Use this editorial style guide when drafting or editing Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) publications, particularly Policy Spotlights, Policy Briefs, and communications materials. Guidelines are based on the American Psychological Association style (APA), Associated Press style (AP), and editorial best practices.
IGPA uses American Psychological Association (APA) style for references. Affiliates writing Policy Spotlights and Policy Briefs should follow the tables below for guidance.
Type |
Guideline |
Format |
Example |
| In-Text Citation (Narrative) | Author’s name in the sentence with year in parentheses | Author (Year) | Smith (2020) argues that… |
| In-Text Citation (Parenthetical) | Author and year in parentheses at sentence end | (Author, Year) | …is effective (Smith, 2020). |
| Two Authors | Use both names with “&” in parentheses, “and” in narrative | (Author1 & Author2, Year); Author1 and Author2 (Year) | (Lee & Kim, 2019); Lee and Kim (2019) |
| Three or More Authors | Use first author + “et al.” | (Author et al., Year) | (Nguyen et al., 2021) |
| No Author | Use shortened title in quotation marks or italics, with year | (“Title,” Year) or (Title, Year) | (“Climate Change,” 2022); (Oxford Dictionary, 2015) |
| Direct Quote | Include author, year, and page number | (Author, Year, p. #) | (Brown, 2018, p. 45) |
| Organization as Author | Full organization name | (Organization, Year) | (American Psychological Association, 2020) |
| Secondary Source | Cite original and secondary source | (Original Author, Year, as cited in Secondary Author, Year) | (Freud, 1900, as cited in Jones, 2019) |
Source Type |
Format |
Example |
| Book | Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book. Publisher. | King, S. (2011). 11/22/63. Scribner. |
| Edited Book Chapter | Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher. | Reyes, M. (2020). Bilingualism and identity. In K. Lee (Ed.), Language and society (pp. 45–67). Academic Press. |
| Journal Article | Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxx | Patel, L. (2020). Social learning theory in classrooms. Journal of Educational Research, 45(3), 200–212. https://doi.org/10.1234/jer.v45i3.0123 |
| Website | Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Website Name. URL | Taylor, M. (2021, July 7). How bees learn. Nature News. https://www.naturenews.org/bees |
| No Author Website | Title of page. (Year, Month Day). Website Name. URL | How to train a dog. (2020, June 15). PetCare Blog. https://www.petcareblog.com/train-a-dog |
| Government Report | Organization Name. (Year). Title of report(Report No. xxx). Publisher. URL | U.S. Department of Education. (2021). Student achievement report (NCES 2021-045). https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2021/2021045.pdf |
The title “Dr.” should be listed for medical doctors only. Ph.D. may be used after a name instead, if the designation applies.
Use capital letters to indicate academic degrees after a personal name.
Don’t use periods:
Mary Lee, MD, MPH
Edward Jones, PhD
Don’t use capitals for the subject of the degree or when academic degrees are referred to in general terms:
Incorrect: She holds a Master of Business Administration.
Correct: Her bachelor’s degree in journalism is from Eastern Illinois University.
Avoid the overuse of acronyms. On first reference, spell the name out followed by the acronym in parentheses.
Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA)
Research Scholar Initiative (RSI)
Use “and.”
Science and Technology working group
Department/unit – Capitalize only when used as part of a complete title:
Department of Education
Education department
Directions – Do not capitalize:
east central Illinois
Federal – Capitalize if part of a formal name. Lowercase if used as an adjective to distinguish from state, county entities, etc.:
Federal Trade Commission federal law
Headlines – Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns and don’t use punctuation (sentence case).
Amy Poehler comments on latest Illinois bill
New research grants set to guide policy
State – In AP style, “state” is generally not capitalized when referring to a state as a geographical location, such as “the state of California.” However, it is capitalized when referring to a governmental body, such as “The State of New York.”
Titles – Do not capitalize:
Jon Snow, program specialist
She is a doctor in Adult Medicine.
Contractions
IGPA uses a formal tone for communicating, but contractions are acceptable:
These policies don’t support child wellbeing.
