Glossary

EITI style and citations guide

Style, spelling and grammar conventions

Publisher: EITI International Secretariat

August 2017

Style guide for written text

The EITI style guide covers style, spelling and grammar conventions for all content published by the EITI International Secretariat. We also use the Economist style guide as a reference. Users may also refer to our glossary of terms.

Glossary / style	Rule	Example
Aggregation / disaggregation	Do not capitalise.
Alphabetical order	List items in alphabetical order, unless there is a hierarchy.	Anadarko reports payments in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique and Sierra Leone. France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom recently joined other OECD countries, such as Australia and the United States, in making a formal commitment to implement the EITI Standard.
Anti-corruption	Always hyphenate.
Apostrophe	Use the possessive (‘s) after singular words and names that end in “s” and plural words that do not end in “s”. Use the possessive (s’) after plural words that end in “s”. Avoid the false possessive. A year cannot own anything. Do not put apostrophes in decades.	The EITI’s origins; Anders’s bike Companies' reports Bosses’; caucuses’ Gulf War of 1991, not 1991’s Gulf War 1990s, not 1990’s
Board circular	Do not capitalise when used in a general sense. Capitalise when referring to a specific edition, e.g. Board Circular 339 (or BC 339).	The EITI Board's decision-making is consensus-based. It takes decisions during Board meetings, which are held two to four times a year, and via Board circulars. The EITI Board takes decisions via meetings and circulars. The Implementation Committee was established through Board Circular 339.
Board meeting	Do not capitalise "meeting".
Board member(s)	Do not capitalise member(s), even when referring to a specific Board member.	Jane Doe, a civil society representative and EITI Board member, was present at the meeting.
Brackets	If a whole sentence is within brackets, put the full stop inside. Use square brackets when placing an explanation or addition a direct quote. The use of ordinary brackets within a direct quotation indicated that the words were part of the original text.	The government should consider options for developing a collective governance approach. (The government may, for example, consider establishing an advisory group or commission third party monitoring.) “They [the National Coordinators] met in Kinshasa for a training workshop.”
British English spelling	“s” instead of “z” “-re” instead of “-er” “-our” instead of “-or” Exception: If an American spelling is used in the proper name, use that spelling. Exception: For the words "license", use American spelling.	organisation centre; cadastre favourite; colour annexe Example : Alcan Aluminum, Pulverizing Services, Travelers Insurance The country has disclose the process for awarding licenses.
Bulleted lists	Bulleted lists should begin with a capital letter. If the bulleted item is a complete sentence (i.e. includes a verb), end with a full stop. It is not necessary to use a full stop after short phrases or single words in a list, if the introductory statement is grammatically complete or if the listed items are like those on an inventory sheet or a shopping list. Where possible, make sure that items listed in a bullet list are grammatically consistent (e.g. all items begin with a gerund).	Governance risks for local stakeholders: More exploration and mining for transition minerals may encroach on conservation areas and Indigenous and land-connected peoples’ territories. Pressure to approve mining projects may limit time for community consultations and impact assessments. Information to include: An overview of the ASM sector Annual ASM production by mineral Percentage contribution of ASM to total national production
Candidate/ compliant country	Use lower case letters.	The country became a candidate country in 2009.
Candidature application	Use lower case letters.	The EITI received the country's candidature application.
Capital letters	Use upper case letters for all ranks and titles when directly preceding a name, but lower case when on their own or when separated by a comma. This rule does NOT apply for heads of state.	Seth Terkper, Ghana’s Minister of Finance, delivered the keynote address. Over 1,000 delegates participated in the annual meetings, including finance ministers from countries in Francophone Africa. The head of the EITI International Secretariat is the Board secretary. Mark Robinson, EITI Executive Director, was present.
Country names	Where countries have made it clear that they wish to be called by a new (or an old) name, respect their requests. Refer to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (can use "DRC" for subsequent references in the same paragraph/text). Refer to the Republic of the Congo. The demonym for both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo is "Congolese". Follow local practice when a country changes the names of its cities, towns, rivers, etc.	Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Kyrgyz Republic, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Türkiye, Zimbabwe The Democratic Republic of the Congo is an EITI implementing country. The DRC has implemented the EITI since 2007. The Republic of the Congo is an EITI implementing country.
