7. Subbing: general guidance

Describe organisations

When introducing all but the most widely known organisations (or those whose purpose is obvious, such as universities), in articles, it is important to briefly explain what type of body they are as well as their roles and aims if this is unclear. This enables an organisation’s relevance to the story to be gauged, and the likely expertise or bias of a commentator from that organisation to be grasped. To assist in providing introductions, here is a list of relevant organisations (and initiatives) together with general descriptions.

Avoid repetition between the description and the organisation’s name.

When describing an organisation, take care if using information from its website. For example, an organisation may claim to be the world’s leading nanotechnology research institute. But this can be hard to verify, so it is best to just call it a nanotechnology research institute.

Dates

Always add the date when events or meetings took place in general terms followed by the specific date or date range. For example:

The study was published last week (27 November).

The forum meeting was held last month (14-17 October).

But as all articles are dated, there is no need to add the date when talking about events that happened on the publication date, or the day before or after this date — just use today, yesterday or tomorrow.

For the publication dates of research articles, use the date the journal gives.

First person

This style of writing is fine in opinion pieces, SciDev.Net at large articles and photo essays, but take care that it won’t annoy the reader or place the writer between the reader and what is being described.

Sources and references

We should only use reliable sources such as papers, books, reports and academic articles, and include these for fact checking and as references. Avoid copying facts from other media.