Vol.66 No.3 May 2018
Differences of abbreviation usages for antimicrobial agents among Japan, the United States and Europe
Faculty of Pharmacy, Keio University
Abstract
In 1977, and prior to the Western scientific societies, the Japanese Society of Chemotherapy (JSC) designated a set of abbreviations for antimicrobial agents, in order to avoid confusion caused by their misunderstanding and/or misuse, so that unified abbreviations could be used in the articles published in the society's Japanese journal "Chemotherapy" (renamed as the Journal of JSC in 1995) or presentations at the society's scientific meetings.
There were only 85 abbreviations at the beginning, which increased to 101 in the following year and which continued to increase in response to the active R&D regarding new antimicrobial agents, so that by 2017 there were 209 abbreviations listed in the "Technical Terms of Chemotherapy."
On the other hand, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) first designated abbreviations for antimicrobial agents in 2006, in the Instructions to Authors of the journal "Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy" (AAC) and, by adding new abbreviations every year, a total of 139 abbreviations were listed in 2017. Meanwhile, the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) publishes, in the Instructions to Authors of the "Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy" (JAC), a list of 153 abbreviations which are almost consistent with those listed in AAC. As a result, there is no difference between ASM and BSAC in usage of abbreviations for antibacterial and antifungal agents. However, significant differences exist between the ASM/BSAC and JSC in the usage of abbreviations for antimicrobial agents.
It is an unfavorable situation, in consideration of any attempt to achieve the globalization of antimicrobial chemotherapy, that abbreviations of antimicrobial agents designated by the JSC are not consistent with those designated by the ASM and the BSAC, and some sort of countermeasures for improvement are necessary. In addition, it might be necessary to make it well known that, when a member of JSC submits an article to AAC or JAC and/or makes a presentation at a scientific meeting organized by ASM or BSAC, usage of abbreviations for antimicrobial agents designated by AAC/JAC, instead of those by JSC, is essential.
Key word
antimicrobial agent, antibacterial agent, antifungal agent, antiviral agent, abbreviation
Received
January 9, 2018
Accepted
January 30, 2018
Jpn. J. Chemother. 66 (3): 373-385, 2018
