Use of apostrophes in scientific writing

Generally, apostrophes indicate either two words that have been shortened into one word (e.g. isn’t) or indicate the relationship between two words (e.g. the boy’s ball).

Words containing apostrophes are very common in casual written English, like a book or a letter to your friend, but apostrophes are not normally used in scientific writing.

Here are some tips for using apostrophes correctly in scientific writing.

Avoid using apostrophes to shorten words

Scientific writing requires a very formal style of language, so it is usually best to avoid using apostrophes to shorten words.

It is best to not use:

it’s
isn’t
can’t
doesn’t
didn’t

Instead, you should use:

it is
is not
cannot
does not
did not

Acceptable use of apostrophes to indicate ownership

Apostrophes that indicate the ownership of an object, or the relationship between two objects, such as the girl’s ball or the father’s son, also commonly occur in standard written English, but are rarely needed in scientific writing.

Some exceptions that you can use in manuscripts are:

manufacturer’s instructions (one manufacturer)
manufacturers’ instructions (two manufacturers)
the Institution’s Review Board (one institution)
the Institutions’ Review Boards (two institutions, two boards)
The hospital's strategy
Jones and Black’s research
The National Cancer Institute’s guidelines

All of these phrases are acceptable in a scientific manuscript or thesis.

Rewriting to avoid using apostrophes

While the examples above are acceptable, you should avoid using apostrophes in other sentences. In most cases, the text can be rewritten or rearranged - so you don't need an apostrophe at all.

For example:

the patients' specimens
the cell's nucleus

can also be written as

the specimens collected from patients or patient specimens
the cell nucleus

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At Science Editing Experts, we help scientists like you to submit well-written journal papers with confidence and complete your thesis without headaches, so you can focus on your research and career.

Andrea Devlin PhD

Chief editor and owner of Science Editing Experts