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IETF RFC 1357
A Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records
Last modified on Friday, July 10th, 1992
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Network Working Group D. Cohen
Request For Comments: 1357 Editor
ISI
July 1992
A Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records
 Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community.
It does not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
This memo defines a format for E-mailing bibliographic records of
technical reports. It is intended to accelerate the dissemination
of information about new Computer Science Technical Reports (CS-TR).
INTRODUCTION
------------
Many Computer Science R&D organizations routinely announce new
technical reports by mailing (via the postal services) the
bibliographic records of these reports.
These mailings have non-trivial cost and delay. In addition, their
recipients cannot conveniently file them, electronically, for later
retrieval and searches.
Therefore, it is suggested that the publishing organizations would
e-mail these announcements by using the following format.
Organizations may automate to any degree (or not at all) both the
creation of these records (about their own publications) and the
handling of the records received from other organizations.
This format is designed to be simple, for people and for machines,
to be easy to read ("human readable") and create without any special
programs, and to be compatible with E-mail.
This format defines how bibliographic records are to be transmitted.
It does not define what to do with them when received.
This format is a "tagged" format with self-explaining alphabetic
tags. It should be possible to prepare and to read bibliographic
records using any text editor, without any special programs.
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 1 
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
This format was developed with considerable help and involvement of
Computer Science and Library personnel from several organizations,
including CMU, CNRI, Cornell, ISI, Meridian, MIT, Stanford, and UC.
Key contributions were provided by Jerry Saltzer of MIT, and Larry
Lannom of Meridian. The initial draft was prepared by Danny Cohen
and Larry Miller of ISI.
The use of this format is encouraged. There are no limitations on
its use.
THE INFORMATION FIELDS
----------------------
The various fields should follow the format described below.
<M> means Mandatory; a record without it is invalid.
<O> means Optional.
The tags (aka Field-IDs) are shown in upper case.
<M> BIB-VERSION of this bibliographic records format
<M> ID
<M> ENTRY date
<O> ORGANIZATION
<O> TITLE
<O> TYPE
<O> REVISION
<O> AUTHOR
<O> CORP-AUTHOR
<O> CONTACT for the author(s)
<O> DATE of publication
<O> PAGES count
<O> COPYRIGHT, permissions and disclaimers
<O> RETRIEVAL information
<O> CR-CATEGORY
<O> PERIOD
<O> SERIES
<O> FUNDING organization(s)
<O> MONITORING organization(s)
<O> CONTRACT number(s)
<O> GRANT number(s)
<O> LANGUAGE name
<O> NOTES
<O> ABSTRACT
<M> END
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 2
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
META FORMAT
-----------
* Keep It Simple.
* One bibliographic record for each publication, where a
"publication" is whatever the publishing institution defines
as such.
* A record contains several fields.
* Each field starts with its tag (aka the field-ID) which is a
reserved identifier (containing no separators) at the beginning
of a new line with or without spaces before it), followed by two
colons ("::"), followed by the field data.
* Continuation lines: Lines are limited to 79 characters. When
needed, fields may continue over several lines, with an implied
space in between. In order to simplify the use no special marking
is used to indicate continuation line. Hence, fields are
terminated by a line that starts (apart from white space) with
a word followed by two colons. Except for the "END::" that is
terminated by the end of line.) For improved human readability
it is suggested to start continuation lines with some spaces.
* Several fields are mandatory and must appear in the record. All
fields (unless specifically not permitted to) may be in any order
and may be repeated as needed (e.g., the AUTHOR field). The order
of the repeated fields is always preserved.
* Only printable ASCII characters may be used. Hence, the
permissible characters are ASCII codes 040 (Space) through 176(~)
and line breaks which are \012 (LF) or \012\015 (CRLF). Empty
lines indicate paragraph break. \009 (tab) must be replaced by
spaces before submission. This specifically forbids tabs, null
characters, DEL, backspaces, etc. (i.e., if used, the record is
invalid.)
Throughout this document the word "publisher" means the publishing
organization of a report (e.g., a university or a department
thereof), not necessarily an organization authorized to issue ISBN
numbers.
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 3
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
EXAMPLE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
BIB-VERSION:: CS-TR-v2.0
ID:: OUKS//CS-TR-91-123
ENTRY:: January 15, 1992
ORGANIZATION:: Oceanview University, Kansas, Computer Science
TITLE:: The Computerization of Oceanview with High
Speed Fiber Optics Communication
TYPE:: Technical Report
REVISION:: 2, FTP retrieval information added
AUTHOR:: Finnegan, James A.
