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Informed consent
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This article is about consent to medical procedures. For consent in non-medical legal contexts, see Consent. For the House episode, see Informed Consent (House).
Example of informed consent document from the PARAMOUNT trial
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Informed consent is a process for getting permission before conducting a healthcare intervention on a person, or for disclosing personal information. A health care provider may ask a patient to consent to receive therapy before providing it, or a clinical researcher may ask a research participant before enrolling that person into a clinical trial. Informed consent is collected according to guidelines from the fields of medical ethics and research ethics.
An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications, and consequences of an action. Adequate informed consent is rooted in respecting a person’s dignity.[1] To give informed consent, the individual concerned must have adequate reasoning faculties and be in possession of all relevant facts. Impairments to reasoning and judgment that may prevent informed consent include basic intellectual or emotional immaturity, high levels of stress such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or a severe intellectual disability, severe mental disorder, intoxication, severe sleep deprivation, Alzheimer's disease, or being in a coma.
Obtaining informed consent is not always required. If an individual is considered unable to give informed consent, another person is generally authorized to give consent on his behalf, e.g., parents or legal guardians of a child (though in this circumstance the child may be required to provide informed assent) and conservators for the mentally disordered, or consent can be assumed through the doctrine of implied consent, e.g., when an unconscious person will die without immediate medical treatment.
In cases where an individual is provided insufficient information to form a reasoned decision, serious ethical issues arise. Such cases in a clinical trial in medical research are anticipated and prevented by an ethics committee or Institutional Review Board.
Informed Consent Form Templates can be found on the World Health Organization Website for practical use.[2]
Contents
[hide]
1 Assessment
2 Valid elements
3 Waiver of requirement
4 History
4.1 Medical history
4.2 Research history
5 Medical procedures
5.1 Requirements of the professional
5.2 Obtaining informed consents
5.3 Competency of the patient
5.4 Deception
5.5 Abortion
6 Children
7 No-victim laws
8 Research
9 Conflicts of interest
10 See also
11 References
Assessment[edit]
Informed consent can be complex to evaluate, because neither expressions of consent, nor expressions of understanding of implications, necessarily mean that full adult consent was in fact given, nor that full comprehension of relevant issues is internally digested. Consent may be implied within the usual subtleties of human communication, rather than explicitly negotiated verbally or in writing. In some cases consent cannot legally be possible, even if the person protests he does indeed understand and wish. There are also structured instruments for evaluating capacity to give informed consent, although no ideal instrument presently exists.
Thus, there is always a degree to which informed consent must be assumed or inferred based upon observation, or knowledge, or legal reliance. This especially is the case in sexual or relational issues. In medical or formal circumstances, explicit agreement by means of signature—normally relied on legally—regardless of actual consent, is the norm. This is the case with certain procedures, such as a "do not resuscitate" directive that a patient signed prior to their illness.
Brief examples of each of the above:
A person may verbally agree to something from fear, perceived social pressure, or psychological difficulty in asserting true feelings. The person requesting the action may honestly be unaware of this and believe the consent is genuine, and rely on it. Consent is expressed, but not internally given.
A person may claim to understand the implications of some action, as part of consent, but in fact has failed to appreciate the possible consequences fully and may later deny the validity of the consent for this reason. Understanding needed for informed consent is present but is, in fact (through ignorance), not present.
A person signs a legal release form for a medical procedure, and later feels he did not really consent. Unless he can show actual misinformation, the release is usually persuasive or conclusive in law, in that the clinician may rely legally upon it for consent. In formal circumstances, a written consent usually legally overrides later denial of informed consent (unless obtained by misrepresentation).
Informed consent in the U.S. can be overridden in emergency medical situations pursuant to 21CFR50.24, which was first brought to the general public's attention via the controversy surrounding the study of Polyheme.
Valid elements[edit]
For an individual to give valid informed consent, three components must be present: disclosure, capacity and voluntariness.[3][4]
Disclosure requires the researcher to supply each prospective subject with the information necessary to make an autonomous decision and also to ensure that the subject adequate understands the information provided. This latter requirement implies that a written consent form be written in lay language suited for the comprehension skills of subject population, as well as assessing the level of understanding through conversation.
Capacity pertains to the ability of the subject to both understand the information provided and form a reasonable judgment based on the potential consequences of his/her decision.
Voluntariness refers to the subject’s right to freely exercise his/her decision making without being subjected to external pressure such as coercion, manipulation, or undue influence.
Waiver of requirement[edit]
Waiver of the consent requirement may be applied in certain circumstances where no foreseeable harm is expected to result from the study or when permitted by law, federal regulations, or if an ethical review committee has approved the non-disclosure of certain information.[5]
Besides studies with minimal risk, waivers of consent may be obtained in a military setting. According to 10 USC 980, the United States Code for the Armed Forces, Limitations on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects, a waiver of advanced informed consent may be granted by the Secretary of Defense if a research project would:[6]
Directly benefit subjects.
Advance the development of a medical product necessary to the military.
Be carried out under all laws and regulations (i.e., Emergency Research Consent Waiver) including those pertinent to the FDA.
While informed consent is a basic right and should be carried out effectively, if a patient is incapacitated due to injury or illness, it is still important that patients benefit from emergency experimentation.[7] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) joined together to create federal guidelines to permit emergency research, without informed consent.[7] However, they can only proceed with the research if they obtain a waiver of informed consent (WIC) or an emergency exception from informed consent (EFIC).[7]
History[edit]
Informed consent is a technical term first used by attorney, Paul G. Gebhard, in a medical malpractice United States court case in 1957.[8] In tracing its history, some scholars have suggested tracing the history of checking for any of these practices:[9]:54
A patient agrees to a health intervention based on an understanding of it.
The patient has multiple choices and is not compelled to choose a particular one.
The consent includes giving permission.
These practices are part of what constitutes informed consent, and their history is the history of informed consent.[9]:60 They combine to form the modern concept of informed consent—which rose in response to particular incidents in modern research.[9]:60 Whereas various cultures in various places practiced informed consent, the modern concept of informed consent was developed by people who drew influence from Western tradition.[9]:60
Medical history[edit]
Historians cite a series of medical guidelines to trace the history of informed consent in medical practice.
