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Example:

Quote from author of this publication: "..."

instead of:

Quote from the author of this publication: "..."

Is omitting the "the" in this example OK?

Update: Here's the context. (It's the second note.)

Click here for full size image!

enter image description here

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It depends. Can you please add more context, like the audience for this and what the style is? – simchona♦ Jan 12 at 1:56
Normally I'd say "no, it's not OK." However, per simchona's comment, I'm really wondering what the context might be. Please, provide more info! – Richard Rodriguez Jan 12 at 2:22
2  
If you're doing it headline style, "Quote from author of this publication" is OK, but if not, "A quotation from the author of this publication" is necessary. – Bill Franke Jan 12 at 2:31
General Reference. OP's text isn't a "sentence" - it's a line from a specification/document. As in Nationality of father: Croatian – FumbleFingers Jan 12 at 2:37
@BillFranke if headline style means it's brevity we want, you can also remove "this". "Quote from author of publication" – Mr Lister Jan 12 at 7:56
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closed as general reference by FumbleFingers, cornbread ninja 麵包忍者, Carlo_R., Hugo, tchrist Jan 12 at 15:22

This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

2 Answers

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Quote from (the) author of this publication: "..."

i.e., with or without the article, is in any case not a complete grammatical sentence.

As such, the use of the article the would be unnecessary, except if you would want to refer to a particular author as distinct of any other that may have been referred to in the context.

By the way, the screenshot refers to 'editor', not 'author', though that does not really matter much.

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It's valid, because it is already in a telegraphese style.

"Quote from the author of this publication:" is already not in a style we would normally use in prose. It's already omitting a verb ("Here is a..." or "A...follows").

In this sort of style, we often omit just about everything we can, very often including articles, and often leaving only a bare noun-phrase or adjectival-phrase ("Name:", "Colour:", etc.).

So in this style, it would be normal to use the former, or even to condense even further:

Quote from author of publication:

Or perhaps even:

Quote from author:

Or

Author quote:

If the rest of the context made it clear who "Author" was referring to.

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I've provided context via a screen shot. What do you think? – Šime Vidas Jan 12 at 14:24
I stand by the above, that it's telegraphese and so we allow omissions we might not otherwise, except to note that it was "editor" rather than "author". For that we have the convention of just giving a quote and citing it as "-ed", and I would likely either go with that, or else re-word into a full sentence. – Jon Hanna Jan 12 at 15:46

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