CONTACT:: Prof. J. A. Finnegan, CS Dept, Oceanview Univ, Oceanview,
KS 54321 Tel: 913-456-7890 <Finnegan@cs.ouks.edu>
AUTHOR:: Pooh, Winnie The
CONTACT:: 100 Aker Wood
DATE:: December 1991
PAGES:: 48
COPYRIGHT:: Copyright for the report (c) 1991, by J. A. Finnegan.
All rights reserved. Permission is granted for any
academic use of the report.
RETRIEVAL:: For full text with color pictures send a self-addressed
stamped envelope to Prof. J. A. Finnegan, CS Dept,
Oceanview University, Oceanview, KS 54321.
RETRIEVAL:: ASCII available via FTP from JUPITER.CS.OUKS.EDU with the
pathname PUBS/computerization.txt. Login with FTP,
username ANONYMOUS and password GUEST.
File size: 123,456 characters
CR-CATEGORY:: D.0
CR-CATEGORY:: C.2.2 Computer Sys Org, Communication nets, Net Protocols
SERIES:: Communication
FUNDING:: FAS
CONTRACT:: FAS-91-C-1234
MONITORING:: FNBO
LANGUAGE:: English
NOTES:: This report is the full version of the paper with the
same title in IEEE Trans ASSP Dec 1976
Abstract::
Many alchemists in the country work on important fusion problems.
All of them cooperate and interact with each other through the
scientific literature. This scientific communication methodology
has many advantages. Timeliness is not one of them.
END:: OUKS//CS-TR-91-123
---------------------------- End of Example ---------------------------
For reference, the above example has about 1,750 characters (220
words) including about 250 characters (40 words) in the abstract.
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 4
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
THE ACTUAL FORMAT
-----------------
In the following double-quotes indicate complete strings. They are
included only for grouping and are not expected to be used in the
actual records.
The term "Open Ended Format" in the following means arbitrary text.
The BIB-VERSION, ID, ENTRY, and END field must appear as the first,
second, third, and last fields, and may not be repeated in the
record. All other fields may be repeated as needed.
BIB-VERSION (M) -- This is the first field of any record. It is a
mandatory field. It identifies the version of the format used
to create this bibliographic record.
BIB-VERSIONs that start with the letter X (case independent)
are considered experimental. Bib-records sent with such a
BIB-VERSION should NOT be incorporated in the permanent database
of the recipient.
Using this version of this format, this field is always:
Format: BIB-VERSION:: CS-TR-v2.0
ID (M) -- This is the second field of any record. It is also a
mandatory field. Its format is "ID:: XXX//YYY", where XXX is
the publisher-ID (the controlled symbol of the publisher)
and YYY is the ID (e.g., report number) of the publication as
assigned by the publisher. This ID is typically printed on
the cover, and may contain slashes.
The organization symbols "DUMMY" and "TEST" (case independent)
and any organization symbol starting with <X> (case
independent) are reserved for test records that should NOT
be incorporated in the permanent database of the recipients.
Format: ID:: <publisher-ID>//<free-text>
Example: ID:: OUKS//CS-TR-91-123
**** See the note at the end regarding the ****
**** controlled symbols of the publishers *****
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 5
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
ENTRY (M) -- This is a mandatory field. It is the date of creating this
bibliographic record.
The format for ENTRY date is "Month Day, Year". The month must
be alphabetic (spelled out). The "Day" is a 1- or 2-digit
number. The "Year" is a 4-digit number.
Format: ENTRY:: <date>
Example: ENTRY:: January 15, 1992
ORGANIZATION (O) -- It is the full name spelled out (no acronyms,
please) of the publishing organization. The use of this name
is controlled together with the controlled symbol of the
publisher (as discussed above for the ID field).
Avoid acronyms because there are many common acronyms, such as
ISI and USC. Please provide it in ascending order, such as
"X University, Y Department" (not "Y Department, X University").
Format: ORGANIZATION:: <free-text>
Example: ORGANIZATION:: Stanford University, Computer Science
TITLE (O) -- This is the title of the work as assigned by the author.
This field should include the complete title with all the
subtitles, if any.
If the publication has no title (e.g., in withdrawal), a blank
TITLE field should be included.
Format: TITLE:: <free-text>
Example: TITLE:: The Computerization of Oceanview with High
Speed Fiber Optics Communication
TYPE (O) -- Indicates the type of publication (summary, final project
report, etc.) as assigned by the issuing organization.
Format: TYPE:: <free-text>
Example: TYPE:: Technical Report
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 6
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
REVISION (O) -- Indicates that the current bibliographic record is
a revision of a previously issued record and is intended to
replace it. Revision information consists of an integer
followed by a comma, and by text in an open ended format.
The revised bibliographic record should contain a complete
record for the publication, not just a list of changes to
the old record. The default assumption is that a record is
not a revision (i.e., specify only if it is), with that integer
being zero.
