Box 160Non-US cities

  • Use the anglicized form of a city name, such as Rome for Roma and Moscow for Moskva, when possible. However, the name as found on the publication may always be used.
  • Ignore diacritics, accents, and special characters in names. This rule ignores some conventions used in non-English languages to simplify rules for English-language publications.
    • Treat letters marked with diacritics or accents as if they are not marked
      • Å   treated as   A
      • Ø   treated as   O
      • Ç   treated as   C
      • Ł   treated as   L
      • à   treated as   a
      • ĝ   treated as   g
      • ñ   treated as   n
      • ü   treated as   u
    • Treat two or more letters printed as a unit (ligated letters) as if they are two letters
      • æ   treated as   ae
      • œ   treated as   oe
  • Follow Canadian cities with the two-letter abbreviation for the name of the province (see Appendix E), placed in parentheses:
    • Montreal (QC):
    • Ottawa (ON):
    • Vancouver (BC):
  • For cities in other countries, if the city is not well known or could be confused with another city of the same name, follow the city with the country name, either written in full or as the two-letter ISO country code (see Appendix D). Place the country name or code in parentheses.
    • London:
    • Rome:
    • Paris:
    • Madrid:
    • but
    • Malaga (Spain): or Malaga (ES):
    • Basel (Switzerland): or Basel (CH):
    • Oxford (England): or Oxford (GB):
  • As an option, use the country name or country code after all cities not in the US or Canada

From: Chapter 26, Electronic Mail and Discussion Forums

Cover of Citing Medicine
Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers [Internet]. 2nd edition.
Patrias K, author; Wendling D, editor.
Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2007-.

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