DATABASE GUIDE - National Technical Information Service

Data Elements of the NTIS DatabaseExamples: Massachusetts Inst. of TechMass Inst. of TechMassachusetts Inst. of TechnologyField Name: TitleExample: Guide to Evaluating Thermal Effects in ConcretePavementsDefinition: The name of the document that appears onthe title page or document cover. A colon is used whenseparating a subtitle from the main title.Foreign language reports present the foreign language titlefirst, followed by the English translated title in parenthesis.When English translations are made of foreign languagedocuments, the English title is presented prior to the foreignlanguage title.Field Name: Journal and Database IssueThis field contains a title’s original announcement journalvolume and issue in the format “JVVII”:where J = a letter designating the journalwhere VV = a two-digit volume number; andwhere II = a two-digit issue number.Example: u9412, GRAI9412, GRA&I9412.This corresponds to reports that were announced in GRA&IIssue 9412. Following the GRA&I issue number are lettercodes that designate other agencies’ announcement journals.Some online vendors list the example shown and sometranslated the “u” into GRAI or GRA&I with the volumeand issue. “n” was the designated prefix code for documentswhich were announced in the Department of EnergyAnnouncement Journals Nuclear Science Abstracts from1964–1976 and Energy Research Abstracts from January1976 – August 1976. After August 1976, the “n” code in thisfield was discontinued. “s” is used in this field to identifyNASA documents announced in the journal, Scientific andTechnical Aerospace Reports (STAR). Some vendors use the“s” and some present the name of the STAR journal in thisfield. The GRA&I ceased publication in December 1996.Definition: This field is used to identify the NTISAnnouncement Journal volume and issue in GRA&I, andany source agency announcement journal volume and issuein which the citation first appeared.Field Name: Title NoteExample: Datafile, Audiovisual, Thesis, Software, FinalReport, Master’s Thesis, Patent, Patent Application, Modelssimulation,VHS video, CD-ROM.Definition: Additional title information that clarifies thedocument or report type.Field Name: Personal Author(s)Example: Hyder, M. L., Smith, J. C.Format: Full last name comma [space] first initial period [space]middle initial [period].Definition: This field lists the personal author(s) name(s).Format: Names are recorded in the same order and as theyappear in the document, with first and middle initials. All titles,degrees, Jr., Sr., II, III and IV are omitted. Prior to 1984, somenames appear with the last name followed by the first name andmiddle name or middle initial.Note: There is no authority list for personal author names. Searcherswill need to develop search strategies to provide for variations,using truncation, adjacent, etc., to obtain all the reports by oneauthor. Truncation in online searching means to cut a word shortat any point in its order, for example, to retrieve all terms with acommon root or both singular and plural forms.Field Name: Report DateExample: Dec 201002 June 2010c19 Mar 2001Definition: This field contains the date the document wascompleted. However, on translations and journal articles thisdate may correspond to some other time, such as the date ofthe translation, the date of the journal issue, the date of a filingfor a patent, or the date of publication in some other journal.Note: Beginning in mid-1978, a lower case “c” appears for thecitations of copyrighted material, as seen in the third example.Field Name: Pagination or Number ofItemsExample: 103 p*1 mag tape2 diskettesDefinition: This field contains the number of paper ormicrofiche pages in a document. Blank pages are not counted.The field also notes the number of magnetic tapes, diskettes,VHS tapes, cassettes, etc.Note: An asterisk appearing after the page count indicates that thereport generated a great deal of interest when it was announced.This is not a searchable field.55