What Belongs in a Book Index Before the First Entry Is Written?

You finish a book index, then discover that the appendix was never included—or that every caption in the list of figures contributed a locator. Both problems begin before the first entry: the indexing brief did not say which parts of the book were in scope.

Agree on the material to examine before choosing headings. A page’s structural role tells you what kind of page it is. Your scope policy tells you which information on it should be considered for this particular index. Those decisions belong together, but they are not interchangeable.

Make three decisions separately

• Structure: Is this a chapter page, note section, appendix, bibliography, title page or navigation list?
• Scope: Should all, some or none of its content be considered for the requested index?
• Locator: What page label will a reader use to find included material?

Start with the publisher’s instructions and the intended readers. The University of Michigan Press’s Author’s Guide says that book-specific indexing instructions address length and scope. Its guidance also distinguishes substantive notes from bibliographical notes and allows illustrative material to be indexed under a specified convention. These are house choices to check, not rules to silently impose on every book.

Write separate policies if the book needs a subject index, an author index and an index of cited passages. A citation-only footnote may be outside the subject index’s scope while remaining relevant to a dedicated citation index.

Walk through the whole book

Use the following as questions for the brief, not an automatic exclusion list:

• Notes: Include substantive explanations, qualifications and arguments where the brief calls for them. Decide separately how citation-only notes are treated in each index. Check endnote sections as well as footnotes.
• Figures and tables: Decide whether readers need access to visual evidence, comparisons or data. If included, inspect the figure or table itself; text extraction alone may miss its meaning. Agree on locator formatting.
• Captions: Assess information supplied by the caption, including facts absent from the body. Do not assume that a decision about images automatically settles a decision about caption text.
• Appendices: Look for documents, methods, case studies and data a reader may need to retrieve. Record which appendices are included and which are excluded.
• Bibliography: Distinguish a list of citations from annotations that discuss sources. Bibliography entries can help identify cited authors without themselves becoming indexed occurrences. Decide explicitly whether substantive annotations are in scope.
• Front matter: Examine introductions, forewords, prefaces and acknowledgments for useful content. Record exceptions to any preliminary-matter exclusion, including material with Roman-numeral locators.
• Title and division pages: A bare book, part or chapter title may supply structure without useful indexable treatment. Check for accompanying quotations, notes or commentary before excluding the whole page.
• Epigraphs: Decide whether their content merits access under this book’s brief. A decorative quotation and a quotation central to the argument may warrant different choices.
• Contents and lists of figures or tables: These generally direct readers elsewhere. Consider pointing to the actual treatment or illustration rather than duplicating its navigation listing. Check for any additional substantive material on the page.

A divider and a list need different decisions

Original illustrative example: a part-opening page in a history of coastal engineering contains the title “Living with Floods,” an epigraph from a council report and a paragraph explaining why the report changed local policy. Elsewhere, a standalone list of figures repeats the caption “Storm barrier, 1962” and points to page 84.

The divider’s title helps describe the book’s structure. Its explanatory paragraph may justify access under flood policy if it is in scope; the epigraph needs its own decision. Excluding the entire page because it is a divider would also discard the explanation.

The list of figures serves a different purpose: it points to the illustration. If illustrations are included, assess the material on page 84. The repeated caption in the navigation list does not automatically earn an additional subject locator. A mixed page requires attention to its separate contents, not just its dominant label.

Map PDF positions to the book’s page labels

A PDF page’s position in the file and the book’s printed page label can differ. Adobe’s page-label guidance explains that viewer labels can use Roman or Arabic sequences and may not match printed numbers. Changing a viewer label does not add a visible number to the page. Verify the mapping against the proofs.

Original illustrative numbering example:

• PDF position 9 shows printed page ix: an included preface passage receives locator ix.
• PDF position 17 is an unnumbered part divider; position 18 is blank.
• PDF position 19 shows printed page 3: included body material receives locator 3, not 19.

Do not renumber the index’s locators to close gaps left by excluded pages. Nor should a missing visible folio automatically mean that a page is outside the book’s pagination. If substantive material on an unnumbered divider is included, establish its correct locator with the production editor rather than guessing from PDF position. Check sequence starts, transitions, inserted plates and any repeated labels.

Before indexing begins

• ✓ Record the scope separately for each requested index, including exceptions.
• ✓ Inspect mixed pages and every section boundary where a whole-page exclusion could hide useful material.
• ✓ Verify Roman and Arabic sequences, omitted folios and unusual labels against the final proofs.
• ✓ Resolve uncertain inclusion and locator decisions with the editor, then apply the agreed policy consistently.

This brief defines where to look. Within that scope, each proposed locator still needs to earn its place. For notes, the next question is whether the selected text is complete, belongs to the right note and can be located by the reader.