Making a decision about when to use italics in Radiopaedia.org articles and cases is important because the addition of bold and italic words in prose actually reduces readability. In general, if there is any doubt, it is best to not use italics.
In literature, italics can be used for a number of things, including titles of works and foreign words. However, in order to keep things simple and to maximise readability, we have decided to only use italics in very specific situations.
Usage
Naming organisms
Occasionally, we will name specific organisms in an article. Where we do, we should use the genus and species of the organism, and both should be italicised. The genus should also be capitalised and if abbreviated, be followed by a full stop (period). If more than one species is being referred to then spp can be added (not italicised)
Escherichia coli
E. coli
Escherichia spp
If any higher taxonomic ranks are used, e.g. family, these are not italicised.
Gene nomenclature
Occasionally we will use short gene symbols in articles e.g. the symbol for caeruloplasmin is CP, by scientific convention, the gene is italicised i.e. CP, whilst the protein product, CP, remains in standard typeface. This does not apply to the long name of the gene so that caeruloplasmin is the name - and written in the same typeface - for both the gene and its protein product (see also gene and protein naming).
Atomic physics
The symbols for atomic number (Z) and mass number (A) are italicised by convention.
Radiopaedia.org
The name of our website is written without the use of either bold or italics, except in cases where the use of bold as defined in our style guide applies. The first sentence of this article serves as an example.
Italics not required
In the following cases, italics should be avoided and if you are unsure it is best to not use:
statements that articles are incomplete
foreign words/phrases used in everyday English, for example "in situ", "in vivo", etc.
titles of books, journals, etc
for non-specific emphasis
Unable to process the form. Check for errors and try again.