| AB = Abstract | LA = Language |
| AF = Author Affiliation | NT = Notes |
| AN = Accession Number | NU = Other Numbers |
| AU = Author | OT = Original Title |
| CA = Corporate Author | PB = Publisher |
| CF = Conference | PT = Publication Type |
| CL = Classification | PY = Publication Year |
| DE = Descriptors | SF = Subfile |
| ED = Editor | SL = Summary Language |
| IB = ISBN | SO = Source |
| ID = Identifiers | TI = Title |
| IS = ISSN | UD = Update |
MGA Field Labels and Search Tips:
In General, these are the Field Labels that appear in an MGA record. Not all Field Labels are present in all records.
AB = Abstract Field
The abstract includes key points of the source article. Most records have abstracts and when available, authors' abstracts are used, although they may be edited to CSA style. Every word is searchable; however, to find precisely what you want, use only distinctive words and phrases. In selected source material where available, abstracts in languages other than English may be added. These are appended to the end of the English abstract and follow the words Original Abstract. If a record only contains a foreign language abstract, it will be the only text appearing in the AB field.
AF = Author Affiliation
This field includes the Lead author affiliation. There is only one affiliation included and it corresponds to the First Author unless otherwise indicated.
AN = Accession Number
This is a unique number assigned to each record. In some databases it is a 7-digit number and to retrieve the record with that number all 7 digits must be entered, including any leading zeros.
AU = Author
This field contains the name(s) of the author(s) of the source document. Currently a maximum of 14 authors are listed per record, but this has not always been the case. Names are usually in the format of Author, AB. Prior to 2002, author names are in many different formats. Best results will be found by browsing the Author Index to see all possible combinations.
AV = Availability
This field contains information that may help locate the document. Often it may include other relevant information regarding the source document.
CA = Corporate Author
This is the name of the organization that has produced the original source document. This field is often present when there is no personal author field. To search this field use the distinctive parts of the name and do not search for designations such Corp, Co, Company, Ltd. Etc. Often, the city and country are also provided; in older records the following abbreviations may still be seen -- FRG for the former West Germany; GDR for the former East Germany, and USSR for the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
CF = Conference
This field provides the name of the conference and where and when it occurred; it is generally edited to CSA style, eg:
24. Annu. Benthic Ecology Meeting, Columbia, SC (USA), 7-10 Mar 1996
All these words are searchable, but for faster retrieval, ignore the common words such as "annual or "annu" or "meeting" and search for the distinctive elements only. Records retrieved include the papers presented at the particular meeting and the "master record" for the complete proceedings. If you just want the master record, use the TI= field as well, and AND the results together to produce the final result.
CL = Classification
The classification codes and descriptions are broad subject headings that are specific to various databases. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of much of the material covered, one record may have several classifications that correspond to different databases. MGA uses the UDC system to classify articles. For more information regarding the UDC classification system, see: http://www.udcc.org/about.htm. This field can be searched for either the classification number or distinctive words.
For example:
CL=Flash Floods
CL=556.166.4
Both searches retrieve the same number of results.
DE = Descriptors
MGA uses a controlled list of descriptors comprised of words and short phrases. Best results will be found by browsing the Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Terms using the Thesaurus Search option.
ED = Editor
This field contains the name(s) of the editor(s) of the source document. Names are usually in the format of Author, AB. Prior to 2002, this data was included in the SO field or in the AU field.
ER = Environmental Regime
This is unique to the ASFA: Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts database and its component subfiles. It indicates whether a source document deals with the marine, brackish or freshwater environment, or any combination of these. Marine, Brackish and Freshwater are the only values found in this field and can be easily searched. This field may be displayed in MGA records that have also been indexed by ASFA.
