Abstract
MOST organic chemists have found in literature searches that the tracing of entries relating to particular compounds may be difficult because of inconsistencies in indexing practice. For example, although in the introduction to the Collective Index 1923–32 to British Chemical Abstracts there is given a list of substituents such as amino-, chloro-, nitro-, etc., which in the Index are placed immediately after the remainder of the name, whether or not the substituent group is preceded by di-, tri-, etc., and although the name of the individual compound commences with that substituent, previous practice had, varied. In earlier volumes “Nitrotoluene”, for example, may be found under “Toluene, nitro-”, “Nitrotoluene” or “Paranitrotoluene”, with or without appropriate cross-references. Again, in one volume, “Nitrochloronaphthalene” appears as well as “Naphthalene-, nitrochloro”, but “Tetranitro-, naphthol, α-”, is given only under “T”, whereas “Trichloroacetic acid” appears under “Acetic acid, trichlor-”. Disregarding variations in spelling, “para-nitroaniline” is indexed under “P” (Paranitroaniline), under “A” (Aniline, p-nitro-) and under “N” (Nitro- aniline, p-), and the nitrotoluidines under “Amino -toluene, nitro”, under “Nitro-toluidines”, under “Toluene, nitroamino” and under “Toluidines, -nitro”.
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BRIGHTMAN, R. Indexing Practice: Trends in German, American and British Chemical Societies' Practice. Nature 160, 615–617 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160615a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160615a0