Civil society	Do not capitalise.	The country has made efforts to engage civil society in the EITI process.
Commas and semicolons in lists	Do not use the serial or Oxford comma except to avoid ambiguity. For more complex lists, use a semicolon to separate items that include commas or conjunctions.	The EITI is a coalition of governments, companies, civil society groups, investors and international organisations. Franzefoss Minerals, Knaben Molybden, North Cape Minerals, Rana Gruber, Store Norske, Titania and Tschudi Shipping Company are mining companies that operate in Norway. Civil society organisations have participated on national multi-stakeholder groups; contributed to the development of EITI Reports; conducted independent verification of company and government disclosures; and engaged in advocacy and outreach to promote greater transparency and accountability in the extractive industries.
Committee	Do not capitalise committee. Exception: used together with the name of the committee or when referring to the specific committee.	Each committee has eight members. Executive Committee, Implementation Committee, Outreach and Candidature Committee The Governance Committee has eight members. The Committee met in London yesterday.
Compliant country/non-compliant	Do not use compliant / not compliant - these terms are no longer used in common EITI parlance. Use the current terminology to refer to levels of progress in meeting the EITI Standard (e.g. "High", "Moderate", etc.).	Trinidad and Tobago has achieved a high overall score in implementing the EITI Standard.
COVID-19	Capitalise the full acronym. Do not use "Covid-19" or "covid".
Currencies	US dollar: USD Euro: EUR Norwegian kroner: NOK For a complete list of currencies please visit: www.currency-iso.org/en/home/tables.html	USD 4 million EUR 4 million NOK 4 million
Dates	All dates should be in the following format: 10 June 2009; 10-12 June 2009. Single digit dates should be written without a zero in front: 1 October 2011. For an event that spans over several days, write either on 23-25 May or from 23 to 25 May.
Decision-making; decision-makers	Always hyphenate.
Definite article	“The” needs to precede “EITI” unless in a headline. Exception: when “EITI” is used as an adjective, the article corresponds with the noun.	The EITI is implemented by countries, and extractive companies in these countries have to report how much they pay. What are the benefits of EITI implementation? The EITI Standard was adopted in 2013.
e.g. and i.e.	Use full stops after each letter, and do not place a comma after. i.e. means “that is; in other words; that is to say”.	the value of the balancing benefit stream (e.g. infrastructure works) The three US states on the west coast have favourable climates (i.e. warm winters and cool summers).
EITI	Do not refer to the EITI as an Initiative – it might still be in the name, but the term does not capture what the EITI does. Use "organisation", "process" or "global standard", or just "EITI" depending on the context.	The EITI is a global standard… The EITI is a process… The organisation has evolved over the past two decades...
EITI Board	Capitalise "EITI Board". Always precede with "EITI" and do not use "Board". Do not use “EITI International Board”.	You can say the international EITI Board
EITI Chair vs. chair	When referring to the chair of the EITI Board, always capitalise and use either "EITI Chair" or "EITI Board Chair". For all other uses of chair (e.g. committee chair), do not capitalise. Do not use the terms “chairman” or “chairwoman”.	The EITI Board Chair will be speaking at the annual meetings of the African Development Bank in May. Rt Hon. Helen Clark, EITI Board Chair, welcomed the country to the EITI community.
EITI International Secretariat	To avoid confusion with local EITI secretariats, insert 'International' when referring to ourselves. When writing articles, news items, etc., use "EITI International Secretariat". Can use simple "International Secretariat" for subsequent references in the same paragraph or text.
EITI Report	Report should be capitalised only when preceded by EITI. Do not refer to an EITI Report unless you’re actually talking about one. The EITI now uses the term EITI reporting to emphasise that information can be disclosed across government, not necessarily confined to an EITI Report.	Mauritania's fourth EITI Report includes information about the revenues from mining and oil companies for 2009. Zambia's EITI reporting showed that copper production increased by over 8% from 2012 to 2013. The report was prepared by Fair Links. EITI Reports have been an important source of information on the extractive sector in many resource-rich countries.
etc.	Use a full stop after etc. followed by a comma if it does not come at the end of the sentence and the list is outside of brackets. Always place a comma before “etc.” in a list.	Climate change activities requiring monitoring and reporting of CO2 emissions, verification of carbon credit projects, etc., are very likely to have similar capacity challenges and can draw from the experiences of EITI capacity building. All of the 35 countries displayed their EITI materials (posters, reports, videos, brochures, flags, t-shirts, etc.). We will need a lot of bread: wheat, white, wholemeal, etc.
