The FictionMags Index Family
Index Structure

Each index in the FictionMags Index Family is (potentially) divided into the following main sections:

Note that the Secondary Indexes are included for compatibility with previous versions of the index and provide individual indexes to a subset of the primary indexes as follows:

• Item by Date is much the same as the by Name index but links directly to the Items by Date listings which are usually accesed by the (chron) links in the by Name index.
• Books by Author includes only those authors who have items in the index that were published as standalone items and links directly to the Books by Author listings which are usually accesed by the (books) links in the by Name index.
• Books by Titles includes only those items in the index that were published as standalone items and also links to the Books by Author listings; it is a subset of the by Title index.

As these indexes are only provided for upwards compatibility they may be removed in a future release, unless I hear good reasons to keep them. In an attempt to minimise confusion they have all been coloured a pale blue to distinguish them from the primary indexes. Similarly the appendices have been coloured a pale yellow.

Introduction

This page discusses the contents of this particular index.

by Name

An alphabetical listing of each author's works. The basic layout of each entry in the bottom level of the index is:

• []Name (dates) {pseudonym information} (about) (books) (chron)
• * Title · (Type) · Source Publication
  • Reprint Publication

where:

• The leading [] represents a persistent link to the current entry.
• Name is the “standard” form of the individual's name. An individual's name may be printed in different forms in different magazine issues (e.g. full name, some initials, nickname, etc.). To allow for this a standard form of the individual's name is used in the Name index while the original form of the name is retained in the Issue index.
• Dates represent, where possible, the birth and, if appropriate, death dates for the individual. Where these are not known, an indication of the dates when they are known to be active is given in the form “fl. xxxx-yyyy”; this will help distinguish between multiple individuals with the same name.
• Pseudonym information identifies any pseudonyms this individual has used in the material covered by the index or, if the current individual is a pseudonym, identifies the individual behind the name and any other relevant pseudonyms they have used, with hyperlinks to the appropriate parts of the Name index for all such names.
• About (where present) is a link to information about the individual. This may be a link to the Biographical Notes appendix or a link to an external page such as the individual's personal website or entry in Wikipedia. (Where external links are concerned we will obviously try to keep them up-to-date but the fluid nature of the Internet means that some will inevitably be broken from time to time.)
• Books (where present) provides a hyperlink to the list of books by (and/or edited by) this individual. Note that books are currently only indexed in the main Fictionmags Index and not in any of the genre-specific indexes.
• Chron (where present) provides a hyperlink to the list of items by this individual in date order.

The name is entry is followed by a list of items by (and/or edited by or similar) this individual, in title order where, for each entry:

• The underlined asterisk before each title (where present) provides a link to that title in the Title index.
• Title identifies the title of the item being indexed. This is usually exactly as it appears in the book or magazine concerned but is standardised for several types of artwork as discussed below and could, in a small number of cases, be the “standard” form of the title for the same reason as discussed for names above. Titles are listed in alphabetical order, ignoring leading articles and punctuation, and with any numbers translated to their word equivalents.
  • If the item was published as a standalone work then the title is hyperlinked to the equivalent entry in the Book Contents List.
  • To make the listings more meaningful at this level, some types of artwork that may have a descriptive title are standardised as follows (although still listed as described in the Issue or Book Contents index:
    • cartoons are listed as "[cartoon(s)]";
    • cover art is listed as "[front cover]";
    • frontispieces are listed as "[frontispiece]"
    • maps are listed as "[maps(s)]"
    • photographs are listed as "[photography]"
• Type is an abbreviation for the type of entry: short story, article, serial, etc.–for a full list see the Abbreviations section .
  • If the item was published as a standalone work then this also contains the publisher name and the year the item was published to make it possible to distinguish between multiple books with the same title but different contents.
• Source Publication: if the item was first published as part of a larger item, this identifies where the title was first published (or, at least, the earliest publication we have been able to trace) and is hyperlinked to the associated entry in the Issue or Book Contents index when appropriate. Note that if there are multiple appearances within a given magazine that have the same title (e.g. a column or a serial) then all affected issues are listed in a concatenated form on the same line.
• Reprint Publication lists any relevant reprint appearances of the current item, hyperlinked to the associated entry in the Issue or Book Contents index as appropriate.

Note that the listing may be divided into multiple sections, as follows:

• The first section lists entries known to be by the author concerned and may be followed by one or more of the following:
  • a section headed “, ed.” which contains any entries (typically magazines) that have been edited by the author concerned;
  • a section headed “, trans.” which contains any entries that have been translated by the author concerned;
  • a section headed “, adapt.” which contains any entries that have been adapted by the author concerned;
  • a section headed “, as told to” which contains any entries that have been told to the author concerned by another person;
  • a section headed “, as told to” which contains any entries that have been told by the author concerned to another person;
  • a section headed “, music.” which contains any entries for which the author concerned provided the music;
  • a section headed “, review.” which contains any reviews of items by the author concerned;
  • a section headed “, after.” which contains any artwork by by a different artist in the style of the individual concerned;
  • a section headed “, [?]” which contains any entries that are thought to be by the author concerned, but for which the attribution is uncertain–this is typically used when the entry original appeared under a house pseudonym;
  • a section headed “, [ref.]” which contains any entries (such as interviews) that refer to the author concerned.

Note also that stories which were published under a group title are typically listed both under the group title and separately under their own title.

Books by Author

An alphabetical listing of each author's works that were published as standalone items. The basic layout of each entry is:

Author (dates); (about) (items) (chron)

• * Title (publication details) (Need Contents)

where:

• The underlined asterisk before each title provides a link to that title in the Title index.
• Title identifies the title of the item being indexed and is hyperlinked to the equivalent entry in the Book Contents List.
• Publication Details lists, as far as is known, the publisher name, publication date, price, pagecount and cover artist for the book. If the publisher is one of those listed in the by Series/Imprint Index it is displayed in italics, hyperlinked to the appropriate entry in the index.
• Need Contents, if specified, indicates that the book is a collection or anthology for which contents information is needed. These are also listed in the Books with Missing Contents list.

