British vs American English in Research Papers

Published June 8, 2024  |  Last updated October 31, 2026

What Journals Say About British vs American English in Research Papers

Spelling policy sits in each publisher’s or journal’s instructions for authors, and it is not the same everywhere. We read the pages below on 31 October 2026 and report only what each says, with its scope. A journal page may change, so open the one for your target journal before you edit.

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Two things follow. First, a journal that allows either variant still expects one of them, applied without exception. Second, when the instructions are silent, as the Lancet and JAMA pages we read are on spelling, the safest check is the journal’s own recent articles, which show what its copyeditors apply. That is a practical check, not a published rule.

How to Choose When Your Journal Allows Either

Work through these in order.

1. 1Follow the instruction if there is one. If the journal names a variant or a dictionary, use it. Nature, for example, points to the Oxford English Dictionary.⁴
2. 2Otherwise pick the variant of your co-authors and readers. Choose one for the whole paper, including the abstract, figure labels, tables and references you type yourself.
3. 3Check the dictionary the publisher names. Wiley names Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for American spelling and the Oxford English Dictionary for British spelling.¹ APA Style points to Merriam-Webster.com or the APA Dictionary of Psychology.⁷
4. 4Leave quoted text and cited titles as published. Spell your own prose in your chosen variant, and copy a direct quotation or a reference title exactly as it appears in the source.

The Spelling Patterns That Differ

Most of the differences you will meet in research writing follow a few patterns. The examples below come from Wiley’s own lists of UK and US spellings,¹ which are examples and not a complete dictionary.

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Wiley adds two notes on the verb endings: UK English uses both -ise and -ize but tends to prefer -ise, and verbs ending in -yse are always -yze in US English.¹

Punctuation Differs Too

Spelling is only part of a variant. Wiley’s manual gives these rules for the two usages.¹

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Other publishers may set these differently, and we did not test punctuation in our sample of articles, so follow your journal’s instructions.

What Published Articles Actually Do: Editverse Analysis of 579 CC BY Articles

We checked how published open-access articles spell these words. Editverse drew a random sample from PubMed Central and counted spelling variants in the body text. The data are our own analysis, not a published study.

Method. On 31 October 2026 we searched PubMed Central through NCBI’s ESearch for records with the CC BY licence filter that were e-published on 6 to 10 October 2025, which gave 8,709 unique records, and drew 800 at random (R, set.seed 20261031).⁸ EFetch XML gave the licence, article type and body text. All 800 carried a CC BY licence URL,⁹ 582 were research articles, and 579 of those had at least 1,000 body words; they came from 317 journals and held 2,811,576 body words. We counted words in body paragraphs only, leaving out tables, figure captions, formulas, in-text citation markers and reference lists, and counted only forms that begin with a lowercase letter, so proper nouns and sentence-initial words are not counted. We matched lists of paired words in six patterns (-our/-or, -re/-er, ae/oe/e, -yse/-yze, doubled or single l, and a short list of other words such as defence, sulphur, aluminium and grey) and, separately, verbs in -ise or -ize. Because -ize is also used in some British publishing, we did not treat it as a US-only form. An article was US only if it had at least one US form and no UK form from the six word lists other than -ise/-ize, UK only in the reverse case, and mixed if it had both. To check precision, we drew 100 of the 20,463 matches at random (set.seed 20261101), read each in its context and judged whether it was a real UK or US spelling variant in the article’s own prose: all 100 were (95% confidence interval for the share, 96.3% to 100%). This checks precision only. The word lists are not exhaustive, so counts are lower bounds, and we did not test how many variant spellings the lists miss.

Articles. Of the 579 articles, 576 (99.5%) had at least one matched spelling. Of these, 426 (74.0%, 95% CI 70.2% to 77.4%) used US forms only, 49 (8.5%, 6.5% to 11.1%) UK forms only, and 101 (17.5%, 14.6% to 20.9%) both. In 39 of the 101 mixed articles the minority variant appeared once, and in 49 it made up at least 20% of the matched forms. By majority of forms, 498 articles leaned US, 75 leaned UK and 3 were tied.

