SIA Bibliography

Searching the SIA-database

Basic use

The interrogation page of the database allows you to submit queries to the database. The results will be returned on a separate web page that can be printed or used for "copy and paste". All data fields of the database can be searched. These are: Author, Title, Class, Journal, Volume, Page_Range, Editor, Publisher_Name, Publisher_City, Year and Keywords. Just type in (part of) the element you are looking for in the input box behind the data field and click on the Search button or hit return on your keyboard. The search is not case sensitive. If you fill in several data fields then only those results are returned that satisfy all search-strings. If you want to fill in multiple words in one data field, separate them with commas. The class of publication and the keyword are best selected with the help of the selection boxes behind the input fields to prevent typo's. The class is one of: Book, chapter in a Conference proceedings, chapter in an Edited book, Journal article, Report, Thesis, Video or Working paper. Most of these types will be clear. The difference between a Report and a Working Paper is that a Report is an "on demand" publication that is often published by the author's employer, while a Working Paper is more a draft of an official publication distributed in limited quantities for rapid exchange of ideas. Two examples will clarify any obscurity:

  1. Suppose you would like to find all publications written by author B.J. Howell. Just type in "howell" in the input box behind author and leaving the other fields empty (and clicking the Search button). This already gives you almost the result you want. Since there are more authors with this family name you might want to use the persons initials so enter "howell bj" to get the exact result.
  2. Suppose you would like to find all books of which Vanclay and Lawrence are the authors and that deal with farming. Enter "vanclay, lawrence" as Author, select "B" with Class and select "farming" with Keywords. That is all.

Some remarks

  1. It is advantageous to use a modern browser. The pages were developed with Internet Explorer 5.0, but some features were added that should make the use easier under more modern browsers such as Mozilla 1.0. You need to have support for JavaScript turned on and it is recommended to allow for cookies.
  2. The numbers behind the keywords in the selection box are the number of database entries that contain that keyword.
  3. By selecting the first choice named "select a ..." in the selection lists you clear the corresponding input-box.
  4. It is possible to search for publications for a specific year (=), since a specified year (>=) or before a given year (<) by setting the selection box to the relevant sign.
  5. Mind the status bar. This is often the bottom line of your browser-window in which messages appear about for example how many items still have to be downloaded. These web pages also use this line extensively for helpful remarks for example about keywords that are related to the one you have selected.
  6. The checkboxes in between the field names and their input boxes determine which items are shown in the output result. By default all data fields except Class are returned. However if you want to cut and paste the result into your article you wouldn't like to get the keywords in the search result. Just remove the check-sign in the checkbox and the output result will not show the keywords any more.
  7. The page with search results contains a copy button. It copies the selected text or all the text to the clipboard without all the formatting information. Unfortunately this feature is only available to users of Internet Explorer.

Advanced features

Some features about searching in the database might not be immediately obvious. They are listed here.

  1. Different results are returned depending on whether the keyword has been selected with the selection box or whether the keyword is typed in by hand. The rule is that if the keyword in the input box is the same as the one in the selection box then only those results are returned that match the keyword exactly. Otherwise all entries that contain the keyword are returned. An example:
  2. If you type in the input box of Keywords "work", then all entries with keywords: work, workers, workforce, work scheduling, network analysis and social work are returned. On the other hand if you select "work" with the selection box, only the entries with work will be returned.
    The format string at the bottom of the page offers substantial control over the way in which the results are presented. By changing this string it is possible to change the order of the output fields, insert different punctuation, or apply formatting information with the help of some standard HTML-elements (tags). The default can function as an example which you can modify to suite your needs. Remember to use the names of the input fields exactly as they appear on the form, with the correct use of capitals. Some useful HTML-tags are <i></i> and <b></b> which make the content italic and bold respectively.
    An example: Author (Year). Title, in Editor, <i>Journal</i>, Volume, Page_Range, Publisher_City: Publisher_Name , makes the journal appear in an italic font. Also notice that the year is surrounded by brackets. Further we want no separator (like a period, semi-colon, comma, vertical bar, backspace or colon) between Author and Year in the search results. This is achieved by including an invisible separator, the non-breaking space (often the left Alt key with numerical 0160). It is advised to use this invisible separator if there should not be a separator between the different fields in the output result. Finally it is possible to chose one of the predefined format strings via the selection box. These are supposed to give you search results in a way that is close to what the specified journal requires.

