The complete title should be capitalized.

[takashi0930]

If a manuscript submission rule says "The complete title should be capitalized" (like the following website), do you need to start every word in the title with a capital letter?

The 5th Korea-Japan NeuroRehabilitation Conference (Please see "Call for Abstracts", "Abstract Format".)

Or, would you still start short prepositions such as "of" and "on" with a lower case?

 

[owlman5]

I assume that they want normal capitalization, takishi, so prepositions wouldn't be capitalized.

However, it is possible that they meant exactly what they said and want you to capitalize every word in the title. You should write them directly and ask them if you need that information.

 

[JulianStuart]

Looking at the titles for the plenary speakers already on the site, they want every letter in titles to be capitalized. I've seen this before, although in my experience it is relatively rare

 

[owlman5]

Every letter, huh? I'm glad the practice is rare, Julian.

 

[JulianStuart]

(It's not that bad, if they are limited to 50 characters! Plenary Speakers )

 

[takashi0930]

Thank you.
I'm not the author, so I'll recommend the author confirming them.

So, can "capitalize" mean either
1. start a word with a capital letter or
2. write every letter in a word in a capital letter
depending on the context?

 

[JulianStuart]

Thank you.
I'm not the author, so I'll recommend the author confirming them.

So, can "capitalize" mean either
1. start a word with a capital letter or
2. write every letter in a word in a capital letter
depending on the context?

It seems the answer is yes, with 1 being far more common than 2!

 

[Englishmypassion]

Thank you.
I'm not the author, so I'll recommend the author confirming them.

So, can "capitalize" mean either
1. start a word with a capital letter or
2. write every letter in a word in a capital letter
depending on the context?

Yes, it can, though when we say we capitalize a proper noun/word, it is usually taken to mean capitalizing the first letter but that's just because capitalizing all the letters in words is rare, I think. But the word "capitalize" can mean either and in fact "capitalize the word 'New'" has a stronger case in favour of its meaning that all the letters in the word are to be capitalized.

Cross-posted

 

[takashi0930]

(It's not that bad, if they are limited to 50 characters! Plenary Speakers )

JulianStuart, I just noticed that the congress you posted is different from the one I was talking about, which will take place in Seoul on March 20, 2016.

 

[JulianStuart]

I found that link through the original website. In any case, we now know that captialization can be either every letter, the first letter of each word or the firt letter of important words. It will be smart to check with the organizers

 

[Wordsmyth]

"The complete title should be capitalized"

Given the ambiguity of "capitalize", it would be helpful if writers of such instructions were to use "upper case".

"The complete title should be written in upper case" or "The complete title should be in upper-case letters" would avoid any confusion.

Ws

 

[RedwoodGrove]

This title does not appear to capitalize each letter, nor does it capitalize prepositions:

>15:40-16:40

• Symposium 2. New Era for Cognitive Rehabilitation<

Better check with the people in charge. Wikipedia has decided that only the first word in the title of an article, except for proper nouns, are capitalized. I have no idea where they got this convention. It is not widely practiced in English in my experience.

 

[JulianStuart]

I apologize if I caused some of this confusion - the link I provided in #5 was from the site of another upcoming NeuroRehabilitation Congress in May 2016.

The 9th World Congress for NeuroRehabilitation, WCNR 2016, will be held in Philadelphia on 10-13 May 2016.

Plenary Speakers
The WCNR 2016 Plenary Speakers are:
John Donoghue, USA - THE PROMISE AND REALITY OF NEUROTECHNOLOGY TO RESTORE LOST FUNCTION
...

WS: The titles are all in caps and the instructions do specify "upper case" for that one.

13. Abstract title - limited to 20 words in UPPER CASE

This won't change the consensus that the OP (or friend) should confirm with the organizers!

 

[Wordsmyth]

Silly principle anyway, in my opinion. It looks as though the title is being SHOUTED! But then I'm not making the rules.

Ws