{"id":827,"date":"2015-04-29T07:09:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T07:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-to-present-rates-in-scientific-writing\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:43:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:43:17","slug":"how-to-present-rates-in-scientific-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-to-present-rates-in-scientific-writing","title":{"rendered":"How to present rates in scientific writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">How do you express quantities such as speed (in, say, kilometres per hour), concentration (in, say, grams per liter), or dose (in, say, milligrams per kilogram of body weight)? The question has two correct answers. Take an actual quantity, 60 kilometres per hour, for example, which can be expressed either as 60 km\u2215h or as 60 km h<sup>\u22121<\/sup>. Let us discuss some important points to be considered while selecting any of these two options.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">1. Using the minus sign<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Note that this option requires the use of the minus sign; many authors tend to use a hyphen instead, which is wrong. In fact, even the en dash, although preferable to the hyphen, should be replaced with the correct minus sign (to ensure that the minus sign and the number that follows it never get separated). If you have the time and the inclination, type both (say, h\u20131 and h\u22121) in 72-point Arial and magnify to 200% by zooming in to see the difference: you will notice that the minus sign (Unicode 2212) is slightly shorter than the en dash, carries a bit more white space on either side, and sits a bit higher. To get the character in Windows, type 2212 followed by alt + x.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Note also that the space between km and h in the above example is sometimes replaced with the middle dot or the raised dot or the centred dot (\u2022, which can be inserted by using alt + 0183 or, in Windows, by typing b7 followed by alt + x).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">2. Using the slash sign<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first option, namely to use the slash, also involves similar minutiae but not many fonts support the true division slash and offer the solidus instead. (If the minutiae interest you, compare the solidus with the Unicode character \u2018division slash\u2019 by typing \u2013 in Windows \u2013 2215 followed by alt + x.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The option of using the slash is confined only to those expressions that require a single slash\u2014more than one is not allowed (for instance, you can express acceleration, say metres per second per second, as m\u2022s\u2212\u00b2 but not as m\/s\/s).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A third \u2013 but incorrect \u2013 alternative is <strong>60 km per h, which is incorrect<\/strong> because symbols such as km and h can only be used with mathematical operators and not combined with ordinary words. In other words, you may say \u201860 kilometers per hour,\u2019 thus using the name of the units in combination with per but not km per h.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Keping in mind these pointers will help you present quantities and rates in your scientific writing accurately.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you express quantities such as speed (in, say, kilometres per hour), concentration (in, say, grams per liter), or dose (in, say, milligrams per kilogram of body weight)? The question has two correct answers. Take an actual quantity, 60 kilometres per hour, for example, which can be expressed either as 60 km\u2215h or as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2427],"tags":[2611],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-style-format","tag-manuscript-formatting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to present rates in scientific writing | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This post discusses the minutiae of expressing rates (kilometres per hour, grams per litre, etc.) using negative exponents and the slash.\" 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