Adding entries to the SIA-database

You do not have direct access to the SIA-bibliography database, but a form was developed with which you can propose a new entry in the database. The database manager (a person of flesh and blood) will judge your submission and if it is acceptable, it will be included. Acceptable means that it should be on a research topic relevant for Social Impact Assessment and that the entry should satisfy the syntax rules. The first constraint will in many cases be met because only members of IAIA are allowed to submit new entries to the database. You get help on the second constraint by the enrollment form since it was developed to check you entries. Ultimately however it is you who is responsible for the quality of the entries since the syntax rules are too complicated to implement them with software. That is why you find here a description of the syntax rules; any omissions in the rules are to be supplemented by your common sense. The page to add an entry to the database is very similar to the page used to search the database, so it is advised to become familiar with the search page first.

Syntax

To keep the database manageable, strict rules about syntax have to be implemented. Most of the old entries in the database do comply with these rules and it is hoped that you will stick to them with your new entries.

Author

The compulsory author-field should contain a comma-separated list of authors. The author initials come after the author family name, separated from it by a single space, as a group of unseparated capitals. An example:
Burdge RJ, Vanclay F
Always use author initials instead of full first name even if the latter is used in the publication. Prepositions such as "von" and "van de" come before the family name, without capitals. If there are more than four authors, fill in the first four and add " et al." to the end of the list. If the author(s) is/are actually more the editor(s) add "(ed)/(eds)"to the end of the list. An example:
Tester JW et al. (eds)
(What is wrong here is that not only the first but the first four authors should have been supplied, but I hope the example still clarifies the et al. (eds) syntax.)

Title

The title of the publication is also compulsory; often a subtitle comes after a colon. If the publication is an article in a Journal (or a conference proceeding or a chapter in an Edited book) then all words are lower case except the first word and proper names. On the other hand, if it is a title of a Book (or a Report or a Thesis or a Working paper or Video), than all words are capitalized except articles, prepositions and the like. If applicable information about the edition of the publication should also be included at the end in abbreviated form in brackets:
Cost Benefit Analysis (2nd edn)

Class

Can only be selected with the selection box and is compulsory. Would you like to use a new class, one that is not listed, mention this under Comment and if your argumentation is convincing enough, then the database manager might introduce it.

Journal

Use the Journal entry to supply the name of the journal in which the article is published. All words except articles, prepositions, etc. should begin with a capital. An example:
Australian Journal of Social Issues
It is also advisable to use this entry box for non-journal entries if they are part of a larger (series of) publication(s). You can think of the title of the edited book (in case you selected E with Class), or the title of a series of working papers or the title of the book containing conference proceedings.

Volume

A Volume number is something that belongs to publications in a Journal. The most elaborate form it can take is: "volume(number), month" but it is common to leave out the month (and thus the comma). Other acceptable forms of notation are: "volume(month)" or just the volume or just the month. If numbers are combined, one may encounter notation like 14(5/6) where a slash or dash is used for the combination. Volume numbers of Reports, Working Papers or Books are usually part of the Title and it is uncommon to supply them here.

Page_Range

The page range is indicated as two numbers separated by a dash. If the publication is confined to one page then only one number should be supplied. Page ranges are typically supplied for Journals, Conference Proceedings and Edited books.

Editor

The same rules as for Authors apply. So see under Author. Since the entry is by definition the editor, all entries take an (ed/eds) at their end.

Publisher_Name

The name of the Publisher should be supplied with all words starting with a capital except articles, prepositions and the like. An example:
Hobart: Advisory Council for Inter-Government Relations
If you provide a Publisher_Name then you should also provide the Publisher_City. Most publications have a publisher, Journal articles are the typical exception.

Publisher_City

Only supply the main city of the publisher. If you use this entry field you should also supply the Publisher_Name.

Year

Give the full year not only the last two digits. This entry field is also compulsory.

Keywords

Keywords can only be selected with the selection box. Try to find the relevant ones. A maximum of 180 characters can be entered here. If you would like to use a keyword that is not in the list, mention this in the Comment box. If you argumentation is convincing enough the database manager might introduce the keyword.

Comment

Use this entry box thriftily because this data has to be read by a human being. It can be used to suggest new Classes or Keywords. You can use up to 180 characters to do this.

What happens after submission

On submission of the form, your input is checked against some of these rules. If there seems to be something wrong, a warning appears on screen and in the Comment box a little note is made about it ("Unusual Journal." is added if something strange was detected in the Journal entry box). Not all warnings are valid. For example, if you would enter DeLuca DR as author, you will get a warning because a capital as third letter is not expected. Still this entry is perfectly correct and in this case you should ignore the warning. The purpose of the warnings is to help you to provide consistent entries to the database. After all warnings, you are presented with a choice if you would like to submit the entry as it is. Selecting "Yes/OK" here submits the data, "No/Cancel" will allow you to change any typo's and than submit it again. After submitting the entry, it is compared with existing entries. If an entry is found (in the ordinary database or in the list with newly submitted entries) with the same author, title, class and year, your entry is refused. The success or failure of your submission is reported by a pop-up window.

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