These notes have been prepared to help you plan and compile the index for your book. Most authors do the work themselves but if you are in any doubt as to whether you want to prepare the index, please get in touch with us. We can arrange for a professional indexer do the work for you but we would normally charge the indexer's fees to your royalty account.
When to supply the index
You will be asked to supply index copy when you return your corrected page proofs to your project manager. They will normally tell you how many pages are available for your index. It is useful to do as much work as you can in advance of the page proofs arriving. The easiest way is to highlight the index entry headings from your copy of the manuscript, so that it is then a simple job to transfer the page numbers from the proofs.
Because of the time involved, you will not normally be asked to read index proofs.
What to supply
As with your manuscript, please supply a disk, with a hard copy printed out double-line spaced in a single column. The first page should be headed with the author's name and title of the publication. Number each page.
Follow the style and presentation of the rest of the text as far as possible, paying attention to features such as book titles (normally italic) and abbreviations and contractions (may be with or without full points (.) )
What to include
The first thing to consider is what to index. If you, as a reader, would be likely to look something up, include it in the index. If not, don’t include it. If you are not sure, put it in.
Break down every main idea into the individual details readers are likely to look for, bearing in mind the level of detail listed in the contents. For example, readers are unlikely to look in the index for the subject of an entire section or chapter, as this will already be listed.
Obvious items to index are names of people, organisations, institutions, events, places and so on.
Important rules
- Entries should be under nouns (or occasionally verbs) but not adjectives.
- Start entries with a lower case letter except for proper names.
- Keep spelling consistent with the text
- Keep wording and punctuation to a minimum
- Omit articles at the beginning of an entry but, if included, ignore them as far the alphabetical sequence is concerned.
- If a word is used in both singular and plural in the text, only use one form in the index, unless the two forms have a different meaning e.g. damage, damages.
Main Entries
- Do not use initial Capitals if not capitalised in the text.
- A main entry is followed by a comma – if it has a page reference(s) attached to it. If it has no page reference(s) attached and is followed by separate line sub-entries then no comma follows it.
- Page number references are separated by commas.
- Continuation lines ('turnover lines') are indented – see specimen.
Sub-entries
Separate line method
- This is the preferred method for sub-entries. They should be typed indented under the main entry. It is important that all sub-entries are on separate lines (see below).
- Do not use initial Capitals if not capitalised in the text.
- Indent sub-entries two spaces, sub-sub-entries four spaces. Please do not use more than two levels of sub-entry.
- Continuation lines ('turnover lines') have an extra indent – see below and specimen index.
Example:
(main entry)
(sub-entry)
(sub-entry)
(sub-entry)
symbols
Leiden method of, 247
mathematical, 279
for proof correction 66-77, 100, 102, 125
Run-on method
Limitation of space (the number of pages available for the index) is the main reason for using this method. A colon (:) is used to separate the main entry and its page reference(s) from the following sub-entries. Each sub-entry and its page reference(s) is separated by semi-colons (;). Turnover lines are indented.
Example:
(turnover line)
fission, 347; Bohr-Wheeler theory of, 351-8;
discovery of, 384-91
(turnover line)
symbols; Leiden method of, 247; mathematical,
279; for proof corrections, 66-77, 100
Cross references
- Cross references should refer to existing entries and be consistently worded.
- If the entry is purely a cross reference, use see for example
Company as shareholder, see Corporate shareholder
- If the cross reference is only part of the entry, use see also for example
Registrar of Companies
accounting reference dates, 32, 44, 56
annual returns 45, 66-72
see also Companies House
- Consider having a cross reference from a common abbreviation to its full form (or vice versa), but this will not be necessary if the book already contains a list of abbreviations.
Punctuation
- Commas (,): between entries and their page numbers; between sub-entries and their page numbers.
- Colons (:): between main entries and sub-entries when using the run-on method.
- Semi-colons (;): between sub-entries when using the run-on method.
Page numbers
- Pairs of numbers, except teens (11–19 and in each hundred), should be elided, e.g. 21–5 not 21–25; 140–6 not 140–146; but 112–19 not 112–9; 213–17 not 213–7.
- When eliding pairs use an en dash – not a hyphen - .
- Exact page number references should be given; 106–8 not 106ff.
- 'Passim' references should be avoided where possible. If 'passim' is used with a Chapter reference (Ch. 6 passim) it is more helpful to the reader if the page numbers of the chapter are given as well as the chapter number (Ch. 6 121–45) (no comma between).
- Distinguish between continuous reference to the subject (67–9) and separate mentions (67,69).
- Page number references to figures and tables can be distinguished using italic or bold type. Distinctions need to be indicated on the copy, and explained in a note at the beginning of the index.
References to notes/footnotes
- These should only be indexed if they give additional information about a topic or a person.
- Notes should be indexed by the page number on which they occur - not by the page on which they are referred to in the text.
- References to notes/footnotes should be in the form '169n' or '169fn'; if there is more than one note/footnote on that page then '169n6' or '169fn6' (no comma in between).
Figures and Tables
These should be indexed if they are likely to be consulted independently of the text.
Alphabetical order
The alphabetical order can be either
- word by word (short words precede longer words beginning with the same letter)
or
- letter by letter (treat entry as one continuous word, ignoring spaces).
Example:
Word by word
Letter by letter
New Forest
New York
Newark on Trent
Newlyn
Newport
Newark on Trent
New Forest
Newlyn
Newport
New York
‘St’ is treated as if it were spelt out and ‘Mc’ as if it were spelt ‘Mac’.
Sub-entries should be in alphabetical order of the main word in the sub-entry.
Helpful hints
- Make sure that items are grouped consistently, using cross references where necessary. For example
farming
France
England
France
Germany
farming
mining
trade
In this example, all references should be either under farming or under the country, with cross references.
- Avoid ambiguity between nouns and adjectives, for example:
wall
cavity
coverings
painting
wall cavity or cavity wall?
wall painting or painting a wall?
- If a word has more than one meaning, use a separate entry for each meaning
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