Q. My indexing partner included names in the acknowledgments section in his index nominum. The text goes, “I am indebted to X and Z for materials or conversation that assisted my research for this article.” Including X and Z in the index seems unnecessary to me. What do you think?
A. While it may not be necessary to include certain names in an index, it’s common to allow a certain number of “vanity” entries, if there is room. This writer would like his colleagues or mentors to see their names when they look for them, and evidently he wasn’t able to cite them in a more substantive way in the book.