Library Assist: Answers

Repeating long organisation names throughout your assignment can eat into your word limit, so if the organisation is known by an acronym you can use this provided that you've stated the full organisation name to begin with.

You need to include the full name AND the acronym the very first time it appears in your work and the acronym takes over thereafter. It is easy to write in a regular sentence, but if you are introducing an acronym as part of an in-text citation here's how to do it:

First citation = According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2018), nurses should .. 

Subsequent citations = The NMC (2018) states that... or (NMC, 2018, p. 12)

Please note: acronyms should only be used where an organisation is widely recognised by those initials. Students should avoid creating new acronyms just to save their word count. 

What about the full reference?

Remember that you will need to write the full name AND the acronym in your full reference in your reference list so that it matches all instances of your in-text citations for the source. For example:

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2018) The code: Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives and nursing associates. Available at: https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/nmc-code.pdf (Accessed: 26 July 2022).