IB = ISBN
The ISBN is the International Standard Book Number. Its purpose is to identify uniquely a book title, an edition of a book, or a monograph produced by a specific publisher. Each ISBN number consists of ten digits separated into the following parts:
Group identifier (national, geographic, language, or other type of group)
Publisher or producer identifier
Title identifier
Check digit
ID = Identifiers
This field contains subject terms not included in the controlled vocabulary but considered by the indexer to be extremely relevant to the record. They may be single word or multiple word terms. Since identifiers are not selected from the controlled vocabulary, different synonyms for the same subject may appear in this field, as well as abbreviations and acronyms. Also, company names, trademarks, the names of legislative acts, government policies and new and up-coming methods and procedures are often assigned as identifiers. Like descriptors, these terms may not appear in the title or abstract, and therefore serve as additional ways to focus your search. Use ID= followed by the words you want to look for in parentheses.
IS = ISSN
The ISSN is the International Standard Serial Number and is a unique number identifying serial publications such as journals. The ISSN consists of two groups of four digits in Arabic numerals, except possibly for the last, check digit, which may be an X. This conformity makes it easy to search for ISSNs, which can be entered with or without the hyphen between the two groups of four characters. Records created previous to 2002 did not include ISSNs. ISSNs were added to several major titles in the backfile prior to their incorporation into IDS.
LA = Language
This indicates the language(s) of the original source document. If there is no language field in the record, it can be assumed the original text is in English. The full name of each language is searchable.
NT = Notes
This field contains miscellaneous information pertaining to the record and is meant for display purposes only, although it is searchable.
NU = Other Numbers
This lists any type of bibliographic number attached to a document that is not already in its own field. It can include report numbers, patent numbers, dissertation codes, and for older records, even ISBNs and ISSNs. Formats of such numbers have not been standardized and are not predictable, therefore this is not a good field to try and search. Its purpose is to display additional valuable information.
OT = Original Title
The non-English language title from the source document appears in this Original Title field if the title is in a Roman alphabet. Title translations appear in the Title, TI= field. No diacriticals are represented. This is a change from MGA on CD-ROM where the Title corresponding to the language of the article always appears in the TI field.
PB = Publisher
This field typically occurs when the item indexed is a book or monograph, although increasingly, more records where the source document is a journal article, have this field also. The Publisher field includes the name of the publisher and the place of publication. Previous to 2002, this data was displayable but was not searchable.
PT = Publication Type
Records are categorized by the generic type, physical form or medium of the original source document, such as "Journal article", "Conference" etc. In the CSA databases, the following terms are searchable:
Bibliography
Book
Computer file [infrequent]
Conference
Dictionary [infrequent]
Dissertation
Drawing [infrequent]
Film [infrequent]
Journal article
Law or statute
Map
Monograph
Numerical data
Patent
Report
Review
Sound recording [infrequent]
Standard
Summary [ie, source document is abstract only]
Training manual [infrequent]
Records created prior to 2002 were not indexed with a Document Type. All of these documents exist in IDS as "Journal article"
PY = Publication Year
This field contains the year in which the source document was published. Search it as a four-digit date
SF = Subfile
Many of the major CSA databases are composed of several subfiles merged into one comprehensive and cohesive database. In these major databases, a subfile name corresponds to the print product (ie, the abstracts journal) in which the record originally appeared. A few subfiles exist only as archives because the print equivalent is no longer published. In these large databases, the Subfile field can be used to limit a search to a specific discipline.
SF=Meteorological
SF=ASFA
SL = Summary Language
This field indicates the language(s) of abstracts printed with the source document. Often, if the abstract is only in English, then no summary language displays.
SO = Source
This field contains bibliographic citation information. If it is a journal article, the SO field contains the Journal Title, Abbreviated Title, Volume, Number, Page Range. Prior to 2002, the SO field does not contain Abbreviated Titles. If the record is a Monograph, the SO field will contain the Monograph title.
TI = Title
This field contains the title of the source document in English. Non-Roman titles are transliterated into English as well. Non-English titles appear in the Original Title, OT=, field.
TR = ASFA Input Center Number
This is unique to the ASFA: Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts database and its component subfiles. This field may be displayed in MGA records that have also been indexed by ASFA.
UD = Update
This field indicates the date that the record was added to IDS. The format is YYYYMM. This field is helpful to search for the latest records that have been added to the database.
UD=200308
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