Patterns. The chart below covers 19,829 matched tokens: five of those patterns plus -ise/-ize, leaving out the short list of other words. The UK form was 12.7% of the -our/-or tokens (578 of 4,552), 14.6% of -re/-er (196 of 1,346), 14.2% of ae/oe/e (224 of 1,577), 12.8% of -yse/-yze (217 of 1,690) and 17.7% of doubled or single l (315 of 1,776). For -ise/-ize it was 7.4% (655 of 8,888).

-ise and -ize. Of 577 articles with at least one -ise or -ize verb, 507 (87.9%) used -ize only, 32 (5.5%) -ise only and 38 (6.6%) both. The 75 UK-leaning articles looked different: 31 (41.3%) used -ise only, 20 (26.7%) -ize only and 24 (32.0%) both. Among the 496 US-leaning articles with such a verb, 482 used -ize only, 1 -ise only and 13 both.

Journals. Forty-three journals had at least three articles with a matched spelling. Of these, 33 had only US-leaning articles, 9 had both UK-leaning and US-leaning articles, and 1 (Veterinary Sciences) had US-leaning articles plus one tied article; none had only UK-leaning articles. The largest journal in the sample had 45 such articles, 39 US-leaning and 6 UK-leaning.

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What this shows: in one week of open-access research articles, about three in four kept to US forms, about one in twelve kept to UK forms, and about one in six used both, so a final consistency check is worth doing. UK-leaning articles did not all use -ise. What it does not show: whether any article followed its own journal’s rule, how closed-access journals behave, whether other weeks differ, or why a given article mixed forms. The spelling in each article is the one in the PubMed Central XML, which a publisher or conversion step may have changed. The counts come from word lists and are lower bounds.

A Quick Consistency Checklist Before You Submit

1. 1Find the instruction. Open the journal’s instructions for authors and look for a named variant, dictionary or style manual.
2. 2Set the proofing language. Choose the variant in your word processor, then run the spell-check for that variant.
3. 3Search for the common markers. Search your file for the patterns in the table above, such as -our, -re, -yse, -ise and doubled l, and change any form that belongs to the other variant.
4. 4Re-check recycled text. Text pasted from a thesis, a protocol or an earlier paper keeps the variant it was written in.
5. 5Check punctuation. Apply one rule for quotation marks, commas with closing quotation marks and the serial comma.
6. 6Leave quotations and cited titles alone. Spell your own prose in the chosen variant and copy quoted material exactly as published.

Need the Analysis Run or Checked? Consult Editverse

Editverse subject-matter experts work to COPE, ICMJE and GPP 2022 guidance, with institutional and country-specific ethics followed.

Editverse

Journal Selection

Do you know which English variant your target journal expects before you start editing?

You send: your abstract or manuscript and your shortlist of journals.

You get: a journal shortlist matched to your paper, so you can check each journal’s instructions for authors for language requirements.

When: You have not chosen a journal yet. Ask what turnaround applies when you order.

Scientific Journal Selection Services · $115

Choose my journal →

Editverse

Copyediting

Is your whole manuscript in one consistent English variant, from title to references?

You send: your manuscript and the journal you are targeting.

You get: grammar, spelling and punctuation corrected and standardized, with a track-changes document and an editor’s summary report.

When: The science is final and the language needs one standard. Standard turnaround is 3-5 business days, with Express available.

Copyediting · $200

Standardize my spelling →

Editverse

Proofreading

Ready for one last check of spelling and punctuation before you submit?

You send: your near-final manuscript.

You get: a final check for typos, punctuation, spacing and formatting consistency, with a track-changes document and brief notes.

When: Final review of a well-edited manuscript. Turnaround is 2-3 business days, with 24-hour Express available.

Proofreading · $150

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Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use British or American English in a research paper?

