Some acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms can be used without expansion anywhere in the paper; these do not need to be listed in the Abbreviation end section. The list below applies to the title, abstract, main manuscript text, acknowledgments, authors' contributions, conflicts of interests, and any tables/figures/textboxes/appendices.
Acronyms or abbreviations in keywords can remain unexpanded though ideally the expanded version should also be listed as a keyword for better indexing.
For complete guidelines on the use of abbreviations, please refer to JMIR's House Style and Editorial Guidelines (2. Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Initialisms).
We follow AMA guidelines (eg, 19.6 Statistical Symbols and Abbreviations) in determining which abbreviations may be used without expansion.
- AIDS — acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
- CD — compact disc
- CD-ROM — compact disc read-only memory
- cf — compare
- CI — confidence interval
- CST — Central Standard Time
- df — degrees of freedom
- DNA — deoxyribonucleic acid
- DOS — disk operating system
- dpi — dots per inch
- eg, — for example (when used parenthetically)
- EST — Eastern Standard Time
- etc — et cetera
- GB — gigabyte
- GMT — Greenwich Mean Time
- HIV — human immunodeficiency virus
- HTML — hypertext markup language
- http — hypertext transfer protocol
- ie, — that is (when used parenthetically)
- IQ — intelligence quotient
- ISBN — International Standard Book Number
- ISSN — International Standard Serial Number
- JPEG — Joint Photographic Experts Group
- kB — kilobyte
- MB — megabyte
- MST — mountain standard time
- nb — nota bene (note well)
- OD — oculus dexter (right eye)
- OS — oculus sinister (left eye)
- OU — oculus unitas (both eyes) or oculus uterque (each eye)
- PDA — personal digital assistant
- PDF — portable document format
- pH — negative logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration
- PO2 — partial pressure of oxygen
- PST — Pacific Standard Time
- RAM — random access memory
- Rh — rhesus
- RNA — ribonucleic acid
- ROM — read-only memory
- SAS — statistical analysis system
- SD — standard deviation
- SE — standard error
- SPSS — Statistical Product and Service Solutions (formerly Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)
- TB — terabyte
- TIFF — Tag(ged) Image File Format
- TNM — tumor, node, metastasis
- URL — uniform resource locator
- UV — ultraviolet
- UV-A — ultraviolet A
- UV-B — ultraviolet B
- UV-C — ultraviolet C
- vs — versus (when used parenthetically)
- XML — extensible markup language
- zip — zone improvement plan (zip code)
Additionally, JMIR has its own list of abbreviations that we feel can be used without expansion, since they will be familiar to the vast majority of readers or are more recognizable as an abbreviation:
- ANOVA — analysis of variance
- App — in the context of mobile apps, it is simply "app". "App" is not an acronym for "application".
- BMI — body mass index
- ChatGPT — Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer
- COVID-19 — coronavirus disease
- DVD — digital video disc/digital versatile disc
- eHealth — electronic health
- ID — identification
- IP — internet protocol
- IQ — intelligence quotient
- IQR — interquartile range
- IT — information technology
- JMIR (when used as brand name/referring to the publisher) — please do NOT expand for sister journal titles ("JMIR mHealth and uHealth") or the publisher ("JMIR Publications"). Do expand to "Journal of Medical Internet Research" ONLY when referring to the particular journal at http://www.jmir.org with the ISSN 1438-8871. See also What does "JMIR" in the title of your journals stand for?
- LED – light-emitting diode
- GPS — global positioning system
- PC — personal computer
- PNG (and other file names) — portable network graphics
- QR — Quick Response
- SARS-CoV-2 — severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
- SIM — subscriber identification module
- SMS — short message service
- USB — universal serial bus
- 3D — three dimensional, same guideline applies for alike terms
- Common database names (eg, Embase, CINAHL, MEDLINE)
- Common technology acronyms such as SQL, JSON, CSV, iOS, etc
Important:
The above is not an exhaustive list.
Abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms for established terms or entities with lengthy names that are/will be better known by their abbreviation or acronym are allowed and must be retained in parentheses in the text. If such abbreviations are used in the abstract or main text (ie, not in other stand-alone sections), compile them in an alphabetized list in the "Abbreviations" end section regardless of the number of times they are used in the article.
Retention of well-known acronyms (without expansion) in the title may be permitted to aid article discoverability and indexing, but please email copyediting@jmir.org or your PoC to double-check these examples.
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