This list of style guide abbreviations provides the meanings of the abbreviations that are commonly used as short ways to refer to major style guides. They are used especially by editors communicating with other editors in manuscript queries, proof queries, marginalia, emails, message boards, and so on.
| Abbreviation | Style guide | Organization | Field/subject | Principal national variety | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACS | chemistry, chemical engineering | pubs.acs.org | ||||
| ASG | Apple Style Guide | Apple Inc. | Corporate identity | American | support.apple.com | |
| AHD | The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language | general | ahdictionary.com | |||
| AMA | AMA Manual of Style | www.amamanualofstyle.com | ||||
| AP | AP Stylebook | www.apstylebook.com | ||||
| APA | psychology, social sciences | www.apastyle.org | ||||
| BCE | Butcher’s Copy-editing | general; publishing | ||||
| BSH | The Business Style Handbook | business writing | ||||
| CBE | Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 6th edition, now called Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers | Council of Science Editors back when it was called the Council of Biology Editors | science, especially life sciences | |||
| CGEL | Cambridge Grammar of the English Language | |||||
| CGEU | Cambridge Guide to English Usage | |||||
| CMOSCMS | The Chicago Manual of Style | general use, publishing | www.chicagomanualofstyle.org | |||
| CSE | Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers | science, especially life sciences | ||||
| GMAU | Garner's Modern American Usage | |||||
| GPO | U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual | government publishing | www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2008 | |||
| GRM | The Gregg Reference Manual | business records and correspondence | mhhe.com/business/buscom/gregg/ | |||
| ISNAD | The ISNAD Citation Style | Sivas Cumhuriyet University - Abdullah Demir | general use, publishing | Turkish, English, Persian, Arabic | https://www.isnadsistemi.org | |
| ISO 690 | general | https://www.iso.org | ||||
| IEEE | ||||||
| MAU | Modern American Usage by Follett, often called Follett's Modern American Usage | |||||
| MEUB | Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Burchfield edition | |||||
| MEUF | Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Fowler edition | |||||
| MEUG | Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Gowers edition | |||||
| MHRA | MHRA Style Guide | |||||
| MLA | MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing | www.mla.org/store/CID25/PID341 | ||||
| MLAH | The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers | www.mlahandbook.org | ||||
| MSTP | Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications | technical writing on IT topics | ||||
| MWC | Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary | general | unabridged.merriam-webster.com/collegiate | |||
| MWCD | Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary | general | unabridged.merriam-webster.com/collegiate | |||
| MWDS | Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms | general | ||||
| MWDEU | Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage | |||||
| MWEU | Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage | |||||
| MWG | Merriam-Webster’s Guide to Punctuation and Style | general | ||||
| MWM | Merriam-Webster’s Manual for Writers and Editors (2nd ed. of MWSM) | general | ||||
| MWNI2 | Merriam-Webster’s New International Dictionary (Unabridged, 2nd ed.) | general | ||||
| MWI3 | Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary (Unabridged) | general | ||||
| MWSM | Merriam-Webster’s Standard American Style Manual | general | ||||
| NHR | New Hart’s Rules | general use, publishing | www.oxforddictionaries.com > New Hart's Rules search filter | |||
| NYT | New York Times Manual of Style and Usage | The New York Times | ||||
| ODSWE | Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors | |||||
| ODWE | Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors | general | ||||
| OED | Oxford English Dictionary | general | ||||
| OSCOLA | Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities | Faculty of Law, University of Oxford | law | British | https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola | |
| OSM | Oxford Style Manual (combines ODWE and a fuller predecessor of NHR) | general | ||||
| RILM | The RILM Manual of Style | writing on music | ||||
| S&W | Elements of Style (Strunk and White) | general | ||||
| TKE | The King's English (Fowler and Fowler) | |||||
| Tur | general, especially academic papers | |||||
| URM | Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, now called the ICMJE recommendations | International Committee of Medical Journal Editors | scientific journals, especially life sciences and medical journals | |||
| WIT | Words into Type | general use, publishing |