The Hippocratic Oath, a 500 BC Greek text, was the first set of Western writings giving guidelines for the conduct of medical professionals. It advises that physicians conceal most information from patients to give the patients the best care.[9]:61 The rationale is a beneficence model for care—the doctor knows better than the patient, and therefore should direct the patient's care, because the patient is not likely to have better ideas than the doctor.[9]:61
Henri de Mondeville, a French surgeon who in the 14th century, wrote about medical practice. He traced his ideas to the Hippocratic Oath.[9]:63[10][11] Among his recommendations were that doctors "promise a cure to every patient" in hopes that the good prognosis would inspire a good outcome to treatment.[9]:63 Mondeville never mentioned getting consent, but did emphasize the need for the patient to have confidence in the doctor.[9]:63 He also advised that when deciding therapeutically unimportant details the doctor should meet the patients' requests "so far as they do not interfere with treatment".[12]
Benjamin Rush was an 18th-century United States physician who was influenced by the Age of Enlightenment cultural movement.[9]:65 Because of this, he advised that doctors ought to share as much information as possible with patients. He recommended that doctors educate the public and respect a patient's informed decision to accept therapy.[9]:65 There is no evidence that he supported seeking a consent from patients.[9]:65 In a lecture titled "On the duties of patients to their physicians", he stated that patients should be strictly obedient to the physician's orders; this was representative of much of his writings.[9]:65 John Gregory, Rush's teacher, wrote similar views that a doctor could best practice beneficence by making decisions for the patients without their consent.[9]:66[13]
Thomas Percival was a British physician who published a book called Medical Ethics in 1803.[9]:68 Percival was a student of the works of Gregory and various earlier Hippocratic physicians.[9]:68 Like all previous works, Percival's Medical Ethics makes no mention of soliciting for the consent of patients or respecting their decisions.[9]:68 Percival said that patients have a right to truth, but when the physician could provide better treatment by lying or withholding information, he advised that the physician do as he thought best.[9]:68
When the American Medical Association was founded they in 1847 produced a work called the first edition of the American Medical Association Code of Medical Ethics.[9]:69 Many sections of this book are verbatim copies of passages from Percival's Medical Ethics.[9]:69 A new concept in this book was the idea that physicians should fully disclose all patient details truthfully when talking to other physicians, but the text does not also apply this idea to disclosing information to patients.[9]:70 Through this text, Percival's ideas became pervasive guidelines throughout the United States as other texts were derived from them.[9]:70
Worthington Hooker was an American physician who in 1849 published Physician and Patient.[9]:70 This medical ethics book was radical demonstrating understanding of the AMA's guidelines and Percival's philosophy and soundly rejecting all directives that a doctor should lie to patients.[9]:70 In Hooker's view, benevolent deception is not fair to the patient, and he lectured widely on this topic.[9]:70 Hooker's ideas were not broadly influential.[9]:70
Research history[edit]
Historians cite a series of human subject research experiments to trace the history of informed consent in research.
The U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission “is considered the first research group in history to use consent forms.”[14] In 1900, Major Walter Reed was appointed head of the four man U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba that determined mosquitoes were the vector for yellow fever transmission. His earliest experiments were probably done without formal documentation of informed consent. In later experiments he obtained support from appropriate military and administrative authorities. He then drafted what is now “one of the oldest series of extant informed consent documents.”[15] The three surviving examples are in Spanish with English translations; two have an individual’s signature and one is marked with an X.[16]
Tearoom Trade is the name of a book by American psychologist Laud Humphreys. In it he describes his research into male homosexual acts.[17] In conducting this research he never sought consent from his research subjects and other researchers raised concerns that he violated the right to privacy for research participants.[17]
The Milgram experiment is the name of a 1961 experiment conducted by American psychologist Stanley Milgram. In the experiment Milgram had an authority figure order research participants to commit a disturbing act of harming another person.[18] After the experiment he would reveal that he had deceived the participants and that they had not hurt anyone, but the research participants were upset at the experience of having participated in the research.[18] The experiment raised broad discussion on the ethics of recruiting participants for research without giving them full information about the nature of the research.[18]
Chester M. Southam used HeLa cells to inject into cancer patients and Ohio State Penitentiary inmates without informed consent to determine if people could become immune to cancer and if cancer could be transmitted.[19]
Medical procedures[edit]
The doctrine of informed consent relates to professional negligence and establishes a breach of the duty of care owed to the patient (see duty of care, breach of the duty, and respect for persons). The doctrine of informed consent also has significant implications for medical trials of medications, devices, or procedures.
Requirements of the professional[edit]
Until 2015 in the United Kingdom and in countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, informed consent in medical procedures requires proof as to the standard of care to expect as a recognised standard of acceptable professional practice (the Bolam Test), that is, what risks would a medical professional usually disclose in the circumstances (see Loss of right in English law). Arguably, this is "sufficient consent" rather than "informed consent." The UK has since departed from the Bolam test for judging standards of informed consent, due to the landmark ruling in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board. This moves away from the concept of a reasonable physician and instead uses the standard of a reasonable patient, and what risks an individual would attach significance to.
Medicine in the United States, Australia, and Canada also takes this patient-centric approach to "informed consent." Informed consent in these jurisdictions requires healthcare providers to disclose significant risks, as well as risks of particular importance to that patient. This approach combines an objective (a hypothetical reasonable patient) and subjective (this particular patient) approach.
The doctrine of informed consent should be contrasted with the general doctrine of medical consent, which applies to assault or battery. The consent standard here is only that the person understands, in general terms, the nature of and purpose of the intended intervention. As the higher standard of informed consent applies to negligence, not battery, the other elements of negligence must be made out. Significantly, causation must be shown: That had the individual been made aware of the risk he would not have proceeded with the operation (or perhaps with that surgeon).
