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  1. Home
  2. Resources
  3. United Nations Editorial Manual Online

Editorial Manual 

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The United Nations Editorial Manual Online is intended to serve as an authoritative statement of the style to be followed in drafting, editing and reproducing United Nations documents, publications and other written material. Although based mainly on the practices and policies that have evolved at Headquarters, the present manual is meant to provide editorial guidance for all parts of the Secretariat. The directives set forth in the manual supersede all earlier guidelines on the subjects dealt with herein. For topics not yet addressed in the present manual, the United Nations Editorial Manual (Sales No. E.83.I.16) remains the primary authority for United Nations editorial policy.

 

Click here for a list of updated items.

 

 

Editorial guidelines

 

  • Instructions for the preparation of official  documents
  • Country names and currencies
  • Footnotes and other references
  • Guidelines for gender-inclusive language
  • Guidelines for disability-inclusive language
  • Policy questions

 Format

 

  • Headings and subheadings
  • Maps and figures, including photographs
  • Mastheads and cover pages
  • Paragraphs and subparagraphs
  • Tables  

 

Style

 

  • Abbreviations  
  • Capitalization in English  
  • Indirect or reported speech
  • Italics and bold print
  • Numbers, dates and time  
  • Punctuation
  • Quotations
  • Spelling (printer-friendly version) 

 

Basic documents

 

  • Addenda
  • Communications
  • Corrigenda and reissues
  • Documents relating to agendas of principal organs
  • Documents relating to programme budget implications
  • Notes by the Secretary-General
  • Reports of intergovernmental and expert bodies
  • Resolutions and other formal decisions of United Nations organs

 

Sources of information

 

  • Online   
  • Print 

 

About United Nations editors

 

 

Contact us 

 


 

Prepared and maintained for the United Nations under the authority of the relevant Chiefs, Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. Mention of the names of firms and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the United Nations. For technical or editorial enquiries, please contact the English Translation and Editorial Service at [email protected].

 

  • Blue Book
  • Calendar of conferences and meetings
  • Committee on Conferences
  • Delegates Handbook
  • DGACM applications
  • Document submission guidelines
  • Economic and Social Council
  • e-deleGATE
  • eSubscription
  • gDoc
  • General Assembly of the United Nations
  • gMeets
  • iGov
  • Journal of the United Nations
  • Official Document System
  • Protocol and liaison
  • United Nations Editorial Manual Online
  • United Nations System Code of Conduct
  • UNTERM
  • Visualizations and machine readability

 

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