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 | This page in a nutshell: Acronyms imply no importance to a subject on their own, their use in Wikipedia articles should reflect their use in the third party sourced used to create the article |
Many organizations including companies, universities, and non-profits as well as the products and services they provide make use of acronyms in their names. Well-known examples include IBM, UNICEF and NASA. It can be much easier to refer to the longer name with the shorter acronym form, especially if the acronym is used many times in an article.
However, those acronyms should be used in Wikipedia articles only when they are in common use beyond that company or organization. That is, if the reliable third party sources used to create the article use the acronym, then it is appropriate to use it in the article. If the organization is the only source using the acronym, that acronym is likely jargon that will not improve the article; an alphabet soup of meaningless acronyms will only confuse the reader. Additionally, the spelling and capitalization of the acronym should match its use by the organization and third party sources.
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