🚀 go-pugleaf

14 September 1993

Database  Suggestions

Below are several standards that I have implemented in my
database of ant literature.  I am submitting this list to the
EndNote bulletin board in hopes that it will stimulate
discussion.  What comments and suggestions do the rest of you
have?

Sanford Porter, Ph.D.
Research Entomologist

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Address:
USDA-ARS MAVERL
P.O. Box 14565
Gainesville, Florida  32604  USA

Office:   904 374-5914
Secretary:    374-5903
FAX:          374-5818
Bitnet:   SDP@IFASGNV
Internet: SDP@GNV.IFAS.UFL.EDU
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Suggestions for Establishing and 
Managing Databases

1.	A good reference database program is essential.  It
should be easy to use.  It should have at least five or six
reference types.  It should automatically format and print
references in different journal styles.  It should allow
citations to be easily exported to other database programs.  It
should have import capabilities from online databases.  It
should run on both IBM and Macintosh Computers.  It should
include fields for keywords and full abstracts.
2.	Reference types should generally be limited to 5-6
types. This simplifies construction of styles and preserves
export compatibility with other programs.  The five styles I
use are:  Journal, Book, Book Section, Thesis/Dissertation, and
Report.  The Report type places all source information in the
institution field it is used to handle miscellaneous citations
like conference reports and government publications that do
not fit the other formats.  
3.	Fields with missing information should be tagged with a
double question mark (??) so they can be found again.
4.	Translations of foreign titles should be placed in the
abstract field preceded by a double equal sign (==) and
terminated with a double period.. (the double characters are
used as tags to delimit the alternate title so it can be moved
with a macro if necessary).  Use of EndNote's alternate title
field is a good option but it would require novice users to
modify the reference types fields to avoid losing the data. 
Hopefully future versions of EndNote will link field definitions
to the database.
5.	All references in a database should be tagged in a note
field with the database�s name.  The sources of all citations
should also be tagged in the note field if they were taken from
other databases.
6.	Major contributors to a database should be credited in a
citation or citations at the top of the database.
7.	Author names should be entered in the last-name-comma-
initials format (Porter, S. D). 
8.	Do not place author names in all capitals or capitalize
the first letter of each word in the title.
9.	Keywords should be included when possible.  They should
not duplicate words in the title.  They should include the
complete taxonomic series for all major organisms in the
paper (Class, Order, etc.) and geographic information such as
the country and state.  They should also include the major
disciplines involved (e.g. taxonomy, behavior etc.) and what
ever other terms provided by the author.
10.	New citations should be initially added to a separate
�Add-New� file after the initial database is established.  Use
of add-new files simplifies sharing new data with other
databases andgreatly reduces the size of update files.
11.	Try to distribute the effort in a net fashion among
several researchers when constructing literature databases.
12.	Get permission before downloading from major
databases.  The National Agricultural Library�s AGRICOLA is
one of the few that will permit non-commercial use of its
citations without stiff royalty fees.
13.	Obtain permission for use of abstracts.
14.	Try using word processor macros to tag citations for
import into literature database.