Table of Contents:
Scope | General Information |
ATLA Fields | Advanced Searching
Stopwords | Limits |
Changing to ATLA From Another Database
Sample Documents | Copyright Information
| Updated
The ATLA Religion Database, produced by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), is a comprehensive reference tool designed to support religious and theological scholarship in graduate education and faculty research. This leading international database covers such topics as Biblical studies, world religions, Church history, and religious perspectives on social issues. The database consists of more than 1,100,000 records covering the research literature of religion in over 30 languages from 1,400 international journals and 14,000 multi-author works in and related to the field of religion. RDB includes a full range of index citations to journal articles, essays in multi-author works, and book reviews from Religion Index One (RIO), Religion Index Two (RIT), and Index to Book Reviews in Religion (IBRR). The full file covers data from 1949 to the present.
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| Producer | |||
| American Theological Library Association (ATLA) |
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| Years of Coverage | |||
| 1949 - present | |||
Segments |
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| atla (1949-present) | |||
| This database does not support Ovid's AutoAlerts. If you want to create a reusable search strategy, save the search as a Permanent Saved Search instead. See the Ovid Web Gateway User Manual for details about permanent saved searches. Saved search information also appears in the Ovid Web Gateway Help System. | |||
| Default Fields for Unqualified Searches | |||
| Abstract (AB) | Heading Words (HW) | Related Work Title (RT) | |
| Book Title (BT) | Journal Word (JX) | Series (SE) | |
| Formatted Contents Notes (NF) | Note (NT) | Title (TI) | |
| Elements of the Source (SO) Field | |||
| Book Title (BT) | Page Number (PG) | Publisher (PU) | |
| Journal Title (JN) | Publication Information (PI) | Volume (VO) | |
| Default Display/Print Fields | |||
| Abstract (AB) | ISSN (IS) | Publication Type (PT) | |
| Accession Number (AN) | Issue/Part (IP) | Publisher (PU) | |
| ATLAS Coverage and Exclusions (CE) | Language (LG) | Related Work Title (RT) | |
| Author (AU) | Linking Record (LK) | Scripture Citations (SR) | |
| Book Review Linking Record (LN) | Link to Preceding Entry (LP) | Series (SE) | |
| Book Title (BT) | Link to Succeeding Entry (LS) | Source (SO) | |
| Classification Heading (CC) | Note (NT) | Title (TI) | |
| Edition Statement (ES) | Page Number (PG) | Uniform Title (UA) | |
| Ennumeration/Chronology (EC) | Personal/Corporate/Conference Name Subject (PS) | Update Code (UP) | |
| Formatted Contents Notes (NF) | Physical Description (PD) | URL (UR) | |
| Frequency (FR) | Place of Publication (PL) | Variant Title (VT) | |
| Genre/Form Term (FH) | Preceding Entry (PE) | With (WN) | |
| ISBN (IB) | Publication Information (PI) | Year (YR) | |
| Update Frequency | |||
| Bi-Annual | |||
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The following list is sorted alphabetical by field alias. Click a field name to see the description and search information.
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The following list is sorted alphabetically by the two-letter label, and includes the relevant alias, at least one example for all searchable ATLA fields, and a description of the field.
| Label | Name / Example |
| AB | Abstract [Word Indexed] division of labor.ab. public morality.ab. |
| The Abstract (AB) field is included in Article records from 1975 to 1985. This field contains a brief description of the content of the item. | |
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| AN | Accession Number [Phrase Indexed] ATLA0000213705.an. |
| The Accession Number (AN) field contains an alphanumeric string which uniquely identifies the record in the ATLA Religion Database. The Accession Number (AN) field format has changed; the AN format used to be ario19590000010051. The new format is ATLA0000021898. | |
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| AU | Author [Phrase Indexed] gant sally w.au. |
| The Author (AU) index contains the names of persons or organizations that are the authors of the item described in the record or that are related to the item described in the record. This includes authors of books that are subjects of book reviews and authors of other related items. These related authors are displayed in the Related Works Display. Only the persons or organizations that are the authors of the item described in the records display in the Author field. | |
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| BT | Book Title [Word Indexed] canterbury cathedral.bt. |
| The Book Title (BT) field appears in Essay records, and contains the title of the parent book in which the essay or chapter appears. | |
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| CC | Classification Heading [Phrase Indexed] ancient religions.cc. |
| The Classification Heading (CC) field contains the ATLA classification for book and serial records. | |
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| CE | ATLAS Coverage and Exclusions |
| The ATLAS Coverage and Exclusions (CE) field contains a textual description of the holdings of a basic bibliographic unit in the collections. This field is not indexed. | |
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| DE | Descriptor [Combined Headings Alias] Creation.de |
| The Descriptor (DE) alias is used to search all the phrase indexed heading fields, CC, FH, PS, and SH at the same time. To search all these heading types by word rather than phrase, use the Heading Word (HW) index. | |
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| EC | Ennumeration/Chronology [Display only] |
| The Ennumeration/Chronology (EC) field contains numerical and/or chronological information about the serial title. This field does not describe the coverage for the specific title. | |
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| ES | Edition Statement [Word Indexed] 3rd.es. |
| The Edition Statement (ES) field contains the Edition of a multi-author book, monograph or serial. | |
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| FH | Genre/Form Term [Phrase Indexed] biographies.fh. |
| The Genre/Form (FH) field contains terms indicating the genre,
form, and/or physical characteristics of the materials being described.
