Nuclear scientists call these particles nucleons. Their masses are very nearly the same (a neutron is slightly heavier) and on the atomic mass scale both are assigned an integer mass of 1.

To represent these particles in reactions symbols have been adapted from the convention for isotopes. In these symbols, the upper left number is the mass of the particle. The lower left number is the charge on the particle. The symbol for the electron is shown for completeness:

Particle	Symbol	Charge
proton		+1
neutron		none
electron		-1

Sometimes the proton is represented by the isotopic symbol for ordinary hydrogen,