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Author names in FSTA

Names of individual authors, or inventors in the case of patents, are entered in FSTA using a standard set of rules. Below is a summary of the rules and formats used.

  • Names of authors are entered in the order in which they are cited in the source material. (If no author is given, then ‘Anon.’ is used.)

  • For each author, the surname is entered first, followed by a comma, a single space, and all initials separated by full stops and single spaces.
    Example:
    'Danova, S.' or 'Tannock, G. W.'

  • In cases where no initial is given for western authors, the surname is entered, followed by a comma, a single space and a hyphen with a full stop at the end.
    Example:
    When sources cite ‘Dr. Smith’ or ‘Professor Dupont’, the records will show ‘Smith, -.’ or ‘Dupont, -.’

  • However, Asian names, which are complete as a single component, will be quoted as given.
    Example:
    ‘Ramalingam’

  • However, relationships such as III or Jr. are indicated by placing them after the final initial, separated from that initial by a comma and a single space.
    Example:
    ‘Farrell, H. M., Jr.’

  • Hyphens between initials are omitted.
    Example:
    Jean-Paul Sartre becomes Sartre, J. P., not Sartre, J.-P.

  • Hyphenated surnames remain as given in the source material. For the sake of consistency, hyphens are inserted in double-barrelled Spanish surnames and in two- or three-component Arabic surnames (but in no other types of surnames), when they have been omitted in the source material.
    Examples:

    ‘Garcia-Lopez, J.’
    ‘Abd-El-Salam, M.’

  • Other non-hyphenated multicomponent names, such as Indian and Chinese names, are left in full.
    Examples:

    ‘Gopal Singh’
    ‘Ha Ok Lee’
    ‘San-Hong Chen’

  • Names given in Cyrillic and Greek characters are transliterated into Roman letters.

  • Surnames beginning with an apostrophized letter, e.g. d’, l’, D’, are entered in the form given in the source material. The alternative form of the name, i.e. with the apostrophized letter inverted if it is not in the original and vice versa, is recorded in the Additional Authors (AA) field.
    Examples:

    • D’Aubert, S. would be recorded in the Author field if that was the form given in the source material, and

    • Aubert, S. d’ in the Additional Authors field (lower case used for the apostrophized letter).

  • In this way, both forms will be recorded in FSTA.

    This rule does not apply, however, to names beginning with O’.
    Example:

    O’Farrelly, C. does not have a double author entry.

  • In cases where surnames incorporate separate articles, such as van, du or della, the name is inverted as usual and the separate article is placed after the initials.
    Example:
    ‘A. van der Hoeff’ becomes ‘Hoeff, A. van der’

  • Lower case is always used for the article.

  • If the article is actually an integral part of the surname, it is not separated from the other component.
    Example:
    ‘Michel DuBray’ in the source material is recorded as ‘DuBray, M.’ in the Author field


See also