Is it reasonable to use full word and abbreviation in parenthesis in a chapter title?

Question

Can I use full word plus its abbreviation in parenthesis in a chapter title? here is my case:

Chapter 2 Human Immune System (HIS)

is it correct? Is there any differences if the the full word have appeared before in the previous chapter content.

Answer 1

In general, the only abbreviations that should be used in "headlines" and titles are "standard" ones that are normally (or at least very frequently) written in their abbreviated form. So, something like Escherichia coli could obviously be written as E. coli in a title without problems. (Similarly, in my field, we have an algorithm entitled "particle–particle particle–mesh" which can be written as "PPPM" or "P3M" without detriment.)

However, any abbreviation that you have introduced in the course of writing should probably be avoided unless the alternative is too unwieldy. Moreover, you should not normally use both abbreviations and the expanded text unless you're using the title to define the abbreviation: for instance,

SAUCE: Simplified Abbreviations for Unwieldy Complex Expressions

Answer 2

I can not say this is incorrect, but it is probably unorthodox. If there are no strong reason to put an abbreviation in the title, you may wish to introduce it in the first sentences of the chapter itself.