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abbreviations? It depends.
Scientific papers tend to contain lots of abbreviations—acronyms,
initialisms,* gene symbols and protein designations, element and
isotope symbols, chemical formulas, and so on—and authors sometimes
have difficulty choosing the correct indefinite article (“a” or “an”) to use
with abbreviations. The general rule is that the choice depends on how
the abbreviation would be pronounced if read aloud: if the
pronunciation starts with a vowel sound, use “an,” and if it starts with a
consonant sound, use “a.” Let’s look at some examples:
KmycJ are K562 cells with a MYC gene [pronounced “mik gene”]
inducible by ZnSO4.
I would argue that both are correct; just be consistent throughout your
manuscript.
What about element symbols? The ACS Style Guide states that element
names are pronounced even when element symbols are used, and
therefore the choice of article depends on the pronunciation of the
element name:
Isotopes are treated differently. The ACS Style Guide calls for the
element symbol to be pronounced before the number (e.g., “14C” is
pronounced “c fourteen”), and thus the pronunciation of the element
symbol should determine the choice of article:
Perhaps most people read this as if the element name were spelled out
—“a nitrogen-15 isotope”—in which case “a” is in fact correct. Again,
make a choice and stick to it consistently.
†
Or he or she speaks a language (e.g., German or French) in which the
letter “u” is pronounced starting with a vowel sound.