Font	Use Franklin Gothic Book for letters, Board papers, Board circulars or other documents that we may also share in word version. Use Metropolis for communications products that are developed for external audiences, including publications and the EITI website.
Government(s)	Do not capitalise except when part of a complete title.	the Government of Sudan; the French government In Kazakhstan the government has been slow to implement the EITI. Companies, civil society and national governments all play an important role in implementing the EITI.
Honorifics and titles	Use full stops after the honorifics such as "H.E." and "Hon.", unless otherwise requested or specified by the individual in question. Do not use full stops after "Mr" or Ms". On the EITI website, use "Mr" to "Ms" for Board member biographies. Most titles should not be attached directly to names The exception is heads of state	H.E. (His Excellency) Rt Hon. Helen Clark Mr Mark Robinson; Ms Cielo Magno Seth Terkper, the Minister of Finance of Ghana NOT Minister Terkper Barack Obama, President of the United States President Obama
Implementing country	Use lower case letters. Can also say "EITI implementing country".	Ghana is an EITI implementing country. Since 2016, many implementing countries have made progress in disclosing beneficial ownership data.
In-kind and in kind	Hyphenate when used as an adjective.	in-kind payments; in-kind revenues payments in kind; taxes in kind
Independent Administrator	Always capitalise. Abbreviation: IA	The Independent Administrator (IA) must be perceived by the multi-stakeholder group to be credible, trustworthy and technically competent. The IA will be responsible for collecting and reconciling revenue data.
License	Do not write "licence".	The EITI Standard also addresses other issues such as license and contract transparency to ensure that the wealth from a country’s natural resources benefit all its citizens.
Members' Meeting	Always capitalise.	The Members' Meeting is one of the three permanent institutional bodies of the EITI Association. The meeting is held in connection with the EITI Global Conference.
Multi-stakeholder; multi-stakeholder group	Always hyphenate. Do not capitalise except when referring to a country's Multi-Stakeholder Group. The abbreviation of multi-stakeholder group (MSG) may be used for subsequent references in the same paragraph or text. Exception: Always spell out multi-stakeholder group in the EITI Standard.	The multi-stakeholder group is encouraged to include further information on revenue management and expenditures in EITI reporting. This chapter seeks to draw lessons on multi-stakeholder governance from the EITI. Ghana's Multi-Stakeholder Group held its fifth meeting in June 2009.
National Coordinator	Always capitalise.	The National Coordinator of Trinidad and Tobago was present at the meeting.
National secretariat	Do not capitalise.	An EITI national secretariat in Iraq has been established within the Inspector General's Office at the Ministry of Electricity. The Iraq EITI national secretariat has been established within the Inspector General's Office at the Ministry of Electricity.
Numbers	When a sentence begins with a numeral, spell out the number. Always spell out a number if it is less than 10, except for units of measurement. This also applies for adjectives. Exception: use words for one-hundredth and one-thousandth. A unit of measurement is hyphenated when used as an adjective. Do not use the word thousand when preceded by a number. Use a comma separator (no space) to separate thousands. Abbreviations: million = m; billion = bn; trillion = tr Round off large numbers, particularly in text.	Fifteen countries will be validated next year. The EITI national secretariat in Albania has four staff. The Iraqi secretariat has 10. The EITI International Secretariat has 20 staff. Third, 20^th, 182^nd At the meeting, 12 government representatives and five company representatives brought forth the same issue. They requested four 1-metre stands. They requested 36 ninety-centimetre stands. 2kg, 5 metres, USD 5m, 60-kg bag, 200-km road, 8-MW capacity 15,000 (not 15 thousand) 15,000 not 15 000 5m; 6bn, 7tr 1.3 billion rather than 1 297 780 000
Percent and decimal fractions	Use % and not percent, unless this is at the beginning of the sentence. When using percentage, the use the numeral for numbers less than 10. Exception: see rule above. Numbers containing decimal fractions should always be written in figures.	Subnational governments received 20% of the revenues. Twenty percent of the Board members can speak French. Only 5% of the total revenues reach the subnational level. The average family has 2.4 children. The annual inflation rate reached 4.9%.
Policymaking; policymakers	Do not hyphenate.
Project-level reporting	Use hyphen between the first two words if used together with the noun.	Project-level reporting has increased across EITI countries More and more countries are reporting revenues on project level.
Quasi-fiscal expenditures	Always hyphenate. Can also refer to "off-budget expenditures" when targeting a more general audience.	Quasi-fiscal expenditures include arrangements whereby SOE(s) undertake public social expenditures such as payments for social services, public infrastructure, fuel subsidies and national debt servicing.