Use the Oxford comma:
They ate carrots, cheese, and nuts for lunch.
Preferred over coronavirus.
Use an en dash (the length of the letter n) to separate items in a range, including times. Also use the en dash to note a pause or parenthetical phrase.
Insert an en dash using (space)(dash)(space):
5 – 8 p.m.
1975 – 1980
Kelly Sanders – a professor at Illinois for 20 years – will retire in June.
IGPA in Brief newsletter
“IGPA in Brief” for short.
Illinois Policy Unpacked podcast
“Illinois Policy Unpacked” for short.
Institute Insights newsletter
“Institute Insights” for short.
Policy Spotlight
Always spelled out in title case.
Charles P. Wolff internship
The internship is always spelled out, but interns can be referred to as “Wolff interns,” for short.
Edgar Fellows Program
Can shorten to “Edgar Fellows” after first reference.
Flash Index
Always spelled out in title case.
IGPA Data Hub
“Data Hub” for short.
Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government
Can shorten to “Douglas award” after first reference.
Research Scholar Initiative (RSI)
Can shorten to “RSI” after first reference.
Never put the disease or condition before the person. Use descriptive language by describing what a person has (e.g., a disability) rather than who they are (e.g., a disabled person).
Incorrect: We hope diabetic people attend our education event.
Correct: We hope people with diabetes attend our education event.
People
At first mention, use first and last name. Subsequently, use only the last name, unless there’s more than one with the same last name, then use first and last names.
Quotes
After direct quotations in articles, use the past tense verb “said.” The subject should always come before said, unless their title is listed afterward.
Correct: “This is great,” Sarah said.
Incorrect: “This is great,” said Sarah.
Correct: “This is great,” said Sarah, director of marketing.
Incorrect: “This is great,” Sarah, director of marketing, said.
“Black” is considered more inclusive than “African American” and is our preferred term. It should be capitalized, while the color “black” is not. Refer to the AP Stylebook entry for more information about nationalities and race.
Do not use a comma between season and year. Lowercase spring, summer, fall, winter and derivatives, such as “springtime,” unless part of a formal name:
The business school opened in summer 2005.
Here we deviate from AP style in always using two letter postal abbreviations; no periods.
When listing city and state, set off state with commas:
He worked in Chicago, IL, at UIC.
Spell out state names when they stand alone in text. The word “state” is always lowercase unless part of a proper name.
Job titles
Do not capitalize a person’s title or occupation in a sentence unless it precedes the person’s name and isn’t set off by commas.
Director of Marketing Payton Abbott said the outlook is good.
Payton Abbott, director of marketing, said the outlook is good.
Taylor Franco, MD, chief executive officer of Carle Health.
Chief Executive Officer Taylor Franco, MD
General job titles and descriptions, such as senior coordinator, office assistant, associate professor, marketing specialist, etc., are not capitalized.
University of Illinois Chicago
Use UIC on second and subsequent references. Full copy/branding details can be found on the UIC marketing website.
University of Illinois Springfield
Use UIS on second and subsequent references. Full copy/branding details can be found on the UIS marketing website.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Use “Illinois” on second and subsequent references. Full copy/branding details can be found on the Illinois marketing website.
University of Illinois System
Acceptable second references are U of I System, or system. Full copy/branding details can be found on the U of I System marketing website.
Exceptions: The University of Illinois is still the organization’s legal name, and as such will often be used without the “System” on legal documents.
May be used when parallel university references are needed, such as presentations, graphs, forms, web links, etc. (Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield). Also an acceptable second reference for the university. For preferred first and second references, see University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Do not use Champaign-Urbana to refer to the university. The university was first established in Urbana and later expanded to Champaign, thus the order in the name.
Always lowercase, even when following the capitalized name.
Equity, Justice, and Human Flourishing working group
Science and Technology working group
IGPA has five working groups where affiliates can network and conduct collaborative public policy analysis.
Additional information can be found online at igpa.uillinois.edu.