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Instead of shortening "IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing" to "IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens." as specified here, can I instead shorten it to "IEEE TGRS"? The journal web site uses this abbreviation, and its DOIs have the TGRS prefix. I need to shorten the references as much as possible and this could save multiple lines.

If instead I see that the journal itself doesn't use an abbreviation or it doesn't appear in the DOIs, should I then stick to traditional word-by-word abbreviations?

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    Why do you want to do this? Commented 14 hours ago
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    @ÆzorÆhai-him- OP explains it in the question, "I need to shorten the references as much as possible and this could save multiple lines." Is this not sufficient explanation? Presumably there is a page limit. Commented 8 hours ago

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The point of a reference is being findable. In earlier times without DOI that could have been a bit questionable, but with DOIs it should still be findable. In doubt, try searching for your shortened references on your favourite search engine; if your target reference doesn't show up, you shouln't shorten so much.

The venue you submit to (e.g. a journal) may have specific requirements for references though which may override any general concept.

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I would advise against it. Even if your target publication venue allows it, and even though DOIs can remove some of the resulting guesswork these days, it really isn't best practice. The "traditional word-by-word abbreviations" you mention are not just traditional, but prescribed by the ISO 4 standard. Sticking to the established convention instead of introducing a new standard should be preferred when feasible, especially when it leads to providing clearer and more readable citations, especially in the long term. Of course, I also know the pains of tight page limits, but would recommend shortening more elsewhere first.

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  • Your first link is broken. Commented 6 hours ago
  • @ÆzorÆhai-him- Weird. Hopefully the new link last longer. If not, there's always the Wikipedia page. Commented 1 hour ago
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Assuming the journal doesn't object, it will probably be OK since your likely readership probably knows the journal. But I would suggest that the first time you give a citation you do it as "IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (IEEE TGRS)" and the use the shortened form "IEEE TGRS" afterwards.

But the journal's rules apply, of course.

Note that the journal's web pages don't use TGRS exclusively, but spell it out at least once, say at the top of web pages.

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    I see no way for a journal to "object" when someone uses an abbreviation. Surely journals cannot police the thousands of papers that reference publications in a journal. Commented 4 hours ago
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    I suspect Buffy was referring to the citing work journal, not the cited work journal. Commented 2 hours ago

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