Quotations	Start with the quote, not with the person who is speaking. Put the name of the person before their function. Do not use single quotation marks, except for a quote within a quote.	“We will strive to organise the best possible EITI Conference,” said Rosa Maria Ortiz, Minister of Energy and Mines. “Publication of the data which informed this first assessment is a significant and welcome step,” said Helen Clark, EITI Board Chair. “It will help EITI supporting companies, civil society organisations and governments engage in dialogue to improve corporate accountability and transparency." Mauritania's "Data Warehouse" systematically consolidates all extractive sector data published by private companies and government.
Reference to publications	When names of newspapers, magazines, books and reports are found in main text, use italics. Titles of chapters in books or magazine articles should be enclosed in quotation marks and not italicised.	An advertisement for the next EITI Board Chair will be published in The Economist and in Jeune Afrique. The EITI's latest report, Mission critical: Strengthening governance of mineral value chains for the energy transition, provides an overview of global value chains of selected transition minerals. “The drums of war” is the fourth chapter of An Honourable Deception? New labour, Iraq and the misuse of power
Validation Report	Always capitalise and precede with the year of the report.	The Sierra Leone 2022 Validation Report outlines the full assessment by requirement.
Reporting process	Do not capitalise	The EITI reporting process has been bogged down by a lack of institutional capacity.
Requirement(s)	Always capitalise when referring to specific EITI Requirements, or when referring to the "EITI Requirements" as a section of the EITI Standard. Do not capitalise when referring to the EITI's disclosure requirements, or the requirements of the EITI Standard.	The country has disclosed contracts in accordance with EITI Requirement 2.4. To assess this requirement as met, the Validator must cite evidence that the government has removed any obstacles to meet the requirements in the EITI Standard.
Standard	Do not capitalise unless referring to the EITI Standard specifically. Do not use "Standard" to refer to the EITI Standard specifically (always precede with "EITI").	The EITI is a global standard to promote open and accountable management of natural resources. The EITI Standard contains the set of requirements that countries need to meet in order to be recognised as an EITI member country. Implementation of the EITI Standard is overseen by the EITI Board, with members from governments, companies and civil society.
State ownership	Do not hyphenate.
State-owned enterprise	Always hyphenate and do not capitalise.
Subnational	Do not hyphenate nor capitalise.	The EITI is currently looking at ways to improve implementation at the subnational level.
Supporting company	Always use lower case letters and refer to an "EITI supporting company" or "a company supporting the EITI".
Supporting country	Always use lower case letters and refer to an "EITI supporting country" or "a country supporting the EITI".
systematic disclosure / mainstreaming	Use lower case letters.	The terms “mainstreaming”, “integrated reporting” and “systematic disclosure” are often used interchangeably depending on the target audience. Terms such as e-government and e-governance can also be used when writing about systematic disclosure. The EITI Board has ushered in a new era of systematic disclosure by approving Norway’s application for mainstreamed implementation.
Terms of Reference	Abbreviation: ToRs, not TORs nor Tors	The ToRs were approved by the MSG.
Titles of publications and articles	Use British English style. Capitalise only the first word and proper nouns/words that are pre-defined to be capitalised. Use a capital letter for a word that follows a colon.	“How to become a candidate country” "Beneficial ownership transparency: An urgent agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean" "Mission critical: Strengthening governance of mineral value chains for the energy transition"
URL	When including a URL in an article or publication, remove "http://www".	eiti.org
Validation	Always capitalise Validation(s). When referring to the verb "being validated", use lower case.	Implementing countries must undertake Validation regularly. Where Validation verifies that a country has met all of the requirements, the EITI Board will designate that country as having met the requirements in the EITI Standard. The country will be validated next year.
Validator(s)	Always capitalise	Company X has been contracted to serve as the Validator in Liberia. The EITI Board has pre-approved seven companies to serve as EITI Validators.
work plan	Use two words and do not capitalise, even when preceded by “EITI”.	The work plans reflect the key priorities of the international management of the EITI for the following calendar year. This guidance note provides guidance to multi-stakeholder groups on framing their work plans in consultation with stakeholders. How to develop an EITI work plan