Optimal establishment of an informed consent requires adaptation to cultural or other individual factors of the patient. For example, people from Mediterranean and Arab appear to rely more on the context of the delivery of the information, with the information being carried more by who is saying it and where, when, and how it's being said, rather than what is said, which is of relatively more importance in typical "Western" countries.[20]
The informed consent doctrine is generally implemented through good healthcare practice: pre-operation discussions with patients and the use of medical consent forms in hospitals. However, reliance on a signed form should not undermine the basis of the doctrine in giving the patient an opportunity to weigh and respond to the risk. In one British case, a doctor performing routine surgery on a woman noticed that she had cancerous tissue in her womb. He took the initiative to remove the woman's womb; however, as she had not given informed consent for this operation, the doctor was judged by the General Medical Council to have acted negligently. The council stated that the woman should have been informed of her condition, and allowed to make her own decision.
Obtaining informed consents[edit]
To capture and manage informed consents, hospital management systems typically use paper-based consent forms which are scanned and stored in a document handling system after obtaining the necessary signatures. Hospital systems and research organizations are adopting an electronic way of capturing informed consents to enable indexing, to improve comprehension, search and retrieval of consent data, thus enhancing the ability to honor to patient intent and identify willing research participants.[21][22][23][24] More recently, Health Sciences South Carolina, a statewide research collaborative focused on transforming healthcare quality, health information systems and patient outcomes, developed an open-source system called Research Permissions Management System (RPMS).[25][26]
Competency of the patient[edit]
The ability to give informed consent is governed by a general requirement of competency. In common law jurisdictions, adults are presumed competent to consent. This presumption can be rebutted, for instance, in circumstances of mental illness or other incompetence. This may be prescribed in legislation or based on a common-law standard of inability to understand the nature of the procedure. In cases of incompetent adults, a health care proxy makes medical decisions. In the absence of a proxy, the medical practitioner is expected to act in the patient's best interests until a proxy can be found.
By contrast, 'minors' (which may be defined differently in different jurisdictions) are generally presumed incompetent to consent, but depending on their age and other factors may be required to provide Informed assent. In some jurisdictions (e.g. much of the U.S.), this is a strict standard. In other jurisdictions (e.g. England, Australia, Canada), this presumption may be rebutted through proof that the minor is ‘mature’ (the ‘Gillick standard’). In cases of incompetent minors, informed consent is usually required from the parent (rather than the 'best interests standard') although a parens patriae order may apply, allowing the court to dispense with parental consent in cases of refusal.
Deception[edit]
Research involving deception is controversial given the requirement for informed consent. Deception typically arises in social psychology, when researching a particular psychological process requires that investigators deceive subjects. For example, in the Milgram experiment, researchers wanted to determine the willingness of participants to obey authority figures despite their personal conscientious objections. They had authority figures demand that participants deliver what they thought was an electric shock to another research participant. For the study to succeed, it was necessary to deceive the participants so they believed that the subject was a peer and that their electric shocks caused the peer actual pain.
Nonetheless, research involving deception prevents the subject/patient from exercising his/her basic right of autonomous informed decision-making and conflicts with the ethical principle of respect for persons.
The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct set by the American Psychological Association says that psychologists may not conduct research that includes a deceptive compartment unless they can justify the act by the value and importance of the study's results, and show they couldn't obtain the results by some other way. Moreover, the research should bear no potential harm to the subject as an outcome of deception, be it physical pain or emotional distress. Finally, the code requires a debriefing session, in which the experimenter tells the subject about the deception, and gives subjects the option of withdrawing their data.[27]
Abortion[edit]
In some U.S. states, informed consent laws (sometimes called "right to know" laws) require that a woman seeking an elective abortion receive information from the abortion provider about her legal rights, alternatives to abortion (such as adoption), available public and private assistance, and other information specified in the law, before the abortion is performed. Other countries with such laws (e.g. Germany) require that the information giver be properly certified to make sure that no abortion is carried out for the financial gain of the abortion provider and to ensure that the decision to have an abortion is not swayed by any form of incentive.[28][29]
Some informed consent laws have been criticized for allegedly using "loaded language in an apparently deliberate attempt to 'personify' the fetus,"[30] but those critics acknowledge that "most of the information in the [legally mandated] materials about abortion comports with recent scientific findings and the principles of informed consent", although "some content is either misleading or altogether incorrect."[31]
Children[edit]
As children often lack the decision making ability or legal power (competence) to provide true informed consent for medical decisions, it often falls on parents or legal guardians to provide informed permission for medical decisions. This "consent by proxy" usually works reasonably well, but can lead to ethical dilemmas when the judgment of the parents or guardians and the medical professional differ with regard to what constitutes appropriate decisions "in the best interest of the child". Children who are legally emancipated, and certain situations such as decisions regarding sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy, or for unemancipated minors who are deemed to have medical decision making capacity, may be able to provide consent without the need for parental permission depending on the laws of the jurisdiction the child lives in. The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages medical professionals also to seek the assent of older children and adolescents by providing age appropriate information to these children to help empower them in the decision making process.[32]
Research on children has benefited society in many ways. The only effective way to establish normal patterns of growth and metabolism is to do research on infants and young children. When addressing the issue of informed consent with children, the primary response is parental consent. This is valid, although only legal guardians are able to consent for a child, not adult siblings.[33] Additionally, parents may not order the termination of a treatment that is required to keep a child alive, even if they feel it is in the best interest.[33] Guardians are typically involved in the consent of children, however a number of doctrines have developed that allow children to receive health treatments without parental consent. For example, emancipated minors may consent to medical treatment, and minors can also consent in an emergency.[33]
No-victim laws[edit]
Further information: Victimless crime
It may not be legally possible to give consent to certain activities in certain jurisdictions. See the Operation Spanner case for an example of this in the UK that involved sadomasochistic activities such as branding.
Research[edit]
Informed consent is part of the ethical clinical research as well, in which a human subject voluntarily confirms his or her willingness to participate in a particular clinical trial, after having been informed of all aspects of the trial that are relevant to the subject's decision to participate. Informed consent is documented by means of a written, signed, and dated informed consent form.[34] In medical research, the Nuremberg Code set a base international standard in 1947, which continued to develop, for example in response to the ethical violation in the Holocaust. Nowadays, medical research is overseen by an ethics committee that also oversees the informed consent process.
