Writing style and tone of voice
Contents
About BMJ Group
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Our mission
Our mission with vision
Our vision
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Our corporate website
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Our impact
Our logos Logo usage
Tone of voice Anyone who writes for and on behalf of BMJ Group should follow our distinct style and apply our tone of voice Confident We believe in ourselves as pioneering experts within our profession. Evidence matters to us so we back up our claims with data and use plain English to communicate. Empowering We’re here to motivate, support and enable, so the words we choose to use are clear and accessible for everyone. Succinct We know our users and customers are busy so we speak briefly, directly and clearly. We tell them what they need to know within the first two sentences. Trustworthy We are honest, authentic and credible. We know who we are writing for and meet our audiences’ specific needs with thoughtful, relevant information that is correct in every detail.
Style guide We have a comprehensive style guide for editors, however, these are the most common rules ¡ Always use sentence case everywhere ¡ Use minimal capitalisation; only for names and proper nouns ¡ Write open access in sentence case, without hyphenation ¡ We have one rule where we use NO full stops in initials or abbreviations, nor after headings or bullet points ¡ Use minimal commas, but use Oxford commas before the ‘and’ and ‘or’ in lists ¡ Format dates – Day Month Year (4 July 1971) ¡ Time of day – 9 am (not 9 00 am), 6 35 pm, midnight, noon; 1835, 2400, 1200 (usually not 1835 hours etc). Use 7 1/2, not 7.50 (etc) for easily expressed fractions of hours. Noon and 12 are synonymous, don’t say 12 noon ¡ Numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for measurements with a unit (8 mmol/L) or age (6 weeks old), or when in a list with other numbers (14 dogs, 12 cats, 9 gerbils) ¡ Healthcare – always one word, whether adjective or noun
Negative/positive
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application Clear space Positioning
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Things to avoid
Typefaces and typography
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Our fonts
Colour palette
Primary colours Secondary colours Colour accessibility Accessible colour
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combinations
The fulcrum Photography
AI imagery 17 Guidance on all photography 17 Location 17 Lighting and colour 18 Image format 18 Reportage photography rules 19 Portrait photography rules 20 The fulcrum & photography 20 Writing style and tone of voice 21
Help and support If you have any general questions, suggestions, or need advice on a specific project, email the brand team today at: bmjbrandteam@bmj.com
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