How to reference sources for initial assessments and other longer papers, such as Briefs of research papers for the Board.

To cite sources, we use footnotes

Insert footnotes using the menu bar: “Insert --> Footnote…”

No need to change any settings. The numbering will be updated automatically, also when other people contribute to the document.

Whenever you are citing or paraphrasing a source, you should reference it.

Make sure you cite the

Author (organisation) / Publisher
Publication date in brackets
Title of report / news item
If applicable: page nr
Publication date
URL

Example:

The Government of Peru committed to the EITI in May 2005¹ and participated in the International Advisory Group (IAG)² between 2005 and 2006.

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¹Peru EITI (September 2010), 2010 Peru Validation Report, p. 13. Retrieved from https://eiti.org/document/2010-peru-eiti-validation-report.
²EITI (September 2006), Report of the International Advisory Group, p. 16. Retrieved from https://eiti.org/document/report-of-international-advisory-group-iag.

Further example:

The NSWG agreed at its 16 December 2014 meeting to proceed with a repeat procurement of the Taju Audu & Co consortium for the 2013 EITI Report, following its satisfactory performance for the 2012 EITI Report and the “tight” deadline of end-2015 for producing the 2013 EITI Report⁵⁴⁸.

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⁵⁴⁸NEITI (16 December 2014), NSWG meeting minutes, unpublished, provided by NEITI Secretariat.

Make sure that you list all the cited sources from your footnotes in the reference list at the end of the document, in the order of the bullet points above. If you sourced the file from a URL, include the date you accessed the page.

Example:

Peru EITI (September 2010), Validation Report, p. 13. Retrieved from https://eiti.org/document/2010-peru-eiti-validation-report on 6 September 2017.

EITI (September 2006), Report of the International Advisory Group, p. 16. Retrieved from https://eiti.org/document/report-of-international-advisory-group-iag on 6 September 2017.

If there is no date to the source, state that.

Example:

³⁶ Petroleum.co.uk (no date), Sweet vs Sour Crude Oil, retrieved from http://www.petroleum.co.uk/sweet-vs-sour

Again, in the list of references you will need to add to the source when you accessed the webpage.

