Introduction

    The the previous document presented the proposal of a database of scientific papers (plus an auxiliary database of scientific journals), including the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

    The structure of a database depends on the content that is to be displayed, and the search capabilities of the database. Only the content – not the structure – of the database was discussed. This document complements the previous one.

Scientific journals

    The database of scientific journals is a necessary auxiliary database for the development of a database of scientific papers. However, a historian of science might be also interested in the scientific journals themselves, and it should be possible to make searches in the periodicals database using several different criteria:

• title(s) of the periodical
• editors, and other people related to the periodical (editorial board, etc.)
• institution that sponsored the periodical
• place of publication (city, country, region) 
• language(s) of the publication
• subjects included in the periodical
• years when the periodical was published
• life span of the periodical (number of years of publication)
• place where the document can be found (library, city, country...) 

    There might be other search requirements concerning periodicals that are not included in this list. Suggestions are welcome.

    The database should include, of course, all the searchable fields described above. Besides them, other non-searchable fields should be included, providing additional information about the periodicals. Librarians do know how to describe periodicals, of course, and the Library of Congress has developed the MARC norms for bibliographical databases (including periodicals).

Library of Congress Standards – http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/
See also: The Cataloger's Reference Shelf – http://www.tlcdelivers.com/tlc/crs/

    However, librarians and historians of science sometimes have different aims in mind. It is useful, therefore, to discuss the type of information that might be more useful to historians.

1. Code of the publication
    When information about individual articles is entered in the articles database, it is easier to enter a publication code, instead of typing the complete title of the periodical for each article. The publication code may be a mnemonic code, such as PM for Philosophical Magazine, PT for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and so on. It is not necessary (or desirable) to use the international standard abbreviation for each periodical, in this case, but the standard international abbreviation may be entered in a different field.

2. Title(s) of the periodical
    Sometimes a journal changes its title one or several times during its existence. Some journals have two titles, in different languages. This field must provide the possibility of adding several different titles, and identifying the years (or other time periods) when each title was used. Also, in the case of non-european languages, it is useful to provide an English translation of the title.

3. Editors, directors, other personal names
    A periodical usually has several successive editors. It is relevant to inform the years (or other time period) when each person was responsible for the periodical. It is also relevant to provide information about the status of different persons who helped to publish the journal (for instance, categories such as director, general editor, assistant editor, editorial secretary, etc.). Also, whenever possible, the names of the persons constituting the editorial board of the periodical (in each period) should be informed.

4. Volumes, series, issues, dates
    For each periodical, it is relevant to provide a table with the dates of each volume of each series (and, whenever possible, of each issue).
    Sometimes the volume numbers of a journal starts again from volume one, producing a new series (sometimes under a new name and/or editor). Those different series should be described.
    It should be possible to find periodicals that were published in a given year. If the periodical was active from 1820 to 1876, for instance, a search for periodicals published in 1850 should find this periodical. It should be also possible to search for periodicals that began or were discontinued at a given year.
    As stated above, researchers should also be able to look for periodicals that lasted for X years.

5. Publisher
    The printer and city of publication sometimes also change in time. It is relevant to add the information about place of publication and printer for each time period.

6. Periodicity
    Some journals have a constant periodicity (twice a year, etc.), others are irregular, others have different periodicity in successive time periods. This is a relevant information that should be added, whenever possible.

7. Institution
    A journal or serial is often attached to an institution – an university, a scientific society, etc. This is an important information that should appear in the entry.

8. City, country, region of the publication
    There may be several cities associated to a single periodical, at a single time: the publisher's city, the editor's city, the institution's city. This information should be included in the database, whenever possible, and the structure of the database should allow users to find periodicals associated to specific cities, countries and regions (that is, different levels of geographical description).

9. International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
    In the case of old journals that do not exist anymore, no ISSN is ascribed to the publication. In the case of serials that do still exist (or that have existed up to recent times), it is relevant to add the ISSN information.

10. Language(s) of the publication
    This is usually a coded information, describing the language or languages of the content of the periodical.
    This field should be searchable.

11. Subjects included in the periodical
    The subject description will be very broad, in general (science, medicine, physics, chemistry...). This should be a searchable field.

12. Format details
    In the case of periodical publications, it is not usual to describe the format details of each separate volume (for instance, number of pages), but one usually describes the size of the journal (which can also change in time).

13. Places where the serial can be found
    In the case of journals and other serials, it is relevant to inform the libraries where it can be found and the volumes/issues available at each library. Libraries should be identified by codes. As stated above, it should be possible to search periodicals that can be found in libraries at chosen cities or countries.

14. Editorial policy
    Historians would like to have information about the editorial policy of each publication. This is not a standard information included in library catalogues. It will be necessary to obtain this information from the periodicals themselves. This should be a non-searchable text field.

15. Sources of information
    It is very useful to add to each record an information about the sources of information from which the record was created / updated. The usual types of sources are:

Original
    The record was created (or updated) using information collected by the direct examination of the item. This is the most reliable source of information. When this is the case, the record should not undergo any relevant correction of the entered data, unless it is possible to establish that a mistake was made.

Catalogue
    A card catalogue in a library, or an electronic library catalogue available on-line. This is not equivalent to the examination of the item, but it is usually a quite reliable information.
    There should be also an identification of the catalogue (that is, the catalogue of the Library of Congress or any other library), because a periodical can usually be found at different libraries. Codes will be used to identify the libraries.

Indirect information (secondary and tertiary sources)
    Sometimes the information will be obtained indirectly, through published tertiary sources (bibliographies, printed catalogues, etc.) or secondary sources (historiographical works). Even in the case when the original was consulted, it is useful to add information about works that refer to that periodical.
    When indirect sources of information are used, it is necessary to identify the work and to provide a specific reference (volume and page, or sometimes a reference item number). Each database will use a set of secondary/tertiary sources of information, and it will be necessary to create short codes to identify each of them. An auxiliary database will describe those secondary sources.

16. Images of title pages
    Digital images of the title pages of the serial are useful. When the serial changes its title and/or format, it is useful to add the image of the first volume of each series. However, it is not necessary to add those images.

17. Links
    Some of the journals included in the database may be found in the Internet, in electronic form (either in image format or in text format, or both). There may also exist Internet sites that provide additional information about that specific periodical. In those cases, it is useful to add links to the relevant URL's.

18. Other information
    There should also exist a text field where any complementary information might be entered. This field will not be searchable, but it is useful to add available information.

    It is helpful to use some auxiliary databases,  that can be shared by other databases:

• authorities database
• geographical database
• languages database
• subjects database
• libraries and archives database
• sources of information database

FOOTNOTES AND COMMENTS

    A historian might be interested in finding documents written in a specific language and / or published in a specific country or region. Most bibliographic databases do not contemplate the possibility of this kind of search, but it is desirable to include such a possibility.
Return to the origin of this footnote

    A historian might prefer to restrict his search to documents that can be found close to the place where he/she lives. He/she may also want to produce a survey of resources that can be found at some particular place. 
Return to the origin of this footnote