End-of-line hyphenation of chemical names (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)

doi:10.1515/ci-2021-0216

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End-of-line hyphenation of chemical names (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)

Published/Copyright: April 1, 2021

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From the journal Chemistry International Volume 43 Issue 2

Albert J. Dijkstra, Karl-Heinz Hellwich, Richard M. Hartshorn, Jan Reedijk, and Erik Szabo

Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2021

Volume 93, Issue 1, pp. 47-68

https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-1005

Chemical names can be so long that, when a manuscript is printed, they have to be hyphenated/divided at the end of a line. Many names already contain hyphens, but in some cases, using these hyphens as end-of-line divisions can lead to illogical divisions in print, as can also happen when hyphens are added arbitrarily without considering the ‘chemical’ context. The present document provides guidelines for authors of chemical manuscripts, their publishers and editors, on where to divide chemical names at the end of a line, and instructions on how to avoid these names being divided at illogical places. Readability and chemical sense should prevail when authors insert hyphens. The software used to convert electronic manuscripts to print can now be programmed to avoid illogical end-of-line hyphenation and thereby save the author much time and annoyance when proofreading. The Recommendations also allow readers of the printed article to determine which end-of-line hyphens are an integral part of the name and should not be deleted when ‘undividing’ the name. These Recommendations may also prove useful in languages other than English.

Context and Example

When an article is about to be published, the author sends the electronic manuscript to the publisher who uses typesetting software to convert the manuscript into print. This conversion may entail dividing chemical names at the end of a line. The typesetting software used by the publisher, like the word processing software used by the authors, recognizes a hyphen as a location where a word can be divided. So, a name such as ‘1-methyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene’ may perhaps get divided at the third hyphen in this name. However, this does not make sense chemically. In chemical terminology, the ‘1,2’ locants are closely associated with the ‘dihydro’. Just listen to yourself when you pronounce the name. You stop after ‘1-methyl’ and again after ‘1,2-dihydro’ and you pronounce ‘1,2-dihydro’ as if it were a single word. There is, therefore, a need to prevent software from using existing hyphens, or inserting new hyphens, to divide names at illogical places.

Actually, one can easily think of a few ‘dos and don’ts’ that will exemplify the concepts illustrated in the recommendation.

For example: ‘poly[(chloromethylene)/methylene]’ can be divided as:

Undest eaque mincto eriatem quosam fugiam poly-[(chloromethylene)/methylene]’ nonsequat quam, aut

or as:

Undest eaque mincto eriatem quosam poly[(chloro-methylene)/methylene] fugiam nonsequat quam, aut

or as:

Undest eaque mincto poly[(chloromethylene)-/methylene] eriatem quosam fugiam quam, aut

but not as

Undest eaque mincto eriatem quosam poly[(chlo-romethylene)/methylene]’ ugiam nonsequat quam

nor

Undest eaque mincto eriatem poly[(chlorometh-ylene)/methylene] quosam fugiam quam, aut

nor

Undest eaque poly[(chloromethylene)/methyl-ene] mincto eriatem quosam fugiam quam, aut

Following a series of definitions, this IUPAC Recommendations reviews a general approach to dividing chemical names at the end of a line, and provides guidelines to dividing chemical names in a chemically meaningful manner. It offers typesetting practices and presents numerous examples, before ending by reviewing the role of the author and that of the publisher/typesetter.

Online erschienen: 2021-04-01

Erschienen im Druck: 2021-04-01

©2021 IUPAC & De Gruyter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information, please visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0216