Almanac Style Sheet

The CHCF Health Care Almanac is made up of two kinds of products. The first is a series of graphic publications that provide data and analysis on aspects of the health care market, such as costs, disparities, providers, quality of care, and insurance. These are data-heavy chartbooks. The second are market reports focused on particular regions in California that also contain data and analysis.

All Almanac products, and data snapshots not part of the Almanac series, should follow these resources in this order:

This style sheet
CHCF’s house style sheet
Guidelines for Submission of Publication Drafts
Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed.
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.
The Indigo Book, for legal citations

Click the links in the entries below for more detailed guidance.

Excel Links

If the Excel file you will submit as an Almanac contains links to other files (external links), you have two options:

Simply break all the external links (in Excel’s Data tab, click the Edit Links button, then the Break Links button).
Copy any referenced data in external files into new sheets in the Almanac file and adjust all references to point to the new sheets. Then break all the external links.

Afterward, ensure that all cells that referenced external files are still complete and correct.

Spacing

Avoid using multiple spaces (even in comments), including after colons or periods. There is always a better way to align, indent, or arrange text and figures.

In Word, use the tab and indentation features (avoid multiple tabs too).
To easily indent cells in Excel, use Excel’s Increase Indent button (to learn how, watch this brief video tutorial).

Titles and Subtitles

Locations: Spell out California and United States.
Date ranges: In ranges, avoid hyphens and use to instead: 2013 to 2015. Do not append a P to projected years.

Charts

Date ranges: Ensure that the date ranges in the chart and title match up. If a chart includes some but not all projected figures, append a P to the projected years (e.g., 2030, 2040, 2050 but 1990, 2010, 2030P) and add this note: “P is projected.”
Empty cells in tables:
- Not applicable (measure doesn’t apply): leave blank
- No data (measure applies but data unavailable): — (em dash) (Tip: copy and paste the dash from here.)
- Zero: 0
If a dash is used, add this note: Where a dash appears, no data were available.
Footnotes: Use these symbols in this order: *, †, ‡, §, #. (Tip: copy them from here and paste them into the worksheet.)
Numbers
- In legends: Use punctuation to signify ranges, “less than,” “n and above,” etc.: <18, 18–49, 50+, >50.
- Percentages: Except at the start of a sentence, use the percent sign. Percent needs a preceding number: 39 percent. Otherwise, percentage is correct: the percentage of physicians.
- Precision: Use the same level of precision in a data range: 13.4% and 17.0%, not 13.4% and 17%.
- Ranges: Ensure that number ranges don’t overlap. For example, 50+ includes 50, while >50 doesn’t, so use, for example, 18–49, 50+ (not 18–49, >50).
- Statistics
  - Population: Use an italicized capital N to represent population size, an italicized lowercase n to represent subpopulation size.
    Californians with cancer (N = 15,578)
    Lung cancer diagnoses (n = 4,137)
    Central Coast lung diagnoses (n = 338)
  - Significance: Use an italicized p and no leading zero: (p <= .05).
Race/ethnicity: Refer to the Race/Ethnicity section of CHCF’s house style sheet for details.