Use the variant your target journal names in its instructions, and keep it consistent from title to references. Some publishers accept either: the Wiley style manual allows both American and British spellings if usage is consistent, the Springer Nature author checklist asks whether you met the language requirements (U.S. or UK English), and one Elsevier journal guide recommends American or British English but not a combination. Nature asks for spellings as in the Oxford English Dictionary. Read the page for your own journal, because these are examples, not a rule for every journal.

Does Wiley accept both British and American spelling?

The Wiley Journals Style Manual (PDF created January 2023) says both American and British spellings are allowed for Wiley articles, that UK or US usage must be consistent within the article or the journal, and that a copyeditor who changes from one usage to the other must inform the author. Individual journals can add their own rules, so check the instructions for your journal.

Is -ize wrong in British English?

Not according to the Wiley manual, which says UK English uses both -ise and -ize forms but tends to prefer -ise, while US English always uses -ize. Verbs ending in -yse, such as analyse, are always -yze in US English. In the Editverse analysis, 20 of 75 UK-leaning articles (26.7%) used -ize verbs only, so an -ize spelling does not by itself show an American paper.

Can I mix British and American spelling in one manuscript?

Journal guidance we read says not to: Wiley asks for consistent usage and an Elsevier journal guide recommends one variant, not a combination. In the Editverse sample, 101 of 576 articles with a matched spelling (17.5%) contained forms from both variants, and in 39 of those 101 the minority variant appeared only once. Our counts do not show why articles mixed forms.

Which dictionary should I check spelling against?

According to the Wiley manual, American spellings follow the Collegiate Dictionary from Merriam-Webster and British spellings follow the Oxford English Dictionary, with Collins Dictionary for words the OED does not have. APA Style says spelling should match the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary or the APA Dictionary of Psychology. Use the dictionary your journal names.

How do quotation marks and commas differ between British and American usage?

The Wiley manual says that in American usage periods and commas appear before closing quotation marks. In British usage they appear before the closing mark if they are part of the original quotation and after it if they are not. It also says to use single quotation marks inside double ones for US English, and the reverse for UK English.

Do I use the Oxford (serial) comma?

It depends on the variant and the journal. The Wiley copyediting instructions call for the serial comma in US English and no serial comma in UK English. Other publishers may differ, so follow the instructions for authors of your journal and apply the same rule throughout.

What do JAMA, The Lancet, NEJM and The BMJ say about spelling?

As of 31 October 2026, the JAMA instructions page we read says manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition, and does not itself state a spelling variant. The Lancet Information for Authors PDFs we read contain no sentence on British or American spelling. We could not read the author instructions of NEJM or The BMJ from our servers, so check their live pages.

References

1. Wiley. Wiley Journals Style Manual (PDF created 12 January 2023): section 1.2.4 Copyediting, section 4.2 British and American Usage, section 4.4.7 Quotation Marks. Read 31 October 2026. Check Wiley for a newer version. authorservices.wiley.com/asset/Wiley-Journals-Style-Manual.pdf
2. Springer Nature. Publish your research: Formatting (author checklist). Read 31 October 2026. www.springernature.com/gp/authors/campaigns/writing-a-manuscript/formatting
3. Elsevier, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. Guide for Authors, Language and editing services. Read 31 October 2026. One journal’s guide; other Elsevier journals set their own. www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-clinical-epidemiology/publish/guide-for-authors
4. Nature. Formatting guide, Format of Articles. Read 31 October 2026. www.nature.com/nature/for-authors/formatting-guide
5. JAMA. Instructions for Authors, manuscript preparation. Read 31 October 2026. jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/pages/instructions-for-authors
6. The Lancet. Information for Authors (PDF dated August 2026); the Information for Authors PDFs of The Lancet Oncology and The Lancet Primary Care were also read. Read 31 October 2026. www.thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/authors/tl-info-for-authors-1690986041530.pdf
7. American Psychological Association. APA Style: Spelling and hyphenation. Read 31 October 2026. apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/spelling-hyphenation
8. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Entrez Programming Utilities Help: ESearch and EFetch (used for the Editverse analysis, queried 31 October 2026). www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25499/
9. Creative Commons. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence summary. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Editverse Research Team | Updated October 2026