As the medical guidelines established in the Nuremberg Code were imported into the ethical guidelines for the social sciences, informed consent became a common part of the research procedure.[35] However, while informed consent is the default in medical settings, it is not always required in the social science. Here, research often involves low or no risk for participants, unlike in many medical experiments. Second, the mere knowledge that they participate in a study can cause people to alter their behavior, as in the Hawthorne Effect: "In the typical lab experiment, subjects enter an environment in which they are keenly aware that their behavior is being monitored, recorded, and subsequently scrutinized."[36]:168 In such cases, seeking informed consent directly interferes with the ability to conduct the research, because the very act of revealing that a study is being conducted is likely to alter the behavior studied. List exemplifies the potential dilemma that can result: "if one were interested in exploring whether, and to what extent, race or gender influences the prices that buyers pay for used cars, it would be difficult to measure accurately the degree of discrimination among used car dealers who know that they are taking part in an experiment."[37] In cases where such interference is likely, and after careful consideration, a researcher may forgo the informed consent process. This is commonly done after weighting the risk to study participants versus the benefit to society and whether participants are present in the study out of their own wish and treated fairly.[38] Researchers often consult with an ethics committee or institutional review board to render a decision.
The birth of new online media, such as social media, has complicated the idea of informed consent. In an online environment people pay little attention to Terms of Use agreements and can subject themselves to research without thorough knowledge. This issue came to the public light following a study conducted by Facebook Inc. in 2014, and published by that company and Cornell University.[39] Facebook conducted a study where they altered the Facebook News Feeds of roughly 700,000 users to reduce either the amount of positive or negative posts they saw for a week. The study then analyzed if the users status updates changed during the different conditions. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The lack of informed consent led to outrage among many researchers and users.[40] Many believed that by potentially altering the mood of users by altering what posts they see, Facebook put at-risk individuals at higher dangers for depression and suicide. However, supports of Facebook claim that Facebook details that they have the right to use information for research in their terms of use.[41] Others say the experiment is just a part of Facebook’s current work, which alters News Feeds algorithms continually to keep people interested and coming back to the site. Others pointed out that this specific study is not along but that news organizations constantly try out different headlines using algorithms to elicit emotions and garner clicks or Facebook shares.[42] They say this Facebook study is no different than things people already accept. Still, others say that Facebook broke the law when conducting the experiment on user that didn’t give informed consent.[43]
The Facebook study controversy raises numerous questions about informed consent and the differences in the ethical review process between publicly and privately funded research. Some say Facebook was within its limits and others see the need for more informed consent and/or the establishment of in-house private review boards.[44]
Conflicts of interest[edit]
Other, long-standing controversies underscore the role for conflicts of interest among medical school faculty and researchers. For example, coverage of University of California (UC) medical school faculty members has included news of ongoing corporate payments to researchers and practitioners from companies that market and produce the very devices and treatments they recommend to patients.[45] Robert Pedowitz, the former chairman of UCLA’s orthopedic surgery department, reported concern that his colleague’s financial conflicts of interest could negatively affect patient care or research into new treatments.[46] In a subsequent lawsuit about whistleblower retaliation, the University provided a $10 million settlement to Pedowitz while acknowledging no wrongdoing.[46] Consumer Watchdog, an oversight group, observed that University of CA policies were “either inadequate or unenforced…Patients in UC hospitals deserve the most reliable surgical devices and medication…and they shouldn’t be treated as subjects in expensive experiments.”[45] Other UC incidents include taking the eggs of women for implantation into other women without consent[47] and injecting live bacteria into human brains, resulting in potentially premature deaths.[48]
See also[edit]
Anti-Psychiatry
Belmont Report
Consent (BDSM)
Consent (criminal law)
Consensual crime
Declaration of Geneva
Declaration of Helsinki
Doe ex. rel. Tarlow v. District of Columbia
Free, prior and informed consent
Human experimentation
Human experimentation in the United States
Informed assent
Informed consent in sociocratic decision-making
Informed refusal
International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use
Mature minor doctrine
Minors and abortion
Parental consent
Patient safety
Safe, sane and consensual
Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital
World Medical Association
Therapeutic misconception
Executive Order 13139
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Jump up ^ 2. American Psychological Association. (2002). "2010 Amendments to the American Psychological Association ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct.". Retrieved 30 April 2012.
Jump up ^ Taupitz, Jochen; Weschka, Marion (2009). CHIMBRIDS - Chimeras and Hybrids in Comparative European and International Research: Scientific, Ethical, Philosophical and Legal Aspects. Volume 34 of Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Deutsches, Europäisches und Internationales Medizinrecht, Gesundheitsrecht und Bioethik der Universitäten Heidelberg und Mannheim. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 298. ISBN 9783540938699.
Jump up ^ Dieper, Susanne (23 February 2012). "The Legal Framework of Abortions in Germany". American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
Jump up ^ Gold, Rachel and Nash, Elizabeth.State Abortion Counseling Policies and the Fundamental Principles of Informed Consent, Guttmacher Policy Review, Fall 2007, Volume 10, Number 4.
Jump up ^ Richardson, Chinue and Nash, Elizabeth. "Misinformed Consent: The Medical Accuracy of State-Developed Abortion Counseling Materials", Guttmacher Policy Review Fall 2006, Volume 9, Number 4.
Jump up ^ Committee on Bioethics (1995). "Informed consent, parental permission, and assent in pediatric practice" (PDF). Pediatrics. 95 (2): 314–7.
^ Jump up to: a b c Annas, Glantz, Katz, George, Leonard, Barbara (1977). Informed Consent to Human Experimentation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishing Company. pp. 63–93. ISBN 0-88410-147-9. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
Jump up ^ https://www.ich.org/fileadmin/Public_Web_Site/ICH_Products/Guidelines/Efficacy/E6/E6_R1_Guideline.pdf
Jump up ^ Homan, R. (1991). The Ethics of Social Research. London; New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-05879-1.
Jump up ^ Levitt, S. D.; List, J. A. (2007). "What Do Laboratory Experiments Measuring Social Preferences Reveal about the Real World?". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 21 (2): 153–174. JSTOR 30033722. doi:10.1257/jep.21.2.153.