Sidebars

Abbreviations: Because we provide downloadable chart files that don’t include sidebar text, avoid spelling out any abbreviations in the sidebar — instead, spell them out in the charts, footnotes, notes, or sources:Note: FPL is federal poverty level.
Ages: 65-year-olds, 9- to 17-year-old children, people age 65 (not aged), 65 and older.
Data, unadjusted: For data gathered through unadjusted sources, such as CHIS or CPS (but not CalSIM or enrollment data from administrative agencies such as DHCS):
- To each applicable chart page add this note: The survey data used in this chart rely on self-reported insurance status. See the Methods / About the Data section elsewhere in this report for a full explanation of how this could impact findings.
- Also, to the Methods / About the Data section add this note: The survey data used in this publication rely on self-reported insurance status. When asked by survey researchers about health coverage, some undocumented immigrants who have restricted-scope Medi-Cal may respond that they have Medi-Cal coverage. Restricted-scope Medi-Cal, which covers only emergency and pregnancy-related services, is not comprehensive coverage. If these undocumented adults reporting Medi-Cal were instead considered uninsured, the number of Californians without insurance would be higher.
Fractions
- Spelling out, hyphenation: Spell out and hyphenate simple fractions as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs: four-fifths of the doctors, a two-thirds majority, one and three-quarters.
- Subject/verb agreement: Use singular verbs for singular subjects: two-thirds of the public says so; use plural verbs for plural subjects: one-fourth of respondents say yes.
Not shown: When conveying information that doesn’t appear in the current chart, use “(not shown)”: In 2004, only 11% responded (not shown).
Numbers
- Commas: Use commas for numbers of four digits or more except page numbers, addresses, and years: 1,541 physicians agreed.
- Equations: Use spaces around equal signs, arithmetic operators (but not values such as <60), and the like: Adjusted patient days = total gross patient revenue ÷ gross inpatient revenue × number of patient days.
- Spelling out
  - Small and large numbers: Spell out one through nine; use numerals for larger numbers. For very large numbers with a decimal, use numerals and words: 4.6 billion.
  - At the beginning of a sentence: Except for bulleted text, either spell out a number or reword the sentence.
    Eighty-six respondents answered every question.
    Every question was answered by 86 respondents.
    but
    - 86 respondents answered every question.
Subject/verb agreement: Singular subjects take singular verbs: one in four counties is rural, more than one in five participants is unmarried.
Percentages
- Spelling out: Use numerals, except at the beginning of a sentence, and don’t hyphenate even in adjectival form. Use the percent symbol (%) except when spelling out numbers at the beginning of a sentence. Use less and more as modifiers.
  Less than 35.6% responded.
  Twenty-six percent of patients agreed.
- Subject/verb agreement: Use a singular verb if the noun is collective (40% of the electorate is Latino); use a plural verb if the noun is an ordinary plural (15% of participants are women).
Race/ethnicity: Refer to the Race/Ethnicity section of the house style sheet.
Spacing: Use one space between sentences and after colons. Avoid using more than one space in a row for any reason. Tip: In Excel, press Alt+Enter to start a new line in a cell.

Footnotes (*)

Symbols: Use these symbols in this order: *, †, ‡, §, #. (Tip: copy them from here and paste them into the spreadsheet.)

Notes

Note vs. Notes: Use Note for one sentence, Notes for multiple sentences.
If a chart has segments that should add up to 100% (e.g., in a pie chart) or a table with subtotals that should add to a total, add this note: Figures may not sum due to rounding.

Sources

General
- Links in Excel: In the Excel workbook, in the cells below the cell that lists all the sources for that page, add all the source links, one per cell, so they will be live links.
- Italics versus quotation marks: Use italics for report titles and any landing pages; use roman type and quotation marks for blog posts, journal articles, and web pages.
- DOIs: To help keep links working over time, whenever available (mostly for journal articles), use a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) link. A DOI or DOI link is often shown on an article’s web page. The format is https://doi.org/[DOI]. For example: https://doi.org/10.28530/fj05472g
- Landing pages: Whenever possible, link to a landing page for a source and not directly to a PDF or other file. But if there are many files linked from the landing page, link directly to the file.
- PDFs: If no landing page is available (see previous entry), append a space and “(PDF)” to the link text, in roman type: End-of-Life Care in California (PDF).
- Multiple sources: Do not use multiple note numbers.^2,3 Instead, put multiple sources together into one note, separated by semicolons, plus and before the final source:
  2. Dan Forth, “How Doctors Treat: A Survey,” Journal of Care Measurement 128, no. 2 (Sept. 2015), www.jcm.com; and Jordan Fu, “Health Care in Rural Japan,” Asian Health 24, no. 3 (March 2011).
Formats. See the Citations and References section of CHCF’s house style sheet for details and examples.

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