About This Archive | DCHAS-L 2010 Index | DCHAS-L Yearly Index | DCHAS-L Home Page
Many of you are totally against abbreviations. . . How do you handle compounds where the abbreviation is more known than the name, such as EDTA? Most people know EDTA by the abbreviation and not the name, Ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid.
In our lab we use abbreviations for common compounds with periodic table abbreviation such as NaCl, or KBr. For chemicals whose names are too long or complex to be practical we use abbreviations and CAS#’s. Most people in the lab know the abbreviation, but an outsider can at least recognize the and lookup the CAS#. Since it’s only a few digits, even the longest named compound has a fairly short name name in comparison. The only issue we have is when we have a chemical which doesn’t have a CAS# yet, but this is rare.
-Mike
From:
DCHAS-L
Discussion
List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Mary Ellen A
Scott
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 1:30 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Abbreviations
To Everyone,
What is your opinion of allowing laboratories to use abbreviations and short hand as long as a key to those abbreviations is kept in a conspicuous location and is clearly identified?
Thoughts? and Thanks
Mary Ellen