6.05 Titles of publications and works of art

Italicize the titles of books, pamphlets, published reports and studies, plays, operas and long musical compositions, paintings, sculptures, novels, films, long poems, newspapers and periodicals:

• book
  • The Canadian Style
• pamphlet
  • Keeping the Heat In
• report
  • Public Accounts of Canada
• play
  • Murder in the Cathedral
• opera
  • Rigoletto
• symphony
  • the Pastoral Symphony
• painting
  • Voice of Fire
• novel
  • Cabbagetown
• long poem
  • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• sculpture
  • David
• newspaper
  • The Globe and Mail
• periodical
  • Saturday Night

For the title of a major work within another title, two possibilities exist:

• Report on the Application of the "Alternative Fuels Act"

or

• Report on the Application of the Alternative Fuels Act

Titles of publications and works of art, Exception

Titles of scientific periodicals are usually abbreviated and set in roman type (see 9.08 Compiling a bibliographic entry(c)).

Do not italicize unofficial titles:

• A record of the debate can be found in Hansard.

Titles of articles, short poems and short stories, songs, arias and other short musical compositions, and radio and television programs are set in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks:

• article
  • "The Life Beyond"
• aria
  • "Pace, pace, Mio Dio"
• musical composition
  • "Stille Nacht"
• television program
  • "Street Legal"

9.06 Translation

If the translated (English) title appears on the title page of a publication in another language, it follows the primary title in the bibliographic entry and is italicized, with a period separating the two elements:

• Von Keitz, S., and W. von Keitz. Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft. Library and Information Science. Weinheim, Germany: VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, 1989.

If you yourself must provide a translation, insert the English version of the title (no italics) in brackets after the primary title, capitalize the initial word, and place a period after the closing bracket:

• Chang-Rodríguez, Eugenio. Latinoamérica: su civilización y su cultura [Latin America: its culture and civilization]. Boston: Heinle and Heinle, 1991.

For a publication in which French and English titles are given, both languages should be included:

• Canada. Department of Canadian Heritage. Convention on the Rights of the Child. First Report of Canada / Convention relative aux droits de l’enfant. Premier rapport du Canada. Ottawa, May 1994.

Note the space on each side of the oblique.

The publisher’s name should not be translated, but for the benefit of the unilingual reader the place of publication may be:

• L’Europa mediterranea: Spagna, Portogallo, Francia. Arnoldo Mondadori, ed. Milano (Milan): Panorama, 1990.

When no translation is given on the title page, check whether translations of the work are already on record at the National Library of Canada, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) or elsewhere before translating the primary title. Accuracy of translation is essential.

© Public Services and Procurement Canada, 2024
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Writing tools – The Canadian Style
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