The first token in this field is an integer revision number.
Higher numbers indicate later revisions. Use the text to
describe the revision. Reasons to send out a revised record
include an error in the original, change in the retrieval
information, or withdrawal (see below).
Format: REVISION:: N, <free-text>
Example: REVISION:: 2, FTP retrieval information added
WITHDRAWING: A withdrawal of a record is a special case of revising
it. Hence, the standard way to withdraw records is by sending a
revision record with (at least) all the mandatory fields, and an
optional explanation in the NOTES field.
It is OK on withdrawal to eliminate the title, by not providing
the TITLE field it or by providing it with no text (blank).
Example for withdrawing a bibliographic record::
BIB-VERSION:: CS-TR-v2.0
ID:: OUKS//CS-TR-91-123
ENTRY:: January 25, 1992
ORGANIZATION:: Oceanview University, Kansas, Computer Science
TITLE::
REVISION:: 4, withdrawn
NOTES:: Withdrawn, found to be irrelevant
END:: OUKS//CS-TR-91-123
This new record will replace all the fields of the previous
record for that publication. In this example it will eliminate
the title, the retrieval information provided earlier, and not
mention the authors.
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 7
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
AUTHOR (O) -- Personal names only. Normal last name first inversion.
Editors should be listed here as well, identified with the
usual "(ed.)" as shown below in the last example.
If the report was not authored by a person (e.g., it was
authored by a committee or a panel) use CORP-AUTHOR (see below)
instead of AUTHOR.
Multiple authors are entered by using multiple lines, each in
the form of "AUTHOR:: <free-text>".
The system preserves the order of the authors.
Format: AUTHOR:: <free-text>
Example: AUTHOR:: Finnegan, James A.
AUTHOR:: Pooh, Winnie The
AUTHOR:: Lastname, Firstname (ed.)
CORP-AUTHOR (O) -- The corporate author (e.g., a committee or a
panel) that authored the report, which may be different from
the ORGANIZATION issuing the report.
In entering the corporate name please omit initial "the" or "a".
If it is really part of the name, please invert it.
Format: CORP-AUTHOR:: <free-text>
Example: CORP-AUTHOR:: Committee on long-range computing
CONTACT (O) -- The contact for the author(s).
Open-ended, most likely E-mail and postal addresses.
You may provide a CONTACT field for each author separately,
or for all the AUTHOR fields.
E-mail addresses should always be in "pointy brackets"
(as in the example below).
Format: CONTACT:: <free-text>
Example: CONTACT:: Prof. J. A. Finnegan, CS Dept, Oceanview
Univ., Oceanview, Kansas, 54321
Tel: 913-456-7890 <Finnegan@cs.ouks.edu>
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 8
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
DATE (O) -- The publication date. The formats are "Month Year" and
"Month Day, Year". The month must be alphabetic (spelled out).
The "Day" is a 1- or 2-digit number. The "Year" is a 4-digit
number.
Format: DATE:: <date>
Example: DATE:: January 1992
Example: DATE:: January 15, 1992
PAGES (O) -- Total number of pages, without being too picky about it.
Final numbered page is actually preferred, if it is a reasonable
approximation to the total number of pages.
Format: PAGES:: <number>
Example: PAGES:: 48
COPYRIGHT (O) -- Copyright, permissions and disclaimers. Open
ended format. The COPYRIGHT field applies to the cited
report, rather than to the current bibliographic record.
On advice of counsel it is suggested that you seek the
advice of yours.
Format: COPYRIGHT:: <free-text>
Example: COPYRIGHT:: Copyright for the report (c) 1991,
by J. A. Finnegan. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted for any academic
use of the report.
RETRIEVAL INFORMATION (O) -- Open-ended format describing how to get
a copy of the full text. It may include anything from FTP
instructions to a variety of files (e.g., ASCII, TeX, and
PostScript) to "Send $4.50 to ..." or "Send E-mail to <X@Y>".
It is suggested to repeat this field for each retrieval option
(e.g., one line for the FTP instructions to the ASCII version,
and another for the PostScript version). When offering files
like TeX all the related files (e.g., "\input mystyle") should
be included. Please provide file sizes (in characters).
Means are not defined yet for providing the information needed
for automatic retrieval of files (such as via FTP). They are
expected to be defined in the near future.
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 9
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
No limitations are placed on the dissemination of the
bibliographic records. If there are limitations on the
dissemination of the publication, it should be protected by
some means such as passwords. This format does not address
this protection.
Format: RETRIEVAL:: <free-text>
Example: RETRIEVAL:: For full text with color pictures send
a self-addressed stamped envelope to
Prof. J. A. Finnegan, CS Dept,
Oceanview University, Oceanview, KS 54321.
