Use round brackets (sparingly) to enclose comments or explanations in the text. Place the full stop inside the closing bracket if the brackets contain a full sentence:
All the data (including the pilot study results) were analysed.
Provide your data as an Excel file. (Note that other file types will not be accepted.)
Dashes can be used as an alternative to round brackets to enclose parenthetical information within a sentence.
If it is necessary to refer to the plural as an alternative to the singular, use parentheses around the s, but use this convention sparingly:
representative(s) guideline(s)