Jump up ^ List, J. A.; List, J. A. (2008). "Informed Consent in Social Science". Science. 322 (5902): 672. doi:10.1126/science.322.5902.672a.
Jump up ^ Levitt, S. D.; List, J. A. (2009). "Field experiments in economics: The past, the present, and the future". European Economic Review. 53 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2008.12.001.
Jump up ^ Kramer, Adam; Guillory, Jaime; Jeffrey, Hancock (2014). "Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks". PNAS. 111: 8788–90. PMC 4066473  . PMID 24889601. doi:10.1073/pnas.1320040111.
Jump up ^ LANIER, Jaron. "Should Facebook Manipulate Users?". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
Jump up ^ Boyd, Danah. "What does the Facebook experiment teach us?". Social Media Collective Research Blog. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
Jump up ^ Watts, Duncan. "Stop complaining about the Facebook study. It's a golden age for research". The Guardian. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
Jump up ^ Grimmelmann, James. "Illegal, Immoral, and Mood-Altering How Facebook and OkCupid Broke the Law When They Experimented on Users". Medium. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
Jump up ^ Salganik, Matt. "After the Facebook emotional contagion experiment: A proposal for a positive path forward". Freedom to Tinker. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b Petersen, Melody. (2014, May 25). UC system struggles with professors’ outside earnings. Orange County Register. Retrieved from http://www.ocregister.com/articles/university-615629-ucla-corporate.html
^ Jump up to: a b Terhune, Chad (2014, April 25). More scrutiny for UCLA’s School of Medicine. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-outside-money-20140426-story.html#ixzz30BvcCJIV
Jump up ^ Yoshino, Kimi. (2006, January 20). UC Irvine Fertility Scandal Isn’t Over: While seeking to limit its liability, college admits it failed to inform many patients of wrongdoing. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/20/local/me-uci20
Jump up ^ The Sacramento Bee. (2013, August 25). UC Davis surgeons resign after bacteria-in-brain dispute. Retrieved from http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/article2578591.html
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Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Archive (capitalization)
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Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style
Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style--Archive Directory
Contents
[hide]
1 Capitalization of celestial bodies
2 Capitalization of computer terms
2.1 Capitalisation of 'I' in Internet and 'W' on World Wide Web
3 Capitalisation of artistic movements
4 Corporate abuse of capitalization
Capitalization of celestial bodies
There's no consistency in Wikipedia in the use of capitalization for sun, earth, and moon.
University of Minnesota says:
Do not capitalize the words sun and moon.
Do not capitalize the word earth unless it is used without the definite article in connection with the names of other planets.
The earth rotates on its axis.
Mercury is the planet closest to the sun, followed by Venus and Earth.
Webster says:
Do not, however, capitalize earth, moon, sun, except when those names appear in a context in which other (capitalized) celestial bodies are mentioned. "I like it here on earth," but "It is further from Earth to Mars than it is from Mercury to the Sun.
The United States Government Printing Office Style Manual 2000 says:
Capitalize the names of the celestial bodies Sun and Moon, as well as the planets Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
but the moons of Jupiter
My personal style has always been closer to the USGPO. I feel that when used as a proper noun in an astronomical context, a celestial body should be capitalized.
The Sun is a main sequence star, with a spectral class of G2. (astronomical context)
It was a lovely day and the sun was warm. (non-scientific context)
The Moon orbits the Earth. (proper nouns)
Phobos is one of the two moons of Mars. (moon as a conventional noun)
Finding no rule in the style guide, however, I thought I'd submit the matter for discussion. Satori 18:44, Aug 29, 2004 (UTC)
This style seems best (to me, that is ;-)) - though how on Earth we are to decide whether certain phrases are really referring to the celestial object (like that last phrase) beats me...
James F. (talk) 01:27, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I agree with Satori. In James F.'s example -- a good choice of a borderline case -- I'd consider either form acceptable. JamesMLane 11:43, 4 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I would say that in James F.'s example, it should definitely be earth. Gadykozma 13:05, 4 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Looks good, makes sense. ··gracefool |☺ 19:48, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I think that the USGPO is how most people would describe their usage. The Minnesota usage is just plain wrong: there are times when Sun *must* be capitalised. The USGPO usage seems most sensible. I wonder if any British authorities say differently... Wooster 19:59, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
It seems there is a consensus, so I wrote up some language to add to the Capitalization section of the MoS at User:Satori/Celestial Capitalization. Without objection, I'll add that language to the manual in a day or two. Satori 23:24, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)
Capitalization of computer terms
The computer industry includes lots of seemingly-gratuitous capitalization. See Fibre Channel and Operating System, for example. Clearly Fibre Channel, being a proper noun (it's a specific protocol), can be capitalized just like Brooklyn Bridge, and it is ALWAYS capitalized in industry publications. But Operating System (and Host Bus Adapter and Storage Area Network) are not proper nouns. In fact, it seems that the only reason they are ever capitalized is because there are commonly-used abbreviations for them (OS, HBA, and SAN respectively) which are always (annoyingly) spelled out. But hey, if that's the standard then that's the standard. So I believe that we at Wiki should capitalize them. Otherwise, we're just swimming upstream. Opinions?--SFoskett 19:26, Sep 1, 2004 (UTC)
I observe standard English grammar. Though I sometimes feel like a salmon Salmon swimming upstream. Mackerm 19:49, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Use standard English. All industries overcapitalize in publications whose audience is members of that industry. Outside that industry and in publications who have a general audience (such as an encyclopedia) those same terms are not capitalized. That is what we should continue to do. --mav 20:41, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)
That being said, words like Internet and Web (for World Wide Web) are proper nouns, and should be capitalized accordingly. Wikipedia style also prescribes capitalization of compound words derived from proper nouns, but words like webmaster generally go uncapitalized per the predominant professional style guides. Something to bear in mind. Austin Hair 22:27, Sep 1, 2004 (UTC)
Just to split the hair even finer - according to my boss - "internet" (with a lowercase i) can refer to pretty much any TCP/IP network, whereas "Internet" (with a capital I) refers to the Internet-at-large. →Raul654 01:39, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC)
Well, AIUI, the term "internet" is a contraction of "international [computer] network", so any WAN for sufficiently large values of "W" would be so, yes. But most people, when refering to an internet, will in fact be refering to a part of the Internet (there being relatively few black internets, I'd imagine).