RETRIEVAL:: ASCII available via FTP from
JUPITER.CS.OUKS.EDU with the pathname
PUBS/computerization.txt.
Login with FTP, username ANONYMOUS and
password GUEST.
File size: 123,456 characters
CR-CATEGORY (O) -- Specify the CR-category. The CR-category (the
Computer Reviews Category) index (e.g., "B.3") should always be
included, optionally followed by the name of that category. If
the name is specified it should be fully specified with parent
levels as needed to clarify it, as in the second example below.
Use multiple lines for multiple categories.
The January 1992 issue of CR has the full list of these
categories, with a detailed discussion of the CR Classification
System, and a full index. Typically the full index appears in
every January issue, and the top two levels in every issue.
Format: CR-CATEGORY:: <free-text>
Example: CR-CATEGORY:: D.1
Example: CR-CATEGORY:: B.3 Hardware, Memory Structures
PERIOD (O) -- Time period covered (date range). Applicable primarily to
progress reports, etc. Any format is acceptable, as long as the
two dates are separated with " to " (the word "to" surrounded by
spaces) and each date is in the format allowed for dates, as
described above for the date field.
Format: PERIOD:: <date> to <date>
Example: PERIOD:: January 1990 to March 1990
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 10
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
SERIES (O) -- Series title, including volume number within series.
Open-ended format, with producing institution strongly
encouraged to be internally consistent.
Format: SERIES:: <free-text>
Example: SERIES:: Communication
FUNDING (O) -- The name(s) of the funding organization(s).
Format: FUNDING:: <free-text>
Example: FUNDING:: DARPA
MONITORING (O) -- The name(s) of the monitoring organization(s).
Format: MONITORING:: <free-text>
Example: MONITORING:: ONR
CONTRACT (O) -- The contract number(s).
Format: CONTRACT:: <free-text>
Example: CONTRACT:: MMA-90-23-456
GRANT (O) -- The grant number(s).
Format: CONTRACT:: <free-text>
Example: GRANT:: NASA-91-2345
LANGUAGE (O) -- The language in which the report is written.
Please use the full English name of that language.
Please include the Abstract in English, if possible.
If the language is not specified, English is assumed.
Format: LANGUAGE:: <free-text>
Example: LANGUAGE:: English
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 11
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
NOTES (O) -- Miscellaneous free text.
Format: NOTES:: <free-text>
Example: NOTES:: This report is the full version of the paper
with the same title in IEEE Trans ASSP Dec
1976
Abstract (O) -- Highly recommended, but not mandatory. Even though no
limit is defined for its length, it is suggested not to expect
applications to be able to handle more than 10,000 characters.
The ABSTRACT is expected to be used for subject searching since
titles are not enough. Even if the report is not in English, an
English ABSTRACT is preferable. If no formal abstract appears
on document, the producers of the bibliographic records are
encouraged to use pieces of the introduction, first paragraph,
etc.
Format: ABSTRACT:: xxxx .............. xxxxxxxx
xxxx .............. xxxxxxxx
xxxx .............. xxxxxxxx
xxxx .............. xxxxxxxx
END (M) -- This is a mandatory field. It must be the last entry of a
record, identifying the record that it ends, by stating the same
ID that was used at the beginning of the records, in its "ID::".
Format: END:: XXX
Example: END:: OUKS//CS-TR-91-123
>>>>>>> [END OF FORMAT DEFINITION] <<<<<<<
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 12
RFC 1357 Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records July 1992
A Note Regarding the Controlled Symbols of the Publishers
In order to avoid conflicts among the symbols of the publishing
organizations (the XXX part of the "ID:: XXX//YYY") it is suggested
that the various organizations that publish reports (such as
universities, departments, and laboratories) register their
<publisher-ID> symbols and names, in a way similar to the
registration of other key parameters and names in the Internet.
Danny Cohen <Cohen@ISI.EDU> of ISI, has agreed to coordinate this
registration for the publishers of Computer Science technical
reports. It is suggested that before using this format the
publishing organizations would coordinate with him (by e-mail) their
symbols and the names of their organizations. [Discussions are in
progress to have these publisher-IDs registered with the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and listed in future editions of
the Assigned Numbers document.]
In order to help automated handling of the received bibliographic
records, it is expected that the producers of bibliographic records
will always use the same name, exactly, in the ORGANIZATION field.
Security Considerations
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
Author's Address
Danny Cohen
USC - Information Sciences Institute
4676 Admiralty Way
Marina del Rey, California 90292-6695
Phone: 310-822-1511
Fax: 310-823-6714
EMail: Cohen@ISI.EDU
Cohen (ed.) PAGE 13
A Format for E-mailing Bibliographic Records
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 25021 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Friday, July 10th, 1992
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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