Style Guide for Research Papers: Abbreviations

Abbreviations follow the format recommended by the Society of Biblical Literature

The following is only a partial list of abbreviations for journals. See the SBL Handbook of Style for a more complete list.

The following is only a partial list of abbreviations for commentaries. See the SBL Handbook of Style for a more complete list.

The following is only a partial list of abbreviations for publishing houses. For a full explanation of the proper way to cite publishers, see the Society of Biblical Literature Handbook of Style, 2nd edition, section 6.1.4.

The left column in the following list includes the full publishing house names, followed in parentheses by the main city or cities where they are located. Cities in the list that are followed by their state abbreviation will require that state abbreviation in the footnotes and bibliography of your papers.

The right column in the following list shows how the publishers should be cited in the footnotes and bibliography. The city is always required, followed by a colon, followed by the standardized name of the publishing company. When citing a publishing house, only use the first city that is listed in title page or copyright page of the actual book you used. Do not include terms such as "Press," "Publisher," or "Publishing House" in your citations unless that part of the publisher's name is required to avoid ambiguity from similarly-named publishing houses. Note that publishers such as Eerdmans, InterVarsity, and de Gruyter follow particular standardized rules.