Author Searching
Every author in an article is stored in the SPIRES database in the
following form:
AUTHOR = Lastname, Firstname or
First Initial, Secondname
or
Middle Initial,
Thirdname, etc.
As a rule, we take the name as it appears on the title page of the
article. So it is important as to what form an author uses as his/her
standard on papers. For instance, Jane Quantum Physicist might
appear in SPIRES in a number of ways, depending on how many forms she
used on papers:
AUTHOR = Physicist, Jane Quantum;
AUTHOR = Physicist, Jane Q.;
AUTHOR = Physicist, J.Q.;
AUTHOR = Physicist, Jane;
AUTHOR = Physicist, J.;
- How do I ensure
that my name will be correctly entered in the SPIRES database?
-
It is to your advantage that
people can find all your papers in the SPIRES database with a simple
search. This can be accomplished, in most cases, simply by making sure
your middle name or initial is included in all of your papers. If
you do not have a middle name, then you should always use your full
first name. We will be happy to work with you to ensure this is the
case. Please see this page
- How can I be sure to
find all the papers by Jane Q. Physicist?
-
SPIRES searches for author's works in the following way:
- find a physicist, j. This search will find all of Jane's
papers, but it will also find anyone with the firstname starting
with 'j' or with the middle name initial 'j', for
example John Physicist and P.J. Physicist.
- find a physicist, jane This search will find all of
Jane's papers, but will also find all papers with the first or
middle name initial 'j', for example P.J. Physicist.
It will not find someone with a full first name starting with 'j'
that is not 'Jane'. Thus, it will not find John Physicist.
This search will help to narrow the field, but will still pick up
other authors papers.
- find a physicist, jane q. This search will find all of
Jane Q.'s papers, i.e. Jane Quantum Physicist, Jane Q.
Physicist, or J.Q. Physicist. However, it will not
find Jane Physicist or J. Physicist without the middle
name initial. Therefore, you might miss some of her papers. In
SPIRES the middle name works as a Boolean search (and)
because it is usually only stored as an initial (with the exception
of perhaps Ph.D. theses).
You should note here the importance of the space between the given
names. The search
find a physicist, jq
will revert to the second case, but assume the person's name is "Jq"
not "Jane".
- find ea physicist ,j.
This search will find only papers by J. Physicist (ea=exact
author). By using an exact author search you are assured of finding
all of J. Physicist's papers, but it will not find Jane Physicist
or J.Q. Physicist.
- find a physicist, jane q. or ea physicist, jane or ea
physicist,j. This search will find all forms of Jane's name.
However, this search will still find papers by John
Physicist where he uses only J. Physicist.
- How can I find all
forms of a name that an author has used?
-
You can search SPIRES for all
variations that an author has used in the
browse index.
For instance, this is a sampling of the many variations for J. Ellis
188 Ellis, J
1 Ellis, J
6 Ellis, J
4 Ellis, J E
5 Ellis, J R
1 Ellis, J R
426 Ellis, John
- How can I do
searches to find only the papers where Jane Q. Physicist is the sole
author?
- You can't. The best that you
can do is use the first-author "fa" index, e.g. "find fa physicist,j.q."
Beyond that you might need to use some
Boolean nots to narrow your search result.
- How are Asian
names handled in SPIRES?
- In order to make Asian (mainly
Chinese and Korean) names as unique as possible, we used to insert a
dash in the first name, e.g.
Lee, Sang-Hoon
Liu, Keh-Fei
Kim, Bock-Joo
the dash acts as a space, effectively giving us a middle initial,
so these authors can be found as, respectively,
S.H. Lee, K.F. Liu, B.J. Kim
Due to use feedback we have stopped this practice for Korean names and
now abide by what is written on the paper. This gives authors
more control over their name's appearance, but makes papers less
easily accessible since the presence or absence of the middle initial
cannot be predicted. We welcome feedback on this issue, both for
Korean and Chinese names. We certainly do not wish to offend,
our original intent was to make it easier for papers to be found, by
taking advantage of the natural break between the first two syllables
in the original characters used in these languages. Please write
us at
spires@slac.stanford.edu if you have comments about our
policies or your own name's treatment.
|
|
