Draft

What's in a name, or,

Author Searching in Online Bibliographic Databases

October 2000

Author (Name) Searching in General

Parameters

I. It is (probably) impossible to find all of the publications of any given author.
II. Variations in naming customs, variations in bibliographic styles, and typographic errors thwart the process.
III. Differences in database construction and search engines compound the problem.

Tricks

1. Name searching is usually case-insensitive. Upper and lower, all upper, or all lower case produce the same results.
2. Use truncation and proximity features, where available.
3. If the author has a (relatively) distinctive surname, search for that alone and ignore the forename(s), initial(s), and/or honorific(s).
4. If the database's search engine implements a browse and/or thesaurus feature for names, try that first. This is especially useful for common and compound surnames.

5. Try to determine how the search engine handles punctuation: commas between elements of the name (ex. Smith, John vs. Smith John); periods (ex. Smith, J. B. vs. Smith J B); apostrophes (ex. O'Connor); hyphens (ex. Chen Y.-C.; Smith-Jones, Y. A.). Is punctuation included or excluded as part of the search string?
6. Try to determine how Mc and Mac are treated. Are they equivalents? Are they separated from the rest of the name (ex. McMurphy, MacMurphy, Mc Murphy, Mac Murphy)?
7. Try to determine how diacritics (accent marks, umlaut, tilde, etc.) are treated. Are they converted to English equivalents (ex. Grüber or Grueber) or ignored (ex. Nuñez vs. Nunez)?
8. When dealing with non-Roman alphabets, transliterations vary. Try to consider several alternatives. (ex. Tchebyshev, Chebyshev, Tschebychef).
9. Use of honorifics (Sr., Jr., III, etc.) is inconsistent. It is wiser to ignore them and retrieve extraneous references than to include them and miss relevant items.

Formats for names

This list shows variations in naming formats to use as a checklist for alternatives in searching databases. No database uses all of the variations, but structuring a name search to cover the most probable variations will produce more inclusive results. The list uses the inverted form (surname, forename) because that is used in most database indexes, even when the "displayed" version of the name is "John Smith" instead of "Smith, John." The list is arranged from "simplest" to "most complex/most unusual."

Form	Distinctive element
Smith, J.	single surname, single initial
Smith, John	single surname, single forename
Smith, John Brown	single surname, two forenames
Smith, J. B.	single surname, two initials
Smith, J. B. C.	single surname, three initials
Smith, John B.	single surname, forename and intial
Smith, J. Brown	single surname, initial and forename
Chen, Y.-C.	single surname, hyphenated initials
Chen, Ying-Chang	single surname, hyphenated forenames
Chen, John Y.-C.	single surname, forename and hyphenated initials
Smith Jr., J. B.	single surname, honorific with letters
Smith III, J. B.	single surname, honorific with numbers
Smith Jones, J. B.	compound surname, no hyphen
Smith-Jones, J.B.	compound surname, with hyphen
Ramirez de Agudelo, M.M.	compound surname, with article (de)
de Agudelo, M.M. Ramirez	compound surname, inverted
de M. Ramirez, F.	compound surname, initial and second surname
Vandermeer, R. or van der Meer, R.	compound surname alternatives
Führ, J. M.	surname with diacritic (umlaut)

Specific Database Techniques and Examples

Compendex (Engineering Index)

Use the Author name(s) feature to find variations for specific author's names.
Notes: Single letter truncation is ?
           Open-ended truncation is *
           The use of the period after initials is critical.
           Diacritics are ignored.
           Spaces (or no spaces) between initials will retrieve different results. Use both formats.

Examples	Search As	Notes
Smith, John (no second name)	(smith j.) or (smith john)	will not retrieve authors with second initials
Smith, John B. Smith, John Brown Smith, John B. Jr. Smith, John B. III	(smith john b.) or (smith j. b.) or (smith j.b.)	retrieves only authors with second initial b
Smith Jones, John B. Smith-Jones, John B.	(smith-jones john b.) or (smith-jones j. b.) or (smith-jones j.b.)	must use hyphen in surnames
Chen Y.-C.	(chen y.c.) or (chen y. c.)	hyphen ignored in initials
O'Connor, S. A.	(o'connor s.a.) or (o'connor s. a.)	must use apostrophe
Smith, J.G. Smith, J.G.B. Smith, J.G.W.	(smith j.g.?.) or (smith j. g. ?.)	note the period after the question mark finds all authors whose first two and subsequent initials are "J. G."
Ramirez de Agudelo, M.M. de Agudelo, M.M. Ramirez	ramirez and agudelo	resolves the problem of poor indexing by combining the major parts
MacPherson, D.E. McPherson, D.E.	(macpherson d.e.) or (macpherson d. e.) or (mcpherson d.e.) or (mcpherson d. e.)	actually two separate authors search both if unsure of correct spelling

INSPEC (physics, electrical/electronic, computer)

INSPEC uses the same search engine and system as Compendex except

1. Authors' names are always in the form of Surname, I.I.; no forenames are used. For example, John B. Smith would only be indexed as Smith, J.B.
2. There are no spaces between initials; Smith J.B. instead of Smith J. B.
no space ^{^}

^{More details
may be found at the INSPEC site.}

Last Updated: 10/19/00

Sharon Siegler