Guideline

This article is about the general topic. For other uses, see Guideline (disambiguation).

A guideline is a statement by which to determine a course of action. A guideline aims to streamline particular processes according to a set routine or sound practice. By definition, following a guideline is never mandatory. Guidelines are not binding and are not enforced.

Guidelines may be issued by and used by any organization (governmental or private) to make the actions of its employees or divisions more predictable, and presumably of higher quality.

List of guidelines

Examples of guidelines are:

• Code of practice
• EASE Guidelines for Authors and Translators of Scientific Articles
• Federal Sentencing Guidelines
• Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office
• The Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation
• Medical guidelines
• Human interface guidelines
• Publicly Available Specification
• Programming style guidelines
• UNGEGN Toponymic Guidelines