A genre term designates the style or technique of the intellectual content
of textual materials, or for graphic materials, aspects such as vantage
point, intended purpose, or method of representation. A form term designates
historically and functionally specific kinds of materials distinguised by
their physical character, the subject of their intellectual content, or
the order of information within them. Physical characteristic terms designate
historically and functionally specific kinds of materials as distinguished
by an examination of their physical character, subject of their intellectual
content, or the order of information with them. The following genre terms may appear as appropriate: Autobiographies Bibliographies Biographies Conference proceedings Death notices Festschriften Festschriften in journals Novels Prayer books Indexes Meditations Obituaries Poems Sermons Short stories |
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| FR | Frequency [Display Only] |
| The Frequency (FR) field contains the current publication frequency for the journal. | |
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| HW | Heading Words [Word Indexed] calgary.hw. |
| The Heading Words (HW) index is the word index for all subject heading types. Use HW to search by significant words in the Personal/Corporate/Conference Name Subject (PS), Subject Headings (SH), Genre/Form (FH) or Classification Heading (CC) fields. | |
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| IB | ISBN [Phrase Indexed] 0226508838.ib. |
The ISBN (IB) field contains the International Standard Book
Number (ISBN). These are unique identification numbers which are allocated,
by publishers, to books and other non-serial publications. An ISBN consists
of ten digits divided into four groups:
However, despite this standard format, ISBNs vary enormously on the source
documents, for example, Consequently, they have also been indexed and display without spaces
or dashes, for example, | |
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| IP | Issue/Part [Word Indexed] Fall.ip |
| The Issue/Part (IP) field contains the number assigned to a particular issue of a joural. | |
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| IS | ISSN [Phrase Indexed] 0169 796x.is. |
| The ISSN is the International Standard Serial Number and
is a unique number identifying serial publications such as journals and
some series. The ISSN consists of two groups of four digits in Arabic numerals,
except possibly for the last check digit, which may be an X. This conformity
makes it easy to search for ISSNs, which can be entered with or without
the hyphen between the two groups of four characters. It appears as an 8 digit number, separated by a hyphen: 0028-4793. |
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| JN | Journal Title [Phrase Indexed] modern judaism.jn. |
| The Journal Name (JN) field contains the full name of the journal in which the article was published. Results usually display in the Source (SO) field. | |
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| JX | Journal Word [Word Indexed] history.jx. religion.jx. |
| The Journal Word (JX) index is a word index of the names of the journals indexed in the ATLA Religion Index. | |
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| LG | Language [Phrase Indexed] french.lg. fre.lg. |
| The Language (LG) field is phrase indexed and contains the original language(s) of the entire document. The language French appears as "French" but is also indexed with the Ovid three character language Code (for example, fre). | |
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| LK | Linking Record [Phrase Indexed] ATLA0000001865.lk. |
| Linking Record (LK) connects all of the essays in a multi-author book. This field is particularly useful if you have retrieved an individual essay from a multi-author book and want to retrieve the rest of the essays in that work. | |
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| LN | Book Review Linking Record [Phrase Indexed] ATLA0000001865.ln. |
| The Related Work Linking Record (LN) field links a record to other records that are related to it. This can include books that are subjects of a review, related articles, or essays. | |
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| LP | Link to Preceding Entry |
| The Link to Preceding Entry (LP) field contains the Accession Number of the serial described in the Preceding Entry. It is specifically for linking to that record. This field is not indexed. | |
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| LS | Link to Succeeding Entry |
| The Link to Succeeding Entry (LS) field contains the Accession Number of the serial described in the Succeeding Entry. It is specifically for linking to that record. This field is not indexed. | |
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| NF | Formatted Contents Notes [Word Indexed] apocrypha.nf. |
| The Formatted Contents Note (NF) contains the contents of records. This can include chapter titles, essays, etc. | |
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| NT | Note [Word Indexed] baptist.nt. |
| The Note (NT) field contains additional information which may be used to identify a work or its content. This includes notes about bibliographies, sources, other publication information, etc. | |
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| PD | Physical Description [Word Indexed] vii.pd. |
| Physical Description (PD) field contains pagination information for Book Master records. Results display in the Source Field (SO). | |
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| PE | Preceding Entry |
| The Preceding Entry (PE) field contains information concerning the immediate predecessor of the target item (chronological relationship). These titles are indexed in the JN and JX indexes. The ISSN's are indexed in the IS index. | |
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| PG | Page Number [Word Indexed] viii.pg. |
| The Page Number (PG) field consists of the inclusive pagination of the item. Results usually display as part of the Source (SO) field. | |
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| PI | Publication Information [Word Indexed] mcgill queens.pi. |
| The Publication Information (PI) field contains the publisher, place of publication, and date of publication of a book that is the host for the essay described in the record. Results display in the Source (SO) field. | |
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| PL | Place of Publication [Word Indexed] London.pl. |
| The Place of Publication (PL) field contains the place of publication for Book and Serial records. Results display in the Source (SO) field. | |
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| PS | Personal/Corporate/Conference Name Subject [Phrase Indexed] Andrewes,Lancelot$.ps. Catholic Church$.ps. Jesuits.ps. |
| The Personal/Corporate/Conference Name Subject (PS) field
contains the names of people, corporations, or conferences which are the
subject of the article, book, or essay. These subject headings can be quite
lengthy. Try entering the first few words and then use the $ to truncate
your search.
