| AB = Abstract |
LA = Language |
| AF = Author Affiliation |
NT = Notes |
| AN = Accession Number |
NU = Other Numbers |
| AU = Author |
OT = Original Title |
| CA = Corporate Author |
PB = Publisher |
| CF = Conference |
PT = Publication Type |
| CL = Classification |
PY = Publication Year |
| DE = Descriptors |
SF = Subfile |
| ED = Editor |
SL = Summary Language |
| IB = ISBN |
SO = Source |
| ID = Identifiers |
TI = Title |
| IS = ISSN |
UD = Update |
MGA Field Labels and Search Tips:
In General, these are the Field Labels that appear in an MGA record.
Not all Field Labels are present in all records.
AB = Abstract Field
The abstract includes key points of the source article. Most records
have abstracts and when available, authors' abstracts are used, although
they may be edited to CSA style. Every word is searchable; however,
to find precisely what you want, use only distinctive words and phrases.
In selected source material where available, abstracts in languages
other than English may be added. These are appended to the end of the
English abstract and follow the words Original Abstract. If a record
only contains a foreign language abstract, it will be the only text
appearing in the AB field.
AF = Author Affiliation
This field includes the Lead author affiliation. There is only one affiliation
included and it corresponds to the First Author unless otherwise indicated.
AN = Accession Number
This is a unique number assigned to each record. In some databases it
is a 7-digit number and to retrieve the record with that number all
7 digits must be entered, including any leading zeros.
AU = Author
This field contains the name(s) of the author(s) of the source document.
Currently a maximum of 14 authors are listed per record, but this has
not always been the case. Names are usually in the format of Author,
AB. Prior to 2002, author names are in many different formats. Best
results will be found by browsing the Author Index to see all possible
combinations.
AV = Availability
This field contains information that may help locate the document. Often
it may include other relevant information regarding the source document.
CA = Corporate Author
This is the name of the organization that has produced the original
source document. This field is often present when there is no personal
author field. To search this field use the distinctive parts of the
name and do not search for designations such Corp, Co, Company, Ltd.
Etc. Often, the city and country are also provided; in older records
the following abbreviations may still be seen -- FRG for the former
West Germany; GDR for the former East Germany, and USSR for the former
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
CF = Conference
This field provides the name of the conference and where and when it
occurred; it is generally edited to CSA style, eg:
24. Annu. Benthic Ecology Meeting, Columbia, SC (USA), 7-10 Mar 1996
All these words are searchable, but for faster retrieval, ignore the
common words such as "annual or "annu" or "meeting"
and search for the distinctive elements only. Records retrieved include
the papers presented at the particular meeting and the "master
record" for the complete proceedings. If you just want the master
record, use the TI= field as well, and AND the results together to produce
the final result.
CL = Classification
The classification codes and descriptions are broad subject headings
that are specific to various databases. Due to the interdisciplinary
nature of much of the material covered, one record may have several
classifications that correspond to different databases. MGA uses the
UDC system to classify articles. For more information regarding the
UDC classification system, see: http://www.udcc.org/about.htm. This
field can be searched for either the classification number or distinctive
words.
For example:
CL=Flash Floods
CL=556.166.4
Both searches retrieve the same number of results.
DE = Descriptors
MGA uses a controlled list of descriptors comprised of words and short
phrases. Best results will be found by browsing the Meteorological &
Geoastrophysical Terms using the Thesaurus Search option.
ED = Editor
This field contains the name(s) of the editor(s) of the source document.
Names are usually in the format of Author, AB. Prior to 2002, this data
was included in the SO field or in the AU field.
ER = Environmental Regime
This is unique to the ASFA: Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts
database and its component subfiles. It indicates whether a source document
deals with the marine, brackish or freshwater environment, or any combination
of these. Marine, Brackish and Freshwater are the only values found
in this field and can be easily searched. This field may be displayed
in MGA records that have also been indexed by ASFA.
IB = ISBN
The ISBN is the International Standard Book Number. Its purpose is to
identify uniquely a book title, an edition of a book, or a monograph
produced by a specific publisher. Each ISBN number consists of ten digits
separated into the following parts:
Group identifier (national, geographic, language, or other type of group)
Publisher or producer identifier
Title identifier
Check digit
ID = Identifiers
This field contains subject terms not included in the controlled vocabulary
but considered by the indexer to be extremely relevant to the record.
