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Re: names, confusing

herbert_bernstein (yaya@aip.org)
Tue, 30 Jan 96 21:32:45 EST 

Here is an example from "the other databases," we certainly should
not follow:

REFERENCE   1  (bases 1 to 5234)
  AUTHORS   Arst Jr,H.N.
  TITLE     Direct Submission
  JOURNAL   Submitted (02-MAR-1990) Arst Jr H.N., Royal Postgraduate
Medical
            School, Dept of Bacteriology, Ducane Road, London W12 0NN,
UK
  REMARK    revised by [5]
REFERENCE   2  (bases 1 to 4986)
  AUTHORS   Kudla,B., Caddick,M.X., Langdon,T., Martinez-Rossi,N.M.,
            Bennett,C.F., Sibley,S., Davies,R.W. and Arst,H.N. Jr.
  TITLE     The regulatory gene areA mediating nitrogen metabolite
repression
            in Aspergillus nidulans. Mutations affecting specificity
of gene
            activation alter a loop residue of a putative zinc finger
  JOURNAL   EMBO J. 9 (5), 1355-1364 (1990)
  MEDLINE   90228331
REFERENCE   3  (bases 1 to 4986)
  AUTHORS   Caddick,M.X. and Arst,H.N. Jr.
  TITLE     Nitrogen regulation in Aspergillus: are two fingers better
than
            one?

Note that H. N. Arst Jr. is given as both Arst Jr, H.N. and Arst, H.N.
Jr., twice each within the same entry.  I am not saying that the CIF
practice is wrong.  I am saying that fuzzy descriptions of critical
search items is a poor idea, and that the CIF "practice" should be
clearly and precisely described.  This is _not_ a matter of
reinventing the wheel.  It is a matter of picking a matched set of
wheels for this information vehicle.  If nothing else can be done,
then, at the very least a proper, agreed set of examples should be
added to the mmCIf tutorials that cover the most likely sources
of confusion.

A hearty mazel tov to those who recognize the guilty database from
the fragment given.