Q. Dear Editor, I was wondering if you could help me with a style query. I am copyediting a 10-chapter document on fish. The author has asked me to include the scientific name in parentheses after the common name of fish species. It seems to me that repeating this each time the fish is mentioned would make the text bulky (the names are repeated often in each section). Can we mention the scientific name of the fish in parentheses just once in each chapter, or should we keep repeating this style after each species is noted? I hope I’m being clear. . . . Many thanks for your advice on this!
A. Just once is enough. According to the ninth edition of The CSE Manual (published by the Council of Science Editors in cooperation with the University of Chicago Press), “If an organism is widely known by a vernacular name, the vernacular may be used if it is clearly associated with its Latin name at the first mention of the organism in both the abstract and the running text” (see section 22.2.2.1).