> On July 12, Teresa Arnold posted a question about determining the most
> significant place to look for a serial title.  There were only a few
> replies to her question on SERLIST and it doesn't seem as though the
> question was really answered.  I am very interested in hearing more.
>
> We follow the CONSER guidelines in combination with the ISSN guidelines
> since the ISSN is an important element in our database.  We have been
> considering "the title page" any of the first pages in the serial,
> excluding the table of contents page, giving more weight to the page if it
> includes the publisher or editorial information as well.  I have found the
> cover to be unreliable especially in cases where an acronym or logo
> appears; or when hyphenation is used (especially on German language
> titles); or when the serial is a government report.
>
> Of late, title changes have become more of a challenge because the
> publishers seem to be changing the look or cover of the serial (presumably
> for marketing purposes) frequently using an acronym on the cover.
> Sometimes an acronym is used throughout the serial, on other serials the
> acronym appears only on the cover, and still on others the acronym and the
> expanded title appear on the "title page".  This is difficult enough to
> deal with but sometimes the same serial that carried only the acronym may
> start carrying both the acronym and the expanded title and yet the ISSN on
> the serial remains the same.  And it is not just acronyms that are causing
> a dilemma.  I have noticed similar problems with so called "subtitles".
>
> I would appreciate hearing more on "determining the title of a piece".
>
> Sara Alice Bradley
> Editor
> BIOSIS Serial Sources
> Two Commerce Square
> 2001 Market Street, Suite 700
> Philadelphia, PA 19103-7095
> USA
>
> sabradley@mail.biosis.org
> Phone: 215-231-7505
> Fax: 215-587-4958
>
>