Author searching in the Inspec database
by David Rossall, Online Marketing Officer
(from Inspec Matters issue no.80 - December 1994, updated by Richard Simms 2007)
Author names often cause problems for online searchers because of the variations in format which are possible. Inspec minimises these difficulties by standardising the way names are represented, However, you will still need to take account of some inconsistencies arising from the formats used in the original document.
N.B. online database hosts use differing standards for author names, and they reformat Inspec's data to comply with these. For example, the name M.D. Dupouy would appear as;
Dupouy, M.D. on Inspec web & Dialog);
Dupouy-M-D on Data-Star; and
Dupouy, M D on STN.
Therefore, be sure to apply the format specific to the host you are searching.
Initials
Inspec reduces given names to initials (e.g. if an author is cited in a document as being John A. Evans, his name is entered into Inspec as Evans, J.A.). All the initials given in the original document are included. As the number of initials given for the same author can vary from document to document so allowances should be made for this in a search. Most hosts have commands which allow the database index to be scanned and these are helpful for finding possible variations in an author name For example, on Dialog use the Expand command:
?E AU=EVANS, J.
Ref Items Index-term
E1 4 AU=EVANS, I.R.
E2 1 AU=EVANS, I.S.
E3 118 *AU=EVANS, J.
E4 1 AU=EVANS, J., JR.
E5 72 AU=EVANS, J.A.
E6 1 AU=EVANS, J.A.C.
E7 41 AU=EVANS, J.B.
...............
Lines E3 to E6 could all include papers by the Lines E3 to E6 could all include papers by the same author.
Special characters
Umlauts, diacritical marks, etc. are not included in Inspec (e.g. to search for records where the author is A Müller it is best to search for both Muller, A and Mueller, A as both cases may appear in the database.
Titles
Titles such as Prof or Dr are not included in the INSPEC record. However, we do include suffices such as Jr (Junior) or III, as these occasionally help distinguish between authors who are from two generations of the same family.
Prefixes to family names can be problematic when searching (e.g. the database contains papers by both A. Labella and A. La Bella, and by both J. van den Berg and J. Vandenberg. The Inspec policy is to follow the spelling in the original document, and in cases of uncertainty all possible variations should be searched.
Hyphenation
Hyphenated first names are abbreviated to initials separated by a hyphen, and Saint is abbreviated to St. (e.g. Jean-Paul Saint Maurice appears as St. Maurice, J.-P.)
Chinese Names
Special care need to be taken when searching for authors from China and many other Oriental countries (but not, for example, Japan). In these cases is sometimes difficult to distinguish reliably between the family name and given name(s). The Inspec policy is to give the name exactly as they appear in the original document. Unless the can be reliably identified given names are not converted to initials. As a result it is possible that the family name is given first or last; furthermore, in some cases it is possible that primary publisher's given names may be reduced to initials in the original document, and this will be reflected in the database (e.g. using the syntax appropriate to your chosen system, you might have to search for:
FO LONG LEE OR LEE FO LONG OR LEE, F.L. etc.
In this case, it is most probable that Lee is the family name, so the combination Long Lee Fo can be discounted, but it is possible that other instances, further possibilities would have to be included in the search. The adage should be, if in doubt, search all possible combinations.