Indexing Guide

If you are preparing the index yourself

You can start compiling your index as soon as you have finished revising your manuscript post peer-review and have delivered it to the press for production. While you won’t be able to insert page numbers until the typeset proofs are available, you can begin to compile list(s) of entries, and have your index well underway by the time the definitive page numbers become available.

If you are hiring an indexer 

Indexing can begin when the typeset proof is ready. The indexer will need to have that PDF and know how many indexes you will need and the level of detail required. The press will let you know when corrections to the typeset proof will be expected to be returned; this same timeline will be expected for the index. If you plan to hire an indexer, let the production manager at the press know this early in the process so timelines can be adjusted as necessary.

Professional indexers may have dedicated indexing programs. Such programs are not necessary, and an index can be prepared with an ordinary word processor. Keep in mind that while a feature such as “Find” in Word might find all instances of a term, not all instances need to be included in an index.

The complexity of your material will determine if a single, comprehensive index is needed or if multiple indexes would be of assistance to a reader. This might include an Index of Manuscripts or an Index of Place Names, in addition to the General Index.

The entire text of a book, including substantive content in notes, prologues, prefaces, and introductions should be indexed. Not indexable: title page, dedication, epigraphs, list of figures, tables, acknowledgments, bibliographies, glossaries.

References to footnotes or endnotes (15.33–15.35)

Footnotes should be referenced using “n” (or “nn” for a sequence of notes, with an en-dash). Nonconsecutive notes on the same page are treated separately (334n14, 334n16, 334n19).

Eibingen, 123, 145n67, 177, 213nn14–16

Occasionally with endnotes, entries might appear to be out of order. In these cases it can be helpful to include the chapter number in parentheses after the note number.

cathedrals, 334n19 (chap. 8), 334n2 (chap. 9), 335n5

Although in the printed volume, your index will be presented in multiple columns, prepare your index in a single column. If you have subentries in your index, you can choose between a run-in or indented style.

Run-in style

coordinate systems: Cartesian, 14; distance within,
               154–55; time dilation and, 108–14. See
               also inertial systems; moving systems

Indent style

coordinate systems
     Cartesian, 14
     distance within, 154–55
     time dilation and, 108–14
     See also inertial systems; moving systems

Main headings are normally nouns or noun phrases—people, places, objects, ideas, and subjects. An adjective is almost never used alone as a heading, but is paired with a noun to form a noun phrase.

Correct:
courts, borough/urban
Statute of Gloucester (1278)
trade, foreign

Incorrect:
urban courts
Gloucester - statute 
foreign trade

Complex main headings (e.g., entries that have more than 5 or 6 pages or paragraph numbers) may need to be broken down into subentries and potential sub-subentries. Subentries may often have a grammatical relationship with the main heading, so the subheading and main heading combine into a single phrase. Other subheadings form divisions or units within the category of the main heading.

Example

Christ
     as Good Shepherd
     as king, rex regum, ruler
     crowned
     enthroned

You may need to repeat an entry. For example, “mills” is listed twice in the examples below—once as a subentry under “ecclesiastical revenue” and then again later as an entry in its own right:

ecclesiastical revenue, 8, 89–108, 206 
     bees, 94, 101 
     Easter Roll, 93–94, 99–100, 101 
     ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 94 
     glebe income, 89–90, 94–95 
     mills, 94, 96, 101 
mills, 56–58, 94, 96, 101, 167, 169, 173

There are two main kinds: see and see also references. See and see also are normally italicized, but if what follows is in italics, then set the words in roman to distinguish them from the cross-reference. In the following online version of the guide, see and see also are not italicized, but will be in your index. See should be used where a reader might otherwise miss the full entry, e.g., to direct from an informal term to a technical one, from a pseudonym to a real name, or for a variant spelling, synonym, abbreviation, etc. See also directs a reader to additional information elsewhere in an index, for a related but nonsynonymous concepts or terms. These references are therefore placed at the end of an entry.