James F. (talk) 01:56, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I believe the term was based on interconnected network rather than international. I've heard a distinction similar to the one Raul points out, but that the small "i" internet is for a network based on other than the TCP/IP. See [1] for a variety of definitions. older ≠ wiser 02:15, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Actually, web is now a noun, not a proper noun - at least, according to increasing numbers of magazines etc (eg. Wired). I'm confident that within ten years or so, almost everyone will use a small "w". ··gracefool |☺ 12:58, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
There's no "actually" about it, in fact; both views are perfectly legitimate, though my support is behind the convention used by most style guides and the inventor of the Web himself. (And just to fuel this week's other major style war, I'll point out that he calls WWW an "acronym.") Austin Hair 19:55, Sep 5, 2004 (UTC)
So what's the decision? I guess we're still discussing, but eventually we will have to reach concensus on this and add it to the manual of style. Another area with Seemingly Gratuitous Capitalization is the automotive industry, where terms like Variable Valve Timing and Dual Overhead Cam are often capitalized, even when they are used in a general sense instead of proper nouns. Actually, these are good examples, too, since both ARE proper nouns sometimes - Toyota has a specific technology calles "VVT" and Ford made an engine named the "DOHC".
So how about this:
Capitalization of Industry Jargon - Industry-specific terms that have commonly-used initialisms but are not proper nouns are often over-capitalized within their industries. Examples include Wide Area Network (WAN) and Variable Valve Timing (VVT). Wikipedia will use standard English grammar rules and will not capitalize words that are not proper nouns. Keep in mind, though, that some jargon, like Fibre Channel and Variable Intake Control System are proper nouns and should remain capitalized wherever they are used.
Looks good. ··gracefool |☺ 04:59, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Capitalisation of 'I' in Internet and 'W' on World Wide Web
Not sure if we might need a bot if we choose to go the way of Wired Magazine and The Guardian. Have a look at this BBC story then our article Internet. Personally I'm all for de-capitalisation. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 02:33, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC)
The fact that "Wired" made a style choice (and in its justification doesn't even recognize that the reason Internet is capitalized is because it's a proper noun) needn't dictate our style choice. Newspapers, magazines, and websites often make peculiar style choices: as Wikipedia aspires to be an encyclopedia, not a news purveyor, our style choices should reflect prevailing styles used in publishing books, not newspapers. As yet, such style guides uniformly recommend Internet. Not until they change should we. - Nunh-huh 02:42, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Comment posted by anonymous user 195.158.6.178:
"It's ugly. Internet and WWW are not proper nouns. The internet, and the world wide web should not be capitalized. It's distracting and unnecessary."
[NB: This user also scattered vandalism throughout this page, which I rolled back. It was only later I realised he or she had also made a valid comment, and restored the edit. Sorry for any inconvenience - Mark 05:40, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)]
Coincidentally(?), this topic had just come up on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style#Capitalization of computer terms. World Wide Web is certainly a proper noun phrase, unless you can demonstrate that another one exists and goes generically by that name; the same goes for Internet in all cases where you're referring to the Internet. You needn't take my word for it, of course, though you should that of Tim Berners-Lee and the Chicago Manual of Style. Austin Hair 05:29, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC)
Don't you mean "This Topic"? You are talking about a particular topic, right? anthony (see warning) 12:56, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
No. The word "topic" was not coined to describe this discussion thread, and is not a proper noun. You yourself even quoted my use of the adjective this—an unequivocal indication, in the absence of an article, that the noun in question is a generic one. Austin Hair 00:10, Sep 3, 2004 (UTC)
The word "internet" was not coined to describe any particular internet, either. It's a descriptive term, just like telephone network (or even telephone itself). anthony (see warning) 16:49, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
So is the "Atmosphere" a proper noun that should be capitalized as well? I'm neutral on this issue, for now, but if given enough evidence that using lowercase is widely accepted as the standard I'd be willing to accept that standard. anthony (see warning) 12:51, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
There's a distinction between the Internet and an internet (see note on Internet). Using a capital for the Internet is very unambiguous - and is consistent with general usage. So I believe actually, that the Internet is a proper noun, while "internet" is not. The World Wide Web is a more academic question, as usually WWW is used (which being an acronym, should use capitals). Interestingly, WWW an unusual acronym in that it is longer to say out loud than World Wide Web. zoney ▓█▒ talk 12:55, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
But if you read the article, it mentions that the same distinction can be made in other cases, such as the Atmosphere vs. an atmosphere, but this is nearly universally ignored. With World Wide Web it's much more clear, as this is more obviously a name, not a description. But then, with Web, it's less clear again. The Internet is more of a description, similar to the Telephone Network, which I would assume is usually not capitalized even when referring to the specific one encompassing most of the globe. Another factor is that the knowledge of which internet is being talked about is really based on context. It is in many ways similar to saying "Let's go to the ocean" (not "the Ocean"), even though you know you're really about a specific ocean. anthony (see warning) 13:05, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Atmosphere in the specific sense, is not being used as a proper noun. It's not much more than the difference between "the" and "an". It's not really a relevant example to the discussion (not remotely similar to the difference between earth and the Earth, an internet and the Internet) and probably shouldn't have been included. The example sentence is simply leaving out the "taken for granted" word of "Earth's" (the Earth's atmosphere exerts a pressure). In this case, the Internet is a specific network. Someone could come up with an alternate internet and call it Globelink. To talk about "the internet" is just incorrect - our article on the Internet is quite right to point out the difference immediately with a dab. zoney ▓█▒ talk 13:15, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I don't see the distinction. Saying "the Internet" just leaves out the taken for granted phrase "that most of the world is connected to." Or should I be saying "that most of the World is connected to?" Internet is a description more than a name, it just happens to be a description of something which most of the world currently uses only one of. Going back to my other example which is probably more applicable, should we be calling it the Telephone Network? anthony (see warning) 13:21, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I'm not sure what you're saying about the different between earth and the Earth. According to this source, you should only capitalise earth and sun and moon when used in a list of celestial objects or part of another name. [2] But it's not clear to me whether you're arguing for or against this distinction. Earth, Sun, and Moon, are proper nouns, right? anthony (see warning) 13:29, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
