Indexing in the databases is aimed at the article. Indexers assign index terms that capture the content of the article as a whole, rather than the subject of each paragraph. Subjects, people, products, and companies that figure prominently in the article are indexed.
The usefulness of the indexing to the user is the major criterion used to evaluate whether the indexing is appropriate. In the process of indexing, indexers ask themselves if users would be satisfied with the amount of data on an indexed subject, person, product, or company in the article. A brief reference or single mention of a subject, person, product, or company is inadequate for most users. Additionally, indexers assign the most specific term available in the controlled vocabulary. A broader, more general term is used only if the article's approach is general or if no specific term exists.
The number of index terms assigned to an article is at the discretion of the indexer. There is no maximum number of index terms per article. Typically, a longer, more substantive article will receive more index terms than a brief article.
There are two systematically different indexing schemes used in Gale Group databases: thesaurus-like, heading-based indexing used in Trade & Industry Database, Magazine Database, Computer Database, and Health & Wellness Database; and hierarchical, code-based indexing used in PROMT. Some index terms, such as company names and product codes, are shared across both categories of databases.
Database-specific Indexing Policies
- PROMT
- Trade & Industry
- Newsletter Database
- Computer Database
- Health & Wellness Database
- Magazine Database
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PROMT index terms are categorized into three sets of hierarchical numeric codes with their corresponding descriptive names: Product Code, Event Code, Geographic Code. At least one of each of these three kinds of codes is required for each indexed article. Some articles have more than one of any of these types of codes. Many, but not all, articles are also indexed with company names.
Although indexing is done on the article level, the three types of codes assigned must correctly relate to each other and the company name, if there is one. If the article is about two companies involved in different aspects of an activity, such as an acquisition or a contract signed, then a different, "reciprocal" Event Code is assigned for each company.
If an article is about the corporate-level information (such as total revenues, officer changes, acquisitions and mergers, etc.), then the Product Code assigned to the article is the five-digit "corporate" Product Code associated with that company in the Company Name File. For example, an article about the earnings of a database management software company, such as Informix Corp., would be indexed with the Product Code 73720 - Computer Software, rather than with the more specific Product Code of 737242 - Database Software.
Geographic Codes are assigned for where the action is taking place. If a corporate-level activity is involved, such as an acquisition or joint venture, and the foreign activity is in a different region of the world, then an additional Geographic Code is assigned for the home headquarters country of the company. For example, an article about the German company Veba acquiring the U.S. company Wyle Electronics is indexed with the Geographic Code for Germany, 4GER, in addition to the code for the United States, 1USA.
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Articles about specific companies, in addition to those about industries in general, are indexed with the name of the industry to which the company belongs. That is, such articles receive a topical descriptor for the industry, as part of their indexing. Therefore, articles indexed under a given subject heading for an industry, such as Health insurance industry, will include all articles about any activity in that industry and not merely articles on the broader subject of the industry per se.
In addition to article-level indexing, the Trade & Industry Database utilizes Industry Categories, which are assigned at the journal level.
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In the interest of timeliness, Newsletter Database has no article-level indexing. Articles are received electronically from the publisher and immediately prepared for inclusion in the database, without the delay involved in indexing the material. However, one or more industry categories are assigned at the newsletter level. These pertain to the subject(s) of the newsletter as a whole, rather than to each issue or individual articles within the issues.
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Indexing in in the Computer Database uses a different set of descriptive subjects than those used in the other heading-based indexing system databases of Trade & Industry Database, Health & Wellness Database, and Magazine Database. Company names, product names, and organizations, however, are indexed in the Computer Database just as they are indexed in the other heading-based databases. Named persons are indexed to a far lesser degree in the Computer Database than in Trade & Industry Database, Health & Wellness Database, and Magazine Database.
Many articles will have only one subject term. Indexing of articles on non-computer topics from computer magazines, is less specific than that for computer topics. The article type also often determines the number and kind of index terms to use. For example, certain Article types require a product or company be indexed.
For certain journals which have cover-to-cover article inclusion policies, articles that are not otherwise suitable for indexing, such as letters to the editor, jokes, calendars, etc., are included with bibliographic citations only. Users can access these records through keyword search instead of subject search. For a list of these journals, check the Article Selection Guidelines for the Computer Database.
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In addition to article-level indexing, the Health & Wellness Database includes content from several reference books. In reference books, each sub-chapter is considered a record and thus indexing is provided for each sub-chapter..
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Magazine Database contains more review articles of books and other media than do other Gale Group databases. Due to the large quantity of these articles, reviews are indexed for the object being reviewed only and not for any other subject. For example, all book reviews are indexed with only the heading Books. No subject heading for the subject of the book is assigned. Subject headings assigned to review articles all take the sub-topic Reviews. The name(s) of the reviewed work's creator(s) are indexed in the Named Person field.
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