Thesaurus Guidelines
These guidelines are used to define new field names for the U.S.
GLOBEC Georges Bank Program's thesaurus.
They are based on the
quidelines used by the JGOFS
Program. However, the two programs may not use identical field
names.
Contact the Data Management Office
if you have any questions or comments.
Guidelines and conventions
- Prior to using a field name the thesaurus must be
searched to determine if a name or alias already exists.
- Use commonly accepted abbreviations for field names where
possible.
- Do not abbreviate a field name if it can be spelled out with 10
characters or less although there are exceptions to this,
especially when commonly accepted abbreviations exist.
- A field name must not start with a numeric or special
character.
- Special characters include: = ? > < ! " ' - + / \ . , : |
^ * ( ) @ # $ % & [ ] ; { }
- No not use the special characters < > + - / \ ^ * : ! " ' : . [ ] ; { } anywhere
within a name.
- Use different names (e.g. by adding _n where n=1,2,3,....) for different instances of similar variables, e.g. O2_1 and O2_2; and
year_local and year_gmt
- The yrday_gmt and yrday_local field names use a decimal number
starting at 1. So January 1, noontime is 1.5 (not 0.5), and February 1
at noon would be 32.5 (not 31.5). The year (year_gmt or year_local)
should be included in the data set whenever yrday_gmt or yrday_local
are used.
- For field names that are constructed from a composite of terms
(ie sample depth, nominal depth) the field name is constructed
as follows: "depth_s", "depth_n". Depth is the main term
followed by a descriptor(s).
- Commonly used abbreviations: (not specified yet)
- Synonyms may be included in the thesaurus to aid people in locating the prefered field name. For example, the entry
"reactive phosphorus" would point to "phosphate" and say to
use "phosphate" instead.
- Do not abbreviate a name if it can be spelled out with 10
characters or less (with some exceptions).
- Element and chemical names will use capitals and lower case per
chemical convention (ie. Ca, CaCO3, CO2, Ni) for ease of reading,
although it is anticipated that field names can be compared without
regard to case.
Modified: March 7, 2010