If one is to believe standard histories of the web, internet, as a contraction of interconnected networks, refers generically to any network of interconnected networks. By this version, the big "I" Internet is a specific instance of such interconnected networks (which has grown to such an extent as to have virtually eliminated alternatives). However, I'm not aware that small "i" internet was ever commonly used to refer to any actual alternative networking system. It seems that it is used primarily to make a pedantic, mostly theoretical, distinction, and it may well be that the distinction is purely pedantic and not based in actual (or at least in common) usage. Despite this possibility, I have no problem with treating the Internet like a proper noun since that is currently the most common usage, even though the purported rationale may not have much bearing on reality. older ≠ wiser 13:47, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Planets other than Earth (capitalized, in this context—the enumeration of other planets is implicit) have atmospheres. I'm surprised at you, Anthony—this distinction is one usually learned no later than the fifth grade, and I know for a fact that you're a native speaker. Austin Hair 00:10, Sep 3, 2004 (UTC)
This is a strawman. I know that other planets have atmospheres. That was my point. anthony (see warning) 13:35, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Both the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications and the Chicago Manual of Style give Internet and World Wide Web. Why is this debate even happening? 145.36.24.29 14:51, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I should point out, the distinction may not be apparent to any non-techies (and even to some techies), but as a qualified Computer Engineer I can tell you that to talk about "the internet" is just wrong! The parent poster is right - this debate should not be happening. The only reason that it is, is due to the idiotic "style" decisions of two media companies. Permit me to say "GRRRRRrrr" (I'm fed up being nice - it's a stupid pointless debate). zoney ▓█▒ talk 15:53, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Fair enough - I'm happy to go with the prevailing style manuals. I strongly suspect that decapitalisation will creep in regardless of the rights or wrongs, just through overwhelming common usage of lower case. But I withdraw my I'm all for decapitalisation in light of the arguments above. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 17:33, Sep 2, 2004 (UTC)
I didn't know they let "qualified Computer Engineers" determine what is right and wrong capitalization. Captialization rules in English are quite arbitrary, and in this situation there isn't a clear right or wrong. All we can go on is common usage, imposing strict rules on the matter is not any more appropriate than imposing a rule that colour is the wrong way to spell color. anthony (see warning) 13:39, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I'm pointing out that the ensuing ambiguity, is from that point of view, appalling - something perhaps not obvious to those judging merely on terms of "style". I will however, refrain from further Grrs, it was a momentary lapse. zoney ▓█▒ talk 16:52, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
It still looks pants. The Worst Style Decision in the World will haunt Us in The Future, I just know it. Still, The Population of this website seem to want it, so I guess we have to go with The Majority Opinion. Oh Well. 213.206.33.82 12:04, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
They should be capitalized, because I like seeing them that way. This may well be a transition that's in the process of happening, or it may not be, but I would like to wait until authoritative print sources such as the American Heritage Dictionary decide it has actually happened. Wired is trying to be cool and ahead of the trend. They hope to be tastemakers. The print version of Wired (does it still exist?) had very weird typography and layout, too, which some saw as cool, but was not widely followed by mainstream periodicals. (The alternating use of what I can only call "inverse video" in their page numbers, for example). There's no logical reason for capitalizing anything. This is all a matter of prevailing taste, style, and custom. Print encyclopedias tend to be present a dignified, conservative typographic personality and so should Wikipedia. Which should be capitalized, even though it can easily be understood without it. I will now lose all claim to credibility by noting that I still spell Hallowe'en with an apostrophe, and used to put a dieresis over the second "o" in coöperate, and hyphenating it (co-operate) if I was using a device that lacked a dieresis. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 13:48, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I mostly agree with these comments (except for liking seeing it that way). Right now there is no real standard in this area, so mass decapitalization would be inappropriate. anthony (see warning) 16:47, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Then we should do what we do with US and UK English, consitent within each article, but tollerate diversity within The Encyclopedia. 195.158.9.78 10:35, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)
This makes sense – how can people debate this when some articles use "colour" and others say "color"? For me, the capitalization is the correct way of doing it (and should be in a -pedia) but the common person writes them without the capitals and, tbh, few know the associated grammatical rules. "Internet" has left the jargon compsci world and has been adopted into popular culture – try referring to anything as an internet without people thinking of the Internet. This is the explanation that should be given in the main Internet article. violet/riga (t) 10:53, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Just a note—The Economist decapitalized the “internet” long before Wired. Personally I'm inclined to follow The Economist blindly down any dark path it charts. T-bomb 02:15, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
There are many internets in the world which are not connected to the Internet - and only one Internet. Sentences such as "the internet of intelligence agency <foo> is not connected to the internet", while eventually parseable (albeit allowing of confusion), looks downright ugly if "the Internet" is not a proper noun.