As with the by Name index there will be separate sections for books by a particular author and those edited by the same person.

Note that if a book is by, or edited by, multiple authors, the book contents are only listed for the first person listed in the credits for the book. In this case each secondary author has an entry of the form:

• Title (with xxxx) --- see under xxxx

were the second 'xxxx' is hyperlinked to the book contents listing for the primary author.

Book Contents List

An expanded alphabetical listing of each author's works that were published as standalone items. The basic layout of each entry is:

Book Title ed./by Book Author(s) (publication details)

Notes

• Page Number · Item Title · Item Author · (Type) · Source Publication

where:

• Book Title, Book Author and Publication Details are as in the Books by Author list
• Notes includes any notes associated with the book, typically including a summary of the book contents and/or any limitations on the numbers of copies printed.
• Page Number, where known, gives the starting page number of each item in the book, if the book contains separate items
• Item Title, Item Author, Type and Source Publication are as in the by Name index. Note that, if the item was original in this book, the Source Publication field is omitted; if it is believed to be reprinted from an unknown source the Source Publication is listed as (r)

Items by Date

This is similar to the by Name index, but lists each author's work in publication date order, omitting reprints.

by Title

An alphabetical listing of all items, omitting reprints, with links to the by Name index or Books by Author list as appropriate. Note that:

• Titles that start with "Dr. " or "Dr " are sorted as if they were spelled out as "Doctor ";
• Titles that start with "Mr. " or "Mr " are sorted as if they were spelled out as "Mister ";
• Titles that start with "St. " are sorted as if they were spelled out as "Saint ";
• Titles that start with "No. " or # followed by a digit are sorted as if they were spelled out as "Number " and an attempt is made to sort all such titles into numeric order rather than collating sequence.

by Series/Imprint

The first part of this index is a listing by series name of any entries which are known to form part of a series, hyperlinked to the associated entries in the by Name, Books by Author, Title and Magazine Issue lists. By default entries for each series are grouped by author, and then listed in chronological order of the original publication date. In selected cases this ordering may be supplemented, or replaced (as appropriate), by two alternative orderings:

• by Date: all entries are listed in chronological order of publication date, irrespective of the name of the author concerned
• by Title: all entries are listed in alphabetical order of the title, irrespective of the name of the author concerned or the date originally published

Note that when a series relates to a character who is identified by name and also has a nickname (e.g. “Kent Allard (The Shadow)”) then the series is listed under the character name with a cross-reference from the nickname.

The second part of the index is very similar but lists any books that form part of a specific imprint, which may be either:

• All books published by a particular publisher (e.g. Ash-Tree Press), or
• All books in a specific series from a given publisher (e.g. British Library Crime Classics)

Note that the former type is only used for a small number of publishers where an attempt has been made in the index to list all books from that publisher, or all books in a given period.

In each case the series or imprint name is preceded by a leading [] which represents a persistent link to the current entry.

by Magazine Issue

A listing of the contents of each magazine issue, in alphabetical order of magazine title, with links to the by Name index and by Series/Imprint index (where appropriate) for each entry. Where a magazine appeared under multiple titles, all issues are listed together under the most common title, with cross-reference links from all other magazine names used. Note that, as discussed above, some author names and/or entry titles may appear in a “standardised” form in the other indexes, but will always be listed in this index exactly as specified in the magazine (as far as is known). Where the same item is listed in different ways within the magazine issue, preference is given to the name/title that appeared at the head of the entry concerned with a note of any significant variations elsewhere.

Each issue is displayed with a [] which represents a persistent link to the current issue.

Where possible, the entry in the issue index is either accompanied by a thumbnail cover scan of the issue concerned, hyperlinked (where possible) to a larger version of the same image (in the main Fictionmags Index) or accompanied directly by the larger image of the cover scan (in the specialist indexes). In addition, if a copy of the magazine text is known to exist online, a "Full Text" link will be displayed on the first line for the issue linking to this text.

Biographical Notes

This contains brief biographical notes for a number of authors in the index.

Magazine Issues with Full-Text Links

This contains a listing of all magazine issues for which copies are believed to exist online, in alphabetical order of magazine title, with links to the online copies. Note that in some cases (such as Hathi Trust) these copies may only be accessible from the United States.

Magazine Issues with Missing Contents

This is just a link to the genre-specific pages of "missing issues" in the FictionMags Index Portal or, for the FictionMags Index itself, to the list of missing issues for the "General Fiction Magazines" group.

Books with Missing Contents

This is just a list, in title order, of all collections or anthologies in the index for which contents information is needed..

Statistics

This is just a single page containing some (possibly) interesting statistics about the index, such as number of issues indexed, number of authors represented, and so on.

Newly Added/Improved Magazine Issues/Books

These just contain a list of magazines issues and, for the main Fictionmags Index, books, that have been added, or significantly improved, since the last time the index was published.

Titles Not Included

Where appropriate this is a list of titles that a user might expect to see in a given index but which have been excluded for some reason.

Introduction

This is just a link to the first page of the user documentation.

Index Structure

This is just a link to this page.

Abbreviations

This is just a link to the part of this documentation describing item types and other abbreviations.

How to Add to the Index

This is just a link to the part of this documentation describing how you can contribute to this (and other) indexes.

Frequently Asked Questions

This is just a link to the part of this documentation which addresses some questions we are frequently asked.

Background Notes

This is just a link to the part of this documentation containing a number of detailed notes about the way in which the indexes have been constructed.