Isis Current Bibliography 2010 - History of Science Society

viii
Introduction
cretion of the bibliographer.
Book reviews. In the book review section,
reviews are listed alphabetically by author or
editor of the book. In the author index, they are
listed under the author of the review, but not
author of the book.
Dissertations. Dissertations cited from Dissertation
Abstracts International have been entered
from the information in the electronic
database UMI ProQuest Dissertation and Theses,
which is a subscription database accessible
through Proquest at the following website:
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/
gateway.
Source notes. In book records, some descriptions
or contents lists are marked as “from
WorldCat.” This means that the information
came directly from the OCLC World-
Cat database (see http://www.oclc.org/
worldcat/) and not from the book itself.
Where a description states “from the publisher,”
this means that it was taken from the publisher’s
website or from its printed catalog.
Electronic publication conventions. Where
there are both electronic and print forms of a
journal record, the entry does not indicate which
version was used to check the citation. Where
only an electronic form exists, electronic access
information is given for the article. In some
cases, the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number
of an the item is listed. DOI numbers are
unique for all digitally published works. Works
with a DOI can be located through the internet
at the following url: http://www.doi.org/.
Readers should note that access to e-published
articles often requires a subscription or a fee.
Many libraries will have such subscriptions but
this varies widely.
General Note on Classification
The current Isis classification system for
works in the history of science is a two-level
hierarchy. It emphasizes time period and discipline,
and the bulk of the bibliography is
found in section G. Section F deals with geographically
based cultural traditions. It is
designed for subjects that are either not part
of the Western scientific tradition or, as in the
case of Islamic science, often studied apart
from the Western historical tradition. Section E
holds items classified by discipline that do not
fit into the narrower chronological or cultural
sections. Sections A through D accommodate
works either that are very general, that focus on
non-disciplinary topics, or that have a specific
analytical framework.
Items whose subjects are confined to a particular
chronological period in the Western scientific
tradition will be found in that time period.
Where a subject stretches between two periods,
the item will be in the earlier period. Where
a subject encompasses more than two chronological
periods, the item will be placed in the
topical or disciplinary category in the first part
of the bibliography.
Where an item covers two disciplinary fields,
it will probably be classified in one of the two
fields. Items covering three or more widely
disparate fields will usually be classified in a
non-disciplinary category.
All items are entered only once. Because
most works could easily be classified in more
than one subject area, it is impossible for each
classification division to contain a comprehensive
list of all works relevant to that subject.
Users should consult the subject index for a
thorough coverage of topics.
For a more detailed description of this system,
see the introduction to this bibliography
in volume 93 (2002): pp. vii–viii. You
can also find my history of the Isis classification
system in Circumscribere volume
6 (2009), which can be accessed online at
http://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/
circumhc/article/view/1942.
HistSciTechMed Database
Online access to the Isis Current Bibliography
data is through the History of Science,
Technology, and Medicine database
(HistSciTechMed, formerly HSTM). It is
hosted by OCLC and available through its First-
Search platform. HistSciTechMed contains all
of the data from the Isis bibliographies from
1974 to the present. In addition, it contains
data from three other bibliographies: the Current
Bibliography in the History of Technology,
containing entries from 1987 to the present;
the Bibliografia Italiana di Storia della Scienza
(BISS) from 1982 to the present; and data from
the Wellcome Bibliography for the History of
Medicine from 1991 to 2004, supplemented
regularly with monograph citations supplied
by the Wellcome Library for the History and
Understanding of Medicine.
HistSciTechMed can be accessed through
libraries or institutions with a subscription to
the service or by individuals who are members
of the History of Science Society. For
individual member access, go to the HSS web
site http://www.hssonline.org/teaching/
teaching_databasenew.html and follow the
instructions for access.
Searching the HistSciTechMed database. Because
HistSciTechMed contains data compiled
by several independent bibliographers, no rigid