Australian Institute of Family Studies style guide

Introduction

Purpose

The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) publishes 50–60 reports, newsletter issues and papers each year and it is essential that these publications are produced in a manner that makes them readable and accessible for their intended audience. An important aspect of this is ensuring that the writing and editing is of the highest standard and that all text is treated logically and consistently, both within individual works and across all Institute publications.

To this end, this style guide is intended to provide guidance regarding the writing and editorial style preferred by the Institute.

Audience

This guide will be of use to authors, reviewers, editors, indexers and typesetters of Institute publications.

Scope

This guide is not meant to be a comprehensive style guide. It should be read in conjunction with Australian Government’s Style Manual (6th edition) and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (6th edition).

In general, the Institute uses APA style for its references and lists, but otherwise follows Australian Government style and uses Australian spellings. This guide will provide more detailed information about this and indicate the points at which the Institute diverges from this general rule, those rules that are particularly relevant to the Institute’s work, and issues that commonly arise for AIFS writers and editors.

This style guide should be consulted first for points where the Institute’s style differs from the other guides. For issues not covered here, consult the APA Publication Manual for references and lists and the Style Manual for the default usage.

For clarification on points not covered by any of the documentation, please contact the AIFS Publishing Manager.