If you are citing an official source, such as an Official Journal / Journal Officiel, you do not need to include the url necessarily.

You may also use footnotes to point to further sources of information.

Example:

¹ Please refer to https://eiti.org/commodity-trading for more examples. Page accessed 7 September 2017.

Footnotes are commonly used to elaborate more on a point made briefly in the main body text.

Example:
¹See for more information Annexe I to Board paper 34-4-B on commodity trading, available upon request from the EITI International Secretariat.

How to cite laws

We are citing laws according to the The Bluebook ( a uniform system of legal citation):

Citing statutes, decrees, regulations:

Generally, you should cite the title, chapter, or article, the section number itself and the year of the code.

Example: Article/Chapter xxx, Section xxx , Mining Code of Papua New Guinea, 2006.

Citing house bills- Include the short title and the parliamentary session serial number. Note that the serial number changes every time the Bill is reprinted or refiled.

When referring to codes, presidential decrees, rules and regulations, always capitalise-

Example: The 2008 Mining Code of Burkina Faso states…..

In 2012, the Ministry approved the Rules and Regulations on Mining

When referring to appellate courts, “Court” should always be capitalised.

Example: In 2012 the Court ruled that…

When referring to specific contracts or agreements, always capitalise.

Example: The company’s Production Sharing Contract …

The government granted a Mining Agreement to xxx company

If you want to insert a footnote for where you retrieved the law, you can add the URL, but you don’t need to. Laws and regulations have no authors, just the title and the year. Indicate clearly if the website you are citing is not the official government website. Again, in the list of references, state the date accessed.

¹ 2008 Mining Code of Burkina Faso, retrieved from www.miningcode-burkina-faso.bf (not a government website).

How to cite EITI Board decisions

The text can say something like

“In its Validation decision on Mali, the Board found the country needs to address 14 corrective actions until November 2018¹.”

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¹ EITI Board (March 2017), Decision on Mali, Ref nr. 2017-29/BM-37/BP-37-9-B. Retrieved from https://eiti.org/BD/2017-29

How to cite your most used source

Most cited source is probably the latest EITI Report. At beginning of document, say main reference is 2015 EITI Report, specify the author, date, title in one footnote and announce you will use “2015 EITI Report” to refer to that report instead of using a footnote every time.

When you refer to pages within a mentioned report (that is clear from the phrase), no need to add that as footnote, use brackets in text (otherwise half the page will be used with very short footnotes).

Example

The basis of the initial assessment is the latest EITI Report covering 2015¹. This assessment will refer to this report as "2015 EITI Report".

According to the 2015 EITI Report, the following revenue streams were covered: Surface rental, royalty and corporate tax (p. iv). Eight new petroleum agreements received the approval by the Parliament (p. 11).

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¹ Ghana EITI (2016). 2015 EITI Report. Available at https://eiti.org/document/2014-ghana-eiti-report-covering-oil-gas.

Do's and don'ts

Do not	do
Use the word unique unless it is true. Unique means, literally, of which there is only one.	Ask yourself if you can delete the word without the sentence losing its meaning. If yes, delete.
Write utilisation. Some words add nothing but length to your prose.	Write use. A clear, concise language is always preferred.
Use unnecessary words like very or really.	Write concisely.
Use the word roughly.	Use about instead.
Write American English, such as organization.	Write British English. Organisation is correct.
Use impact (as a verb)	Use impact as a subject, or replace with a different term.
Write sentences of more than 16 words.	Use plain, familiar language and short sentences.
Don't use complex or potentially confusing contractions like: should've, would've, they've, mustn't, aren't, couldn't, haven't.	Only use simple contractions like 'you’re' or 'you’ll'
Don't use abbreviations such as e.g., i.e. or etc.	These should be replaced with appropriate phrases including: for example, such as, that is, and so on.
Assume the reader knows our organisation.	Expand all abbreviations when we use them for the first time on a page. Exceptions can occur if the EITI is used in a title.