The response you received from WOS, at first sight, sounds like a mistake (a
semi-automatic response sent without really reading the query). Databases
have no business changing names to fit their standardisation! The only
exceptions I can imagine are with conventions for handling, say, Chinese
names, where clearly ordering etc will have to fit some standard conventions
which, I guess, on occasion, could conflict with the author's preference. Or
the handling of special characters, or dipthongs etc in different alphabets,
etc
Unless the above applies, I would go back to them saying the response
doesn't appear to have understood the situation and you are talking about
accuracy, which WOS should surely want?
Regards,
Alan
Alan Singleton
Editor
Learned Publishing
The Clock Tower
Horton Hill
HORTON
BS37 6QN
44 (0 )1454 323642
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by UKSG - Connecting the Information
Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Taylor, Sarah
Sent: 13 July 2010 10:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [lis-e-resources] Web of Science - correction to be made in a
citation
Hi,
I haven't had this problem with WoS, but it has cropped up within other
resources: we once had an author complain that his name appeared in the
wrong order in the citation; he was first author but was listed as second.
At the time, my query went to the publisher of the journal in question, but
I never received a response so I'm afraid I just put it down to experience!
Although it might not really be what your researcher wants to read, I would
be inclined to forward the reply you've had WoS. It would seem from reading
their response that there isn't very much more you can do:
too often I find that end-users think we have magical powers. Having said
that, the complaint about the incorrect citation might carry more weight if
it comes from the researcher themselves, so I'd perhaps also suggest that
she/he gets in contact too.
I'm pretty sure that's of no help whatsoever, but that would be my course of
action!
Best wishes,
Sarah
Sarah Taylor
Electronic Resources Librarian
Library
University of Bolton
Deane Road
Bolton
BL3 5AB
01204 903099
[log in to unmask]
Please note that my normal working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by UKSG - Connecting the Information
Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wilcox, Anita
Sent: 13 July 2010 09:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [lis-e-resources] Web of Science - correction to be made in a
citation
Dear Colleagues,
I had been approached by a rsearcher in the University to contact WoS in
order to correct the researcher's name in an article cited in WoS. I
contacted their support team and received this reply:
"Thomson Reuters indexes over 25,000 journals, books and proceedings from
around the world, across all disciplines in Science, Social Sciences and
Arts & Humanities. This adds approximately 1.5 million articles, 45 million
cited references, and hundreds of thousands of unique author names each
year. In order to provide a fully integrated and cross-searchable resource
that covers this wide array of materials, we have developed indexing
policies to standardize many of the metadata elements in an article. While
our first goal is to adhere as closely as possible to the text presented in
the original publications, we must occasionally superimpose indexing
policies that ensure the record will be functionally incorporated into our
products and so be of the most use to our customers.
The data you observed in the product resulted from the application of a
necessary standardization.Unfortunately, we cannot alter our data in the way
you have requested."
My query is, did anybody else out there received such a reply while trying
to correct the author's name so that it will appear on his/her reference
list on the web of knowledge and if yes, what can we do about it?
Thank you all in advance.
Regards,
Anita
E-resources Librarian,
IT Services,
Boole Library,
UCC,
Cork.
Tel: 00353214902177
lis-e-resources is a UKSG list - http://www.uksg.org/serials UKSG groups
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lis-e-resources is a UKSG list - http://www.uksg.org/serials UKSG groups
also available on Facebook and LinkedIn
lis-e-resources is a UKSG list - http://www.uksg.org/serials
UKSG groups also available on Facebook and LinkedIn
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