Spaces after periods in abbreviations

Question

Should I put spaces after periods in the following examples?

• A.B. Buffington (between the initials)
• Vol.2, No.6, pp.195-200

I see people missing spaces in their academic writing all the time and I am not sure if I should correct this.

Answer 1

I commiserate with the desire to avoid a cramped, less readable look.

The citation service that I use, CiteULike, gives a choice of six commonly used citation styles. None show spaces between abbreviated first and middle initials. Otherwise, yes, I think I would add spaces to your remaining examples. So to answer your question, this is what I would do:

A.B. Buffington

and

Vol. 2, No. 6, pp. 195-200

Answer 2

Your examples look unnecessarily compact (if not cramped) to me. I would correct them to:

• A. B. Buffington
• Vol. 2, pp. 195-200

If you look at this handy chart of the major citation styles (MLA, APA, and CMS), none of them advocate such a cramped format.

I haven't found a reference for why e.g. and i.e. are conventionally written without spaces. I'll edit my answer if I do...