data standards

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biab & data standards

biab is committed to using appropriate accepted national and international standards in the formation and provision of datasets. We are also committed to the development and use of standard terminologies for data indexing and retrieval

Bibliographic citations explained

biab's bibliographic data structure is based on accepted standards, described in Mike Heyworth's paper. For details of biab's classification system click here and for chronology click here.

biab's bibliographic citations comprise the following data elements:

• CLASSIFICATION CODE, biab REFERENCE NUMBER
• TITLE OF ARTICLE
• MAIN AUTHOR(S)
• PLACE OF PUBLICATION AND PUBLISHER
• SERIAL TITLE
• SERIAL VOLUME NUMBER
• EDITION
• YEAR OF PUBLICATION
• PAGE REFERENCES
• DESCRIPTION OF DOCUMENT
• INTERNET ADDRESS
• PRICE
• BINDING TYPE
• ISBN
• OTHER AUTHORS

CLASSIFICATION CODE - eg 4H:5G:6K
biab REFERENCE NUMBER - eg 2000/33

Each publication reference has a unique individual number with two elements: the current year, followed by a serial number.

TITLE OF ARTICLE (in bold type) - eg The archaeology of Britain and Ireland

Square brackets [ ] denote editorial expansions of the original (or a translation if the title is not in English). A book or article may be assumed to be in the language of its title.

MAIN AUTHOR(S) - eg Wheeler, Mortimer

Names are normally given in full in the form in which they appear on the title page (with surname preceding forenames/initials). If there are more than two authors, the first named is given, followed by et # al (where # = the number of other authors); subsequent names are then listed under OTHER AUTHORS at the end of the citation (here we deviate from standard Harvard references in order to avoid the potential for confusion between surnames and forenames when the latter are written in full). Where an item is published under the name of an editor, chair(-man/-woman/-person) or compiler etc, the individual's role is indicated by the following: (ed) - editor; (chr) - chair; (comp) - compiler

PLACE OF PUBLICATION AND PUBLISHER - eg London: Routledge

The town in which the publisher is based, a colon, and the name of the publisher as given on the original. In biab, British or Irish publisher's are given precedence when a work is published simultaneously in different countries. Where it is stated that a commercial publisher is acting 'with' or 'for' another organisation this is indicated in brackets after the publisher's name.

SERIAL TITLE (in italic type) - eg Brit Ir Archaeol Bibliogr

These are abbreviated generally along the lines recommended in British Standard BS 4148: 1985/ISO 4-1984 and the CBA publication Signposts for archaeological publication (3rd ed, 1991, pp 59-70). Titles of most monograph series and foreign serials are not normally abbreviated as readers may not be as familiar with these.

SERIAL VOLUME NUMBER - eg 3(1)

This comprises the volume number (in bold type) with the part number following (in brackets and normal type) if required. Alternatively, unnumbered volumes may be described by the month or season or year/years for which they were issued.

EDITION - eg 2nd

Identifies the edition for re-issued documents. Normally, only substantially revised versions will be included in biab.

YEAR OF PUBLICATION - eg 1997(1998)

NB: for serials this may be given in brackets following the nominal year of a volume if the year during which it was published is different from the year/years for which it was published. Square brackets [ ] indicate the approximate date of issue where no publication date is specified on the item.

PAGE REFERENCES - eg 120-35 or xiv, 248pp

The extent of an article in a serial is identified by a run of page numbers, eg. 120-35 (elided according to Harts rules for compositors and readers at the Oxford University Press, 39th ed, 1991, p19). For monographs the pages are totalled and broken down into preliminaries (lower-case Roman numerals) and numbered pages (pp), eg. xiv, 248pp. Significant unpaginated sections are indicated as necessary in either case.

DESCRIPTION OF DOCUMENT - eg pls(some colour), figs, table, refs.

Indicates the presence of:

• 'pls' (plates = half-tone illustrations/photographs)
• 'figs' (figures = line drawings and small plans)
• 'ills' (unspecified illustrations from Briefing book references)
• 'tables' (tabulated data. NB graphs are 'figs')
• 'refs' (indicates the presence of five or more references)
• 'maps' (separately bound plans and other cartographic material)
• 'index' (specific to the reference)
• 'microfiche' (indicates that the item is accompanied by material on microfiche)
• 'Internet' (indicates that an item is from a journal that is also published in full as an electronic edition that is available on the Internet - URLs can be found in Appendix I)

INTERNET ADDRESS - eg http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue4

This is included for articles in online serials ('e-journals') that are only available via the Internet (such as Internet Archaeology). Accepted standards recommend that the date of access is quoted when citing online references. It can be assumed that all URLs are correct when entered into biab. However, when consulting the biab archive users are reminded that changes to all publisher contact details including Internet sources cannot be forecast at time of publication. Therefore, the user is responsible for checking all Internet addresses and should thus append their own 'access date' when citing references found through biab

PRICE OR AVAILABILITY - eg £45 or Available free from the author

These are quoted for books, monographs, and pamphlets, and are those in force at the time the entry was prepared. Readers should bear in mind that increases may have occurred since that time; please check all prices before submitting orders to booksellers. We do not specify postage. Other significant information relating to the availability of the item will also be included here.

BINDING TYPE (or equivalent description of electronic media etc)

eg: 'hb' (hardback); 'pb' (paperback); 'paper' (where the cover is of the same material as the body); 'CD-ROM' (Compact Disc - Read Only Memory); videotape

ISBN (International Standard Book Number) where known - eg 0198612710

OTHER AUTHORS

Lists all other main authors for items having more than two authors. Also 'Other editors', 'Other compilers' etc.

Examples of biab citation styles

biab subject indexes & thesauri

Subject index retrieval of data from biabis under development. It is hoped that, when resources allow, this facility will be extended back to cover BAB and BAA data.

biabare committed to the use of accepted standards in information recording and retrieval. We will continue to do everything our resources allow to further the use and construction of such standards where useful.

We continue to use a standard term list for subject indexing, based on the British Archaeological Thesaurus written by Cherry Lavell and published by the CBA in 1989 as CBA Practical Handbook No 4. Its development into a thesaurus for general indexing of all archaeological documents is a long-term goal.

Implementation of such a thesaurus in data recording and index-building would allow for the full retrieval of information from archaeological literature and discourse of all kinds by creating a structured list of terms. These would be used to refer to intangible concepts and map out to high level terms from accepted thesauri for tangible concepts such as sites and artefacts. It will also allow for defunct terms from older publications to be signposted to terms in current use and allow for regional variation in terminology.

Taken as a whole this thesaurus will allow datasets and articles to 'talk' to each other across all regions, time periods and regardless of whether the documents appear in electronic or hard-copy media. A thesaurus of this kind would create a single document of reference terms that could be easily used by individuals and organisations.

biab is committed to working in partnership with all stakeholders in the development of the such a Thesaurus - if you think you or your organisation have a contribution to make to its development please contact Isabel Holroyd on 020 7969 5223 or e-mail iholroyd@biab.ac.uk

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The British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography is a service of the Council for British Archaeology. Terms and conditions of use.

Today's date: 10/3/2010
This page last updated: 9/7/2003 12:20