author tag of RIS-datasets

Stefan Schlee writes:
 > Hello!
 > 
 > I have a question concerning the author tag of RIS-datasets.  
 > 
 > I have added the example RIS-datasets shipped with the refDB software which is contained in
"testrefs.utf8.ris" file.  This file contains one dataset of type BOOK, with an A1 author tag of name
"Smith,K.M.".  When I enter the "getrefs :A1:=Smith,K.M" command I get the result ":0 retrieved:0
failed".  I get the same result with the search expression ":AU:=Smith,K.M.".  When I use the search
expression ":AX:=Smith,K.M." the correct dataset is returned, though; the same is the case when I use the
expression ":A2:=Smith,K.M.".
 > 
 > As I understand, in the case of RIS-type CHAP the book-author/editor would be entered with the A2 tag, but
why is the book author of a RIS-type BOOK dataset "mapped" from A1 to A2?
 > 

In retrospect I have to admit that the usage of A1/A2/A3 both in RIS and in the
RefDB query language has not been the wisest of choices. RIS uses a
somewhat historical and in many ways broken system to map titles and
author names to the corresponding field tags. Feel free to peruse the
following blog entries for some background:

http://www.mhoenicka.de/system-cgi/blog/index.php?itemid=515&catid=37

http://www.mhoenicka.de/system-cgi/blog/index.php?itemid=567&catid=37

Your confusion stems from the fact that RIS uses A1/A2/A3 to denote
the "primary", "secondary", and "tertiary" author of a
publication. Primary is, in the order analytical-monographic-series,
the first "relevant" level in RIS speak. This results in the obvious
problem which you mentioned above: If a book is a monograph, the
author is tagged as A1. As soon as the book contains chapters, the book
"author" (who is an editor now) is tagged as A2.

RefDB tries to be a bit more sane here. No matter what RIS uses, RefDB
uses A1 to retrieve authors at the analytical level (journal article
author, book chapter author, abstract author), A2 to retrieve
authors/editors at the monographic level (book author/editor, thesis
author), and A3 to retrieve authors/editors at the series level (book
series editor). AX retrieves authors from any level. The mapping of
reference data to the various levels are explained in the graphs in
this article:

http://refdb.sourceforge.net/rbib.html

hope this helps
Markus

--

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
http://www.mhoenicka.de
AQ score 38

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