All author names provided by the source publication are included in product records, and they are searchable. A source author name consists of a surname (last name) and up to five initials.
For cited references, only the name of the first listed author is indexed. The maximum length of a cited author name is 18 characters (up to 15 characters for the surname, followed by a space and two initials).
From 1965 through 1974, source author names were captured with a maximum of 11 characters: up to 8 characters for a surname, followed by a space or a period (if truncated), and up to two initials. If the length of the last name permitted, more than 2 initials were captured.
For example, between 1965 and 1974:
A. Johnston was captured as Johnston A
D.E. Hofstadter was captured as Hofstadt.De
A. Rodriguez was captured as Rodrigue.A
A. Rodrigues was captured as Rodrigue.A
G.E.P. Box was captured as Box GEP
Even though the surnames of cited authors and the surnames of authors of older publications may be truncated, enter the full surname of the author when searching. The search engine automatically adjusts for data variations. Refer to the help on author searching (on the Search page or Cited Reference Search page) for search rules and examples.
The only possible false hits occur in the data years 1965-1974 if the first eight characters of the last name searched are the same as the first eight characters of another author's last name.
For example, if you enter Johnstone B in the Author field on the Search page, you will find all the works by Johnstone B. However, for data years 1965-1974, you will also retrieve records of articles authored by Johnston B.
If you search for Christiansen C as a cited author, you will find all the cited references containing Christiansen C as a cited author. However, for data years 1965-1974, you will also retrieve cited references where the first eight characters of a surname are Christia and the first initial is C.
For data
years 1965-1974, while the citation index may display the full name of the first
author (up to 15 characters), the Full Record of the item will display the data
from the source record, which may have a shortened version of the name (up to
11 characters). For secondary authors, both the citation index and the Full Record
will display the same source author data (up to 11 characters).
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