SFARI Wiki Style Guide
Acronyms: Use acronyms only if they are repeated at least three times in the entry. Spell out in first reference (if editing an existing entry, check to see if it has already been spelled out), followed by the acronym in parentheses.
Example: …receptors for the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which dampens brain signals.
Active vs. passive voice: Use active voice whenever possible, and avoid passive:
Passive voice: It was observed that the children didn’t respond verbally.
Active voice: The investigators observed that the children didn’t respond verbally.
Ages: Always use numerical figures for people, but not for inanimate objects: children between the ages of 5 and 12; the organization is five years old.
Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun: a 5-year-old boy; the boy is 5 years old; 10-year-olds with autism.
Asperger syndrome: Not Asperger’s syndrome
Autism: People with autism should be referred to as people with autism, those diagnosed with autism, a child with autism, etc. Never use the term autistic.
Do not use patients or subjects when writing about people involved in a study. Instead, use people with autism or trial/study participants.
Disease names: Lowercase unless part of the name is a proper noun (ie, the name of a person): autism, Asperger’s syndrome, fragile X syndrome, schizophrenia, Williams syndrome. Note exception: the X in fragile X is capitalized because it refers to the X chromosome.
Down syndrome: Not Down’s syndrome
Gene and protein names: Use uppercase, regular font (no italics) for all gene names, both human and mouse. Use uppercase, regular font (no italics) for all abbreviated protein names, both human and mouse. FMRP, the protein missing in fragile X syndrome; a mouse that lacks both copies of the IB2 gene.
Use lowercase, regular font (no italics) for spelled-out proteins: neuroligin-1 vs. NLGN1
Hyperlinks (also see References): Please link to relevant SFARI articles and to other Wiki terms. To create a hyperlink, use two open brackets [[ followed by the URL and a vertical line | before the text you would like to hyperlink, and use two close brackets ]] directly after the text you are hyperlinking.
Example: Researchers have also [[https://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/in-brief/2011/genetics-new-technique-maps-mutation-rich-regions|mapped unique identifiers]] in the regions around human genes that are at risk for duplication or deletion.
Numbers: Spell out numbers zero through ten. For numbers 11 and above, use numerical figures. Exceptions: Always uses numerical figures for ages, weight and measurements/dimensions. Also, if sentence includes two numbers that describe like things and one of them is above 10, use numerical figures for both: Five studies; 5 studies this year and 14 last year. However, if the sentence includes numbers that belong to different categories, follow the normal rule: Among the five studies, 45 children ended up dropping out. Whenever possible, avoid starting a sentence with a number.
Percentages: Spell out the word percent (no % symbol). For the number, follow the rule for numbers above.
References: To add a reference, or footnote, add the following directly after the text you want to footnote (ie., with no spaces beforehand): <<FootNote(your reference goes here)>>
Type your reference within the parentheses, starting with last name and first initial of lead author, then et al. if there are multiple authors. If just two authors, add the second one using first initial and last name (ie, ‘Jones T. and J. Smith’). Then include journal name (using periods for abbreviated words) followed by a comma, and then volume number and page range (or if study is not yet available in print, add Epub ahead of print after the journal name), and year of publication in parentheses. Lastly, include a URL for the abstract. See example below.
You will need to use coding so that the et al. and the journal title appear in italics, the volume number appears in bold, and the URL is hyperlinked to the abstract (either to PubMed or to the journal itself). To create italics, use two single quotes before and after the text to be italicized. To make text bold, use three single quotes before and after the text to be bolded. To create a hyperlink, use two open brackets [[ followed by the URL, and then a vertical line | followed by PubMed or Abstract (depending on the source of the URL), followed by two close brackets ]].
Here is what a formatted reference should look like, complete with coding (note single space after year, before URL):
<<FootNote(Antonacci F. ''et al. Nat. Genet.'' '''42''', 745-750 (2010) [[http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v42/n9/abs/ng.643.html|Abstract]])>>
If including one reference directly after another (ie., footnoting the same text with 2 references), include ^,^ between the two formatted references, as follows:
<<FootNote(formatted reference)>>^,^<<FootNote(formatted reference)>>
Each reference you include will automatically appear at the bottom of the Wiki entry, with the correct reference number in front of it, in the correct order. Note that you cannot link to the same reference twice in one Wiki entry.