They may be single word or multiple word terms. Since identifiers are
not selected from the controlled vocabulary, different synonyms for
the same subject may appear in this field, as well as abbreviations
and acronyms. Also, company names, trademarks, the names of legislative
acts, government policies and new and up-coming methods and procedures
are often assigned as identifiers. Like descriptors, these terms may
not appear in the title or abstract, and therefore serve as additional
ways to focus your search. Use ID= followed by the words you want to
look for in parentheses.
IS = ISSN
The ISSN is the International Standard Serial Number and is a unique
number identifying serial publications such as journals. The ISSN consists
of two groups of four digits in Arabic numerals, except possibly for
the last, check digit, which may be an X. This conformity makes it easy
to search for ISSNs, which can be entered with or without the hyphen
between the two groups of four characters. Records created previous
to 2002 did not include ISSNs. ISSNs were added to several major titles
in the backfile prior to their incorporation into IDS.
LA = Language
This indicates the language(s) of the original source document. If there
is no language field in the record, it can be assumed the original text
is in English. The full name of each language is searchable.
NT = Notes
This field contains miscellaneous information pertaining to the record
and is meant for display purposes only, although it is searchable.
NU = Other Numbers
This lists any type of bibliographic number attached to a document that
is not already in its own field. It can include report numbers, patent
numbers, dissertation codes, and for older records, even ISBNs and ISSNs.
Formats of such numbers have not been standardized and are not predictable,
therefore this is not a good field to try and search. Its purpose is
to display additional valuable information.
OT = Original Title
The non-English language title from the source document appears in this
Original Title field if the title is in a Roman alphabet. Title translations
appear in the Title, TI= field. No diacriticals are represented. This
is a change from MGA on CD-ROM where the Title corresponding to the
language of the article always appears in the TI field.
PB = Publisher
This field typically occurs when the item indexed is a book or monograph,
although increasingly, more records where the source document is a journal
article, have this field also. The Publisher field includes the name
of the publisher and the place of publication. Previous to 2002, this
data was displayable but was not searchable.
PT = Publication Type
Records are categorized by the generic type, physical form or medium
of the original source document, such as "Journal article",
"Conference" etc. In the CSA databases, the following terms
are searchable:
Bibliography
Book
Computer file [infrequent]
Conference
Dictionary [infrequent]
Dissertation
Drawing [infrequent]
Film [infrequent]
Journal article
Law or statute
Map
Monograph
Numerical data
Patent
Report
Review
Sound recording [infrequent]
Standard
Summary [ie, source document is abstract only]
Training manual [infrequent]
Records created prior to 2002 were not indexed with a Document Type.
All of these documents exist in IDS as "Journal article"
PY = Publication Year
This field contains the year in which the source document was published.
Search it as a four-digit date
SF = Subfile
Many of the major CSA databases are composed of several subfiles merged
into one comprehensive and cohesive database. In these major databases,
a subfile name corresponds to the print product (ie, the abstracts journal)
in which the record originally appeared. A few subfiles exist only as
archives because the print equivalent is no longer published. In these
large databases, the Subfile field can be used to limit a search to
a specific discipline.
SF=Meteorological
SF=ASFA
SL = Summary Language
This field indicates the language(s) of abstracts printed with the source
document. Often, if the abstract is only in English, then no summary
language displays.
SO = Source
This field contains bibliographic citation information. If it is a journal
article, the SO field contains the Journal Title, Abbreviated Title,
Volume, Number, Page Range. Prior to 2002, the SO field does not contain
Abbreviated Titles. If the record is a Monograph, the SO field will
contain the Monograph title.
TI = Title
This field contains the title of the source document in English. Non-Roman
titles are transliterated into English as well. Non-English titles appear
in the Original Title, OT=, field.
TR = ASFA Input Center Number
This is unique to the ASFA: Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts
database and its component subfiles. This field may be displayed in
MGA records that have also been indexed by ASFA.
UD = Update
This field indicates the date that the record was added to IDS. The
format is YYYYMM. This field is helpful to search for the latest records
that have been added to the database.
UD=200308
168KB
694KB
