Editorial Manual | Footnotes and other references

VII. Explanatory footnotes

A. Content
B. Notes to explanatory footnotes
C. Supplementary sources of information

A. Content

Explanatory footnotes provide additional information on or clarification of statements made in the text. They contain material that is related to but not appropriate for inclusion in the text itself.

Examples:

Productivity and price inflation are expected to affect future expenditures on health-care services.¹
__________
¹ Productivity is measured by the non-quality-adjusted unit costs — the recurrent expenditures at the facility level divided by the volume of units of service for outpatient visits and inpatient admissions. A decline in unit costs is regarded as a productivity improvement.

* * *

The General Assembly,

. . .

1. Invites Member States to consider the possibility of using the operational manual in their national efforts to combat kidnapping, and requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, within available extrabudgetary resources, not excluding the use of existing resources from the budget of the Office,1 to provide Member States, upon request, technical assistance and advice in implementing the provisions of the manual;
__________
¹This language does not provide a basis for an increase in the budget or requests for supplemental increases.

Explanatory notes in front matter. In publications, explanatory notes that apply to the text as a whole are included in the front matter.

B. Notes to explanatory footnotes

When an explanatory footnote includes an element or statement that would normally require a footnote, the reference can be given in parentheses at the end of the footnote.

Example:

¹ The world population aged 60 and older is expected to triple between 2005 and 2050, whereas the population aged 80 years or over is projected to increase by a factor of 4.5 over the same time period (World Economic and Social Survey 2007: Development in an Ageing World (United Nations publication, 2007), table II.3).

When an explanatory footnote is used in a publication or report containing author-date source references, the footnote may include a parenthetical author-date reference. The full reference is included in the reference list (see Reference lists and bibliographies/Author-date system/Author-date references in explanatory footnotes).

C. Supplementary sources of information

Explanatory footnotes may refer readers to other sources for clarification or additional information. Supplementary and illustrative sources are introduced by "see", "see also" or "see, for example".