Checklist of Abbreviations
Entry updated 27 September 2021. Tagged: Prelim.
Abbreviations listed below in bold face are explained at greater length in Editorial Practices. Abbreviations marked as links also have their own entries, to which the link goes and where they are more fully explained.
- «title» – a projected or ghost title
- # – number
- Amazing – Amazing Stories
- anth – Anthology
- Asimov's – Asimov's Science Fiction
- Astounding – Astounding Science-Fiction
- chap – chapbook, a volume of fewer than 100 pages
- coll – collection, usually of work by a single author
- Dos – bound back-to-back
- ed – edited/editor; this short form is now used only within ascriptions, for example: "Faith of Our Fathers" (in Dangerous Visions, anth 1967, ed Harlan Ellison)
- exp – expanded
- Fixup – novel made up from stories
- F&SF – The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
- Galaxy – Galaxy Science Fiction
- hb/ – in Checklists only, a hardback edition; followed by the cover artist's name where known, or sometimes by a relevant description such as "uncredited", "nonpictorial" or "photographic"
- na/ – in Checklists only, in place of hb/ (hardback) above or pb/ (paperback) below, a work for which the hardback/paperback distinction is not applicable – CD-ROM and ebook editions are two examples
- omni – omnibus, usually gathering together two, three or more previously published works
- ¶ – the paragraph sign or pilcrow is used only very rarely and only in Checklist comment fields (see Editorial Practices) to mark preferred translations of non-English-language authors – Jules Verne in particular
- pb/ – in Checklists only, a paperback edition (see hb/ above); we do not distinguish between standard-size and trade (B-format or C-format) paperbacks
- rev – revised
- sf – science fiction
- trans – translated
- tv – television (in the terse header descriptions of television entries, but preferably not elsewhere)
- var mags – published in various magazines
- vol – volume. In book ascriptions we use "2vols" and similar to denote multi-volume publication: (1950 3vols).
- vt – variant title
- web – online publication
Some abbreviations used in past editions have been expanded throughout. We no longer write b/w for black and white, dir for directed or director (media entries), prod for produced or producer (media entries), TWS for Thrilling Wonder Stories, or WWI and WW2 for World War One and World War Two. Magazine names are generally spelt out in full (Asimov's Science Fiction) outside ascription brackets or Checklist comment fields, where a shorter form as above may be used (Asimov's).
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