Indexing The Indexer, Part 2. Identifying good practice in journal indexing

Abstract

The previous article in this series outlined the chequered history of indexing The Indexer, emphasising the apparent lack of concern for standardisation and consistency and the failure to establish a thesaurus or controlled vocabulary. Here we focus on the guidance on journal indexing available in the various indexing standards and manuals, and also in the pages of The Indexer itself, and consider the extent to which an agreed set of recommendations can be identified. A brief look at several different journal indexes suggests that users in different disciplines may have different needs, and that one size does not fit all, but who are the users of The Indexer’s indexes and have their views been taken into account?