When the people who created internets and the Internet created the terminology (see Internet and Talk:Internet), we very carefully thought all this through, and it's the way it is for a good reason. The BBC guy had it exactly right. The economist, wired et al can take a hike. Noel 00:02, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
So do you really want to say 'my private telephone network is not connected to The Telephone Network that covers most of the rest of The World'? Moooo! 01:44, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
To quote my boss, David Mills - "internet (with a lowercase i) can refer to pretty much any network, whereas Internet (with a capital I) refers to the one and only vast, public Internet" →Raul654 01:49, Sep 8, 2004 (UTC)
But is there any actual evidence that small "i" internet was ever commonly used to refer to "pretty much any network" (or even to any real network) other than in making a pedantic or theoretical point? older ≠ wiser 01:59, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Easily proven -- google for the term "corporate internet" (which generally refers to internal company networks, not the Internet-at-large). It brings 119,000 hits. →Raul654 02:16, Sep 8, 2004 (UTC)
Hmmm, I really don't mean to make such a big deal out of this, but I'm not convinced. If you look at the Google results for the search you suggest, as far as I can tell all of the references are about corporate marketing and presence on the internet rather than the internal use of internet (which I had always heard as intranet as opposed to internet). older ≠ wiser 02:39, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Raul's fond of repeating arguments he doesn't fully comprehend (and dropping names, for that matter). In this sense, an "internet" is the layer of interconnected services bound into a single virtual entity, rather than the transport layer itself (cf. WAN). Corporate intranets (networks with no scope outside the company in question) can also be internets under this definition—which isn't commonly understood in the context of today's technical jargon—but the terms aren't mutually interchangable. Austin Hair 07:34, Sep 8, 2004 (UTC)
Capitalisation of artistic movements
I have reached a conundrum. Every usage guide I consult (including Wikipedia and Chicago) says that artistic, philosophical, and cultural movements are by default to be not capitalised, unless they explicitly refer to, or their name originated from, a proper noun. Yet, I see artistic movements constantly capitalised when this is not the case, e.g. "Realism", "Expressionism", "Impressionism", etc. This seems to be a particular habit among those writing about the visual arts; literary, musical, philosophical movements and so on tend to follow the "rule". Why is this??
Corporate abuse of capitalization
Is there/should there be a guideline for capitalization of corporate names? In the text of certain articles (OpenGL, specifically), I have been changing NVIDIA to Nvidia, as I am a strong believer that we should adhere to the accepted capitalization rules instead of letting corporations hijack them for their own benefit. — Flamurai 07:30, Dec 12, 2004 (UTC)
I don't think there is the specific guideline that you refer to. I agree with you about not letting companies, marketeers, technology types, etc., hijack the language. But I fear we may be fighting the tide. Maurreen 07:50, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)
This is a great article on the subject, if you're interested. Reading it is kind of theraputic. — Flamurai 09:17, Dec 12, 2004 (UTC)
the only guideline as regards corporate names is 3M not 3m nor Three M and EBay not eBay nor Ebay, so I would think it would be NVIDIA and OpenGL as well. The corporations aren't hijacking the language so much as the way we use symbols. (Coca cola is recognisable in any alphabet) etc. Pedant 11:38, 2004 Dec 12 (UTC)
Well, OpenGL makes sense, as it's pronounced "Open Gee El", but "Nvidia" is not pronounced "En Vee Eye Dee Eye Aay". "NVidia" would also be acceptable. — flamuraiº 15:35, Dec 12, 2004 (UTC)
NVIDIA Corporation has specifically asked that the name of their company and brand be capitalized as NVIDIA, not Nvidia, NVidia, nVidia, or any other capitalization. SeanAhern (talk) 13:43, 13 October 2010 (UTC)
I've listed The Slot article as an external link from the CamelCase article. Maurreen 16:54, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I agree. The article on Time magazine (currently at TIME) should be moved. [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality/talk]] 18:58, Dec 12, 2004 (UTC)
Now that I've actually looked again, I see that we do cover this, at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (trademarks). It says:
Follow our usual text formatting and capitalization rules even if the trademark owner encourages special treatment:
avoid: REALTOR
instead, use: Realtor
Trademarks in CamelCase are a judgement call. CamelCase may be used where it reflects general usage and makes the trademark more readable:
OxyContin or Oxycontin - editors choice
Maurreen 19:47, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The Chicago Manual of Style says for Names with unusual capitalization:
Parts of names given in full capitals on the letterhead or in the promotional material of particular organizations may be given in upper- and lowercase when referred to in other contexts (e.g., "the Rand Corporation" rather than "the RAND Corporation"). Company names that are spelled without an initial capital (e.g., drkoop.com, which is not a URL) or with a capital following a lowercase letter (e.g., eBay) should remain thus in text. For obvious reasons, however, a name beginning with a lowercase letter should not begin a sentence: if it must, it should be capitalized.
I wonder if it might not be small-capped: "IBay is a very successful business". That looks right to me. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage under capital letters notes:
Some organizations and businesses go by compound names with a capital letter in the middle, e.g. AusInfo, HarperCollins. The mid-capital is thus part of their trademark or business identity, and it defies the general practice of using a hyphen before a capital letter in mid-word (see hyphens section 1c). The practice is established in personal names such as FitzGerald and McIvor: see under Fitz- and Mac or Mc.
That last seems unassailable. If you spell FitzGerald rather than Fitzgerald, why should you baulk at OxyContin rather than Oxycontin? I'm inclined to change the MoS here using that as an example: "Trademarks in CamelCase only extend what has been accepted style in personal and corporate names like FitzGerald and McDonald's. CamelCase should normally be retained when it reflects general usage and does not hinder readability: OxyContin." That would allow for cases, that I do not forsee but may occur, where for some reason CamelCase did look awkward. From Editing Canadian English (11.58):
If a trademark – registered or unregistered – must be specified, use the owner's preferred style:
Her cold-fighting artillery was on her night table: Extra-Strength Tylenol, a box of Kleenex (the big ones), echinacea, grapefruit juice, and a Harlequin romance.
However, if the owner's style is to use lowercase, all caps, italics, or other graphic flourishes for the mark, a reference in ordinary text may be styled with standard capitalization and type treatment.
When he was 12, he seemed to live on Pop-Tarts [not pop-tarts].
Scrabble [not SCRABBLE] games at Lisa's last all night.
Jallan 03:26, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Hmmm. Interesting stuff. I don't see it as the job of Wikipedia to do company's marketing for them and logos and trademarks are all about marketing. Magazines I have worked for had blanket bans on replicating trademarks and logos (except to avoid confusion). Partly to was for cleaner layout (two firms we wrote about had superscript 2s, because they we a company squared)). But it was also to be seen to be disinterested (c/w NPOV). So no midCaps, no @ signs or superscripts. Just treatment as proper nouns (always initial caps).
In the case of initials, the rule was usually: if it can be pronounced as a word, write it as such (so Start Treaty, Unesco), if it could not then all caps (so BBC, OECD etc). Icundell 10:04, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Archive_(capitalization)&oldid=766026813"
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