TAMS Journal Style Guide
Please don't take any of the following as deal-killers for whatever you've written. They're general elements that I like to follow in the publication. Sometimes I'll violate them myself, either because I'm tired at the time and simply overlook the issue, or perhaps I feel there's a compelling reason to go in a different direction. But all else being equal, the below items can help guide an author in what are my preferred forms for the journal.
If you've already written your article, then no need to review the below at all. If there's something that's necessary or desirable to change to get it into the preferred form, hey, that's what I'm here for. I typically shoot a proof of the piece to the author to be sure I didn't introduce any errors, so you'll usually have a second bite at the apple.
Have questions? Feel free to email me at (disguised to avoid spammers, but you'll understand it): greg s burns <at> gmail dot com (don't forget the "s" in the middle of my name or the email will go elsewhere).
Greg Burns (10/24/21)
- Vanity capitalizations - I don't do them. Don't capitalize "club", "society", or other noun unless used as a proper noun (example: "…the club…," or "…the Glendale Coin Club…," but not, "…the Club…")
- Do not use single quotes except when making a direct quote within a quote, or a colloquialism within a quote.
- No need to include parenthetical repeats with numerals after stating the textual equivalent of a number (i.e. please don't write, "Twenty-fifth (25th).")
- Titles, such as president, secretary, etc., are only capitalized when immediately preceding the person's name. If the name is set off with commas, then don't capitalize the title (example: "Our president, Joe Blow, decided…" versus "President Joe Blow decided…")
- Use numerals for numbers greater than nine, except when part of an essential date or at the beginning of a sentence.
- Title case capitalization: don't capitalize conjunctive or introductory words (of, the, and, and similar) unless the beginning word of a publication title. If you see me doing it, it's only because I was dog-tired and I let Adobe InDesign (the program I use for page layout) use its stupid default of simply capitalizing every word in a title; otherwise I correct it by hand.
- Italicize publication names of books and magazines. For articles/chapters within those resources, put the name of the article or chapter in quote marks.
- Bibliographies/reference-lists: I'm happy with any of the standard approaches on these. Don't sweat them. General format is: title, author(s), publisher, and date.
- You may have noticed I like serial commas. If you don't know what those are, don't worry about it.
- Simplify.
- If you have gobs of time and would like to read a few helpful items on writing, the below are recommended:
- The Elements of Style, Stunk and White (this is a classic; every author should have a copy).
- The Elephants of Style, Walsh (anything by Bill Walsh is recommended; he passed far too young in 2017).
- www.theslot.com. This is Bill Walsh's old site, and if still up by the time you click on it, there's a tremendous amount of useful and interesting material on copy editing there. For a long time I followed his blog with a religious fervor.