On the use of Chinese characters and Romanization in English publications.

Publications are not consistent in how they use Asian scripts and their romanizations. In the case of Chinese (though also applicable to other Asian languages), authors should take advantage of current digital technology by using characters in text to identify terms for readers who know Chinese, and only use romanization when they expect readers who do not read Chinese to know how to pronounce a key term. References should not duplicate characters with romanization, because the romanization serves neither the reader of Chinese nor the non-Chinese reader. Tone marks are generally not indicated for Mandarin, but are used for other topolects of Chinese. Romanization is appropriate for terms that are specific to a topolect or dialect. The use of romanization and characters should be guided by what is best for two types of readers: the reader of Chinese who can benefit from seeing the character, and the English reader who does not know Chinese and needs to be able to read key local terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]