Use of English

subsystem

translation

subtropical

translation

super

No hyphen when added as a prefix.

superconductivity, supercomputer, superfluid, etc.

The one exception is "super-duper" (informal English meaning "fantastic, wonderful"), which should only be used in quotes.

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style

Super-Kamiokande

A neutrino detector in Japan. 

Capital S, capital K, hyphen. 

See their website

Spell out in full for the CERN Courier

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Courier, style

superbeam

translation

superconductivity

Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields occurring in certain materials when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature. 

Superconducting is preferable to "superconductive" as an adjective (though both are technically correct). 

The superconducting wires on the Large Hadron Collider are maintained at 1.9 K (-271.3 °C) – colder than outer space – by a closed liquid-helium circuit.

 

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physics, style

supersede

translation

supervise, supervisor

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surprise

translation

SUSY

Supersymmetry

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

symposium (pl. symposia)

translation

Synchrocyclotron

Capital "S" when referring to CERN's first particle accelerator. Otherwise, lower case. 

A synchrocyclotron is a type of cyclotron in which the frequency of the driving radiofrequency-electric-field is varied to compensate for relativistic effects as particle velocity approaches the speed of light. This is in contrast to the classical cyclotron, where this frequency is constant.

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physics, spelling, style

synchronise

translation

synchrotron

Not "synchro-cyclotron" or other such historical derivations.

A synchrotron is a cyclotron in which the magnetic field strength increases with the energy of the particles to keep their orbital radius constant.

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physics, spelling, style

synthesis, synthesise

translation

t (lower case)

The symbol for tonne, the SI unit of weight. Preceded by a non-breaking space, e.g. 2 t

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

T (upper case)

The symbol for tesla, the SI-derived unit of measurement for magnetic flux density. Preceded by a non-breaking space, e.g. 12 T.

When using with a unit to form a compound adjective, use a hyphen, e.g. 12-T magnets.

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

Tags

Each piece of content on the CERN website should be tagged with up to five relevant tags.

Tags should be

  • Relevant to the piece of content
  • Lower case, except for acronyms (many experiments are therefore uppercase) and surnames
  • Do not use Christian names, only surnames, capitalised

Correct

ASACUSA, antimatter, Smith, engineering, positron

Incorrect

asacusa, Antimatter, James Smith, engineers, positrons

Use the Taxonomy Manager module on the CERN website to sort out the tags.

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style

TANGO

A free, open-source device-oriented controls toolkit for controlling any kind of hardware or software and building SCADA systems

Acronym doesn’t need spelling out for the CERN Courier

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abbreviations, acronyms, computing, Courier

tau particle

An unstable subatomic particle of the lepton class, with a charge of -1 and a mass roughly 3500 times that of the electron.

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physics

TDR

Technical Design Report

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

team

Singular or plural? See collective nouns.

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grammar, style

tele-education

use hyphen

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translation

telecommunication (adj.); telecommunications (noun)

translation

teleconference

translation

telehealth

use e-health for preference

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translation

telelearning

translation

telemedicine

translation

telephone numbers

Telephone numbers should be written in the following format

+XX YY ZZ ZZZ ZZ

Where (+XX) is the country code, (YY) the area code, and (ZZ ZZZ ZZ) the rest of the numbers.

The area code for Geneva is 22 and all CERN telephones start with 76. So most CERN numbers will be in the format

+41 22 76 ZZZ ZZ

CERN internal phone numbers are all five-digit numbers, all reachable directly from CERN.

Examples:

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style

televise

translation

telework

translation

terabyte

Lower case. Not "Terabyte" or, worse, "TeraByte"

A unit of information equal to one million million (1012) or, strictly, 240 bytes.

There are an estimated one million terabytes of online information, and this amount is growing with every new web page that is posted.

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computing, style

tesla

The SI-derived unit of magnetic flux density. Though it has a lower-case "t" when spelled out in full, its symbol is an upper-case "T". 

So: 

The tesla (T) is the SI-derived unit of magnetic flux density.

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physics, style

TESLA

TeV Energy Superconducting Linear Accelerator

Acronym doesn’t need spelling out for the CERN Courier

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abbreviations, acronyms, Courier

test bench

translation

testbed

translation

TeV

Teraelectronvolt (one million million electronvolts)

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

textbook

translation

theorist

Not "theoretician"

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style

time

Use 2pm, 3.30am (closed up) in a web context

Use 2 p.m. and 3.30 a.m. in official documents

Note: noon is 12pm, midnight is 12am. It may be clearer to say "noon" or "midnight"

Note: To configure the correct date format on a Drupal site, go to admin/config/regional/date-time/formats/40/edit. 

The PHP code you need to add in the Format string box is "j M Y, g.ia"

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style

time frame

translation

time limit

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time sheet

translation

time zones

Can be confusing. Your best bet is to use this time zone converter on the "Use a chosen date/time" setting to double-check exact times. 

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style

time-consuming

use hyphen

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translation

timelapse

one word, no hyphen

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style

timescale

translation

timetable

translation

titled

Not entitled, for web texts

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style

titles

In web texts, do not use titles such as Mr, Miss, Dr or Professor.

In other CERN documents, do use Professor (not Prof), Dr, Mr or Ms (not Mrs or Miss) as applicable.

Job titles

Use only one job title for each person. Do not capitalise job titles, unless it is an important government position: Barack Obama, President of the US.

The single exception is CERN Director-General.

"This is a fantastic result for CERN," says ATLAS spokesperson Albert Einstein.

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style

Pages

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