The LPI Abstract Collection: a Copy Editor's Resource

[Karen Brattain]

I don’t have time to post these days, but I can’t refrain from putting in a good word for the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

In my work, I deal constantly with references. It’s the authors’ job to see that all references are complete and correctly formatted. But, let’s face it, that doesn’t always happen. So the references that have gone astray are sent back to the authors for correction. Or, sometimes, I can give them a quick fix. That takes research. That takes the internet.

Kudos to the Lunar and Planetary Institute for having a superlative searchable database of papers and abstracts. It is the best database I have found to date (and I’ve dealt with plenty). LPI provides useful search options, and it has an excellent track record of returning what I’m looking for. Whether I need the abstract number, the full conference title, or the correct name of an author, LPI will fetch the information I need. Thank you! I can’t tell you how many online databases have driven me crazy because I have to query with just the right terms in just the right order and… think happy thoughts. LPI does the job and, in fact, makes me wish authors cited its conference papers all the time!

The site: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/absearch

Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS (US Geological Survey). Taken by the Clementine 1 spacecraft in 1994. The bright spot above the Moon is the planet Venus.