ABBREVIATIONS IN SCIENTIFIC TEXT

While reading technical and scientific reports, you may well meet certain abbreviations in the text, many of which are derived from Latin. Moreover, you may need to use some abbreviations yourself. Here are a few common examples:

ABBREVIATION	IN FULL	TRANSLATION	WHAT IT MEANS
cf.	confer	compare	Compare the information just given with something stated in another author's work (cf. Hardy, 1999).
e.g.	exempli gratia	free example	for example
et al.	et alii	and others	and other authors (The work was carried out by Brown et al. in 1999.)
etc.	et cetera	and the rest	and so on
ibid.	ibidem	in the same place	The source of the work just mentioned is the the same as that of the last reference.
i.e.	id est	that is	that is to say
op.cit.	opere citato	in the work cited	The source of the point just made is in the work for which the reference has already been supplied.
passim	passim	here and there	The author makes the point currently being discussed in several places in the text.
pers.com.	personal communication		the source mentioned is not a published source, but arose from personal contacts such as discussion, email, a letter, etc.