CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research | IT Department | UDS Group | Scientific Text Processing Service | |
In scientific texts the visual form of a symbol often implies a semantic meaning which is not easily captured by generic markup. Therefore authors using a generic coding system (such as LaTeX or an XML grammar) need to know about these typographical conventions. The following is a brief summary of the most important rules for composing scientific texts. They are based on two basic international reference texts:
The most important rule is consistency: a symbol should
always be the same, whether it appears in a formula or in the text, on
the main line or as a superscript or subscript. This means, when using
(La)TeX, that once you have used a symbol inside mathematics mode
(
In scientific work and by international convention a whole series of symbols must be set in roman (upright) type. In LaTeX, roman inside mathematics mode is achieved with the \mathrm command.
The following families of symbols must always be typeset in roman characters:
din integrands (e.g., dx).
A nice overview has been prepared by the National Institute of Standards and Technology: Typefaces for symbols in scientific manuscripts.
When, as an author, you follow these rules the reader will understand at first glance what you are talking about. Instances of the importance of using the correct typesetting for symbols are shown in the following table.
roman type | italic type | ||
A | ampere (electric unit) | A | atomic number (variable) |
electron (particle name) | e | electron charge (constant) | |
g | gluon (particle name) | g | gravitational constant |
l | litre (volume unit) | l | length (variable) |
m | metre (length unit) | m | mass (variable) |
p | proton (particle name) | p | momentum (variable) |
q | quark (particle name) | q | electric charge (variable) |
s | second (time unit) | s | c.m. energy squared (variable) |
t | tonne (weight unit) | t | time (variable) |
V | volt (electric unit) | V | volume (variable) |
Z | Z boson (particle name) | Z | atomic charge (variable) |
Last Mod. 17 November 2006 (MG)