Examples for 'see'

Good Friday. See adoration of the Cross 
harmony. See music 
holy oil. See anointing 
hymns/hymnody. See music

If the cross-reference is to a subheading use the format below:

lace making. See Bruges: lace making

Examples for 'see also':

Agriculture, 4, 23, 90, 98, 102–03, 106, 144, 180, 190
     output, 17, 49, 51, 53–58
     technology, 24
     See also animal husbandry; cereal cultivation
revolts, 3, 4, 197, 242, 269–81.
     See also German Peasants’ War; Kett’s rebellion; Peasants’ 
     Revolt

Generic cross-references (15.23)

Both see and see also references may include generic references; that is, they may refer to a type of heading rather than to several specific headings. The entire cross-reference is then set in italics.

biblical commentaries, 345–46, 390–401, 455–65. See also specific titles or authors 
deserted settlements. See names of individual sites

Sort alphabetically letter by letter. In the letter-by-letter system, alphabetizing continues up to the first parenthesis or comma; it then starts again after the punctuation point. Spaces and all other punctuation marks are ignored. The order of precedence is one word, word followed by parenthesis, word followed by a comma, then (ignoring spaces and other punctuation) word followed by a number, and word followed by letters. Acronyms, initialisms, and abbreviations are alphabetized as they appear (except for &, which is treated as “and” and @, which is treated like the letter a.

Benedict Biscop, 92–93
Benedict of Nursia, Saint, 225n33, 227–28
Berach, Saint, 172
Berengar II (king of Italy), 195
Bernard of Clairvaux (abbot), 6
     De consideratione, 332–33, 335, 338–39, 343–44
     on episcopal office, 338–44
Bernard of Pavia, Summa decretalium, 380
Bernard Paganelli. See Eugenius III (pope)
Bernward (bishop of Hildesheim), 9, 241, 434

An exception is an initial used in place of a given name; the initial would come before any spelled-out name beginning with the same letter.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert
Oppenheimer, James N.

Special characters that that use the Latin alphabet but originate from other languages should be alphabetized according to the table in 11.23. Some examples appear below.

Æ = ae
Ð or ð = d
Ȝ would be placed after words beginning with an e
OE = oe
Þ þ would be placed after words beginning with a T

Be aware of an individual’s personal preference, and traditional or national usages. Merriam-Webster’s is a resource for well-known figures; library catalogs will be of assistance for contemporary names. The Chicago Manual of Style 15.79–15.95 has a helpful guide for personal names of various formats.

Ben-Gurion, David
Costa, Uriel da
da Cunha, Euclides
D’Amato, Alfonse
de Gaulle, Charles
di Leonardo, Micaela
Keere, Pieter van den
La Fontaine, Jean de
Leonardo da Vinci
Medici, Lorenzo de’
Van Rensselaer, Stephen

Introductory articles, prepositions, and conjunctions are disregarded in alphabetizing subentries. It may be better to invert headings or not use such introductory words for an indented style index.

Churchill, Winston: as anti-Fascist, vs
     369; on Curzon line, 348, 379;
     and de Gaulle, 544n4

Churchill, Winston
     anti-Fascism of, 369
     Curzon line, views on, 348, 379
     de Gaulle, relations with, 544n4

Definite and indefinite articles in any language are non-sorting and are omitted when you alphabetize a list.

Nicholas Fytton, 229
Nicholas Monksfield, 219
Nicholas of Trim, 225
Nicholas le Woder, 74

Alphabetize accented letters as though they were unaccented (é = e, ü = u)

Use a line space to separate alphabetical breaks, rather than inserting headings:

artes memoriae, 380
Artrí mac Conchobar (bishop of Armagh), 173
Athelstan see Aethelstan (king of England)
Autun, council at (1077), 283n32, 292

Bamberg, 406–7
Baudry of Bourgeuil, 279n13, 287–88, 289n49
Bede, Venerable, 6, 91