chip. VLSI also is acceptable for VLSI Technology Inc.

VM: virtual machine; also JVM or Java virtual machine

VMEbus

VMS: VAX Management System, an operating system for DEC VAX computers

Vnet: an IBM internal network

VoD (n.): video on demand

* VoIP: voice over IP

von Neumann (adj.): refers to the concept of storing data and the instructions that apply

to that data together; the stored-program concept (for example, “von Neumann sort” or

“non–von Neumann architecture”). Note that the second example takes an en dash, not a

hyphen.

voxel: loosely speaking, a 3D pixel

VPE: visual programming environment

VPL: visual programming language

* VPN: virtual private network

* VR: virtual reality

VRAM: video random-access memory

Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam: Free University, Amsterdam. The commonly used

acronym (VU University Amsterdam) doesn’t work—it’s redundant.

VRML: Virtual Reality Modeling Language

vs.: the normal abbreviation for versus, except in a legal context (see v.). Spell it out in

text; the abbreviation is acceptable elsewhere.

VT52, VT100, VT101, VT102, VT131, VT220: Digital Equipment Corp. video display

terminals

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* W: watts—for example, 25-W dissipation

W.: “west” in addresses

* W3C: World Wide Web Consortium

wafer-scale integration

WAN: wide area network. Don’t spell this out in IEEE Software or IEEE Security &

Privacy.

WAP: Wireless Application Protocol

Washington, DC

watts

waveform

wave front

wave function

WCGA: World Computer Graphics Association

WDM: wavelength-division multiplexing

WDP: World Data Processing

web: the short name for the World Wide Web. Net is the short name for the Internet.

web browser, web services

webcam, webcast, weblog, webmaster, webpage, webserver, website

well: a well-defined concept; the concept is well defined. (Don’t hyphenate “well” words

following being verbs.)

WG: see working group

Whetstone: benchmarks

whiteboard

white list, white pages

white paper

-wide (suffix): see CMS 7.85, Table 3

wideband (adj.)

Wi-Fi: wireless products certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance to be interoperable

Wii Remote

wiki: computer software for creating, editing, and linking webpages

Wikipedia: a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project operated by the Wikimedia

Foundation.

wild cards

John Wiley & Sons

WiMax

WIMP: windows, icons, menus, pointing devices

Windows 95/98/NT/2000/Me

WinZip: a file compression program

Style Guide version October 2016 102

wireframe (adj.): refers to a line drawing of a 2D or 3D object (a wireframe image)

wire wrap (n.): a method of making an electrical connection in a circuit by wrapping

wires around terminals

wire-wrapping (adj.): as in “wire-wrapping techniques”

WISC: writable-instruction-set computing

WLAN: wireless local area network

word: a sequence of bits that a processor can act on simultaneously. More bits per word

let the processor work on more data simultaneously. A word can be defined in terms of

bytes (a two-byte word equals a 16-bit word), but bits are the more common unit. See

also Mword and Kword.

word-slice processor

workaround

working group: Use initial capitals if in a title—for example, “Working Group on Posix

Definitions.” Lowercase the term if it’s generic.

workflow, workload, workplace, worksheet

workspace: the amount of memory a program requires, over and above the amount

necessary to store the program itself

workstation

worldwide

World Wide Web: abbreviated WWW. See Web and WWW.

WORM: write-once, read-many (times)

WoZ

wrap-up (n.), wrap up (v.)

WSCI: Web service choreography interface

WSDL: Web Services Description Language; pronounced “whizdle”

WSN: wireless sensor network

WVGA: wide VGA

WWW: see World Wide Web and Web. Depending on the context, the abbreviated form

is acceptable on first reference.

WYSIWYG: stands for “what you see is what you get.” The abbreviation is acceptable

on first reference in departments, but spell it out on first reference in regular articles.

Style Guide version October 2016 103

9/07 Xen: open source virtualization software

X.25: the network layer protocol in the ISO protocol suite

X.400: an ISO mail protocol

x-axis (n., adj.)

Xbox

X client (n.), X-client (adj.): See also X Window System.

XDR: External Data Representation; a protocol

Xenix: an operating system similar to Unix from Microsoft for PCs based on the Intel

8088, 80286, and 80386 chips

Xerox PARC: now just PARC

XGA: extended graphics array; a high-resolution graphics standard that IBM introduced in

1990

XLANG

XLink: XML Linking Language

XMI: XML Metadata Interchange

Xmodem: the abbreviation of cross-modem, an error-free file-transfer protocol

* XML: Extensible Markup Language

XMPP: Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol

XMS: extended memory specification; used to address memory greater than 1 Mbyte in the

80286 and later CPUs

XMT: extensible MPEG-4 textual format

XNS: Xerox Network Services

XOR: the exclusive-OR operation used in cryptography

XPath: XML Path Language

XPointer: XML Pointer Language

x-ray (n., adj., v.)

XHTTP, XHTML, XML

XT: See IBM PC.

XScale: an Intel processor

X Window System, X Windows: a graphics environment from MIT for Unix

workstations. No hyphens.

X11 Windows

xy-plane: also yz-plane and xz-plane

XSL: Extensible Style Sheet Language

XSLT: Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformation

Style Guide version October 2016 104

* y: year (unit of measurement)

Y2K Problem: the crisis that didn’t happen in 2000

YACC: a compiler compiler; a Unix tool

Yahoo

-axis: (n., adj.)

ears: to form the plural, add s—for example, 1990s. When referring to just the decade,

spell it out—for example, nineties.

yellow pages

Ymodem: file transfer protocol

Style Guide version October 2016 105

Z80: a microprocessor from Zenith Data Systems

Z80-A

z-axis: (n., adj.)

z-buffer: storage for z-axis values for 3D images; sometimes called the “depth buffer”

Zadeh, Lotfi: a pioneer in fuzzy logic. Note the first name, which is often misspelled.

zero-day: refers to the timing of viruses released the same day as a patch. Don’t use “0-

day.”

ZIP: zigzag in-line package; a file-compression technique; ZIP code

Zmodem: successor to Xmodem and Ymodem

CSSG_16 IEEE TC 2016CSStyle Guide

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