Square brackets

Square brackets

Use square brackets:

when you need brackets within brackets (do not use round brackets within round brackets)

We used the alternative method (which was recommended in Smith [2012]).

to indicate an editorial comment, correction or clarification in quoted text

The team visited Aceh [Indonesia] and Sabah [Malaysia].

in mathematical expressions

y[(a – b) + (c – d)]

in chemistry, including
- to enclose chemical concentrations
- to enclose isotopic prefixes in chemical names.