The information displayed in the Personal/Corporate/Conference Name Subject field is word indexed in the Heading Word (HW) index. |
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| PT | Publication Type [Phrase Indexed] article.pt. |
| The Publication Types (PT) field contains both the type of
work, as well as, the contents of a work. In the ATLA Religion Database,
the possible publication types include: Article Book Essay Issue Review Serial | |
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| PU | Publisher [Word Indexed] Carolina.pu. |
| The Publisher (PU) field contains the name of the publisher for books and serial records. Results display in the Source (SO) field. | |
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| RT | Related Work Title [Phrase Indexed] "10" .rt. 3rd.rt. |
| The Related Works Title (RT) index contains the titles of the items that are referenced in the Related Works (RW) field. | |
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| RW | Related Works [Display Only] |
| The Related Works (RW) field contains references for items that are related to the item described in the record. These related works are also part of the database and can be accessed by the ATLA Accession Number included in the reference. ATLA uses the following display text: Abridged edition: |
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| SE | Series [Word Indexed] Vetus Testamentum.se. "68".sv. |
| The Series (SE) field contains the series title to which the book or the essay's "parent" book belongs. To browse complete series titles, use the Series Title (ST) index. |
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| SG | Succeeding Entry |
| The Succeeding Entry (SG) field contains information concerning the immediate successor to the target item (chronological relationship). The title in this field is indexed in the JN and JX indexes. The ISSN is indexed in the IS field. | |
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| SH | Subject Headings [Phrase Indexed] Bible$.sh. Religious movements$.sh. Oceania$.sh. |
| The Subject Heading (SH) field contains uniform titles, geographic
locations and topical terms which are the subject of the article, book,
or essay. Some of these headings are quite lengthy. Try entering the first
few words and then truncate the search with a $.
The information displayed in the Subject Headings (SH) field are word indexed in the Heading Word (HW)index. |
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| SN | Number of Subseries [Phrase Indexed] series a.sn. |
| The Number of Subseries (SN) field contains the number of the subseries of the series to which the book described in this article belongs. This field searches best in conjunction with a series title search. | |
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| SO | Source [Phrase Indexed] |
| The Source (SO) field includes a display of all the basic information needed to locate a citation, including the Journal Name or Publisher, the Source Description, pagination and year of publication. | |
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| SP | Name of Subseries [Phrase Indexed] africa.sp. |
| The Name of Subseries (SP) field contains the title for the subseries of the series to which the book described in this article belongs. | |
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| SR | Scripture Citations [Phrase Indexed] isaiah 24 27.sr. |
| Scripture Citations (SR) are browsable, phrased indexed versions
of the Scripture References. Use this field to retrieve an article or essay
that makes reference to a particular scripture citation. Most references
indexed in this field are canonical; there are very few apocryphal references.
For numbered books, the arabic numeral follows the book name.
Citations referencing specific scriptural passages are also indexed in the Subject Heading (Uniform Title) data field under the heading "Bible." Because indexing practices vary between the two data fields, a search for the same scripture citation in the Subject Heading and Scripture Citation search fields may not yield identical results. It may be beneficial to perform a scripture search using both fields, when they are available. |
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| ST | Series Title Phrase [Phrase Indexed] |
| The Series Title (ST) field contains the series title (and volume or number, if applicable) of the book or the essay/chapter's "parent" book indexed as complete phrases. To search individual series words, use the Series (SE) index. | |
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| SV | Series Volume or Number [Word Indexed] Vetus Testamentum.se. "68".sv. |
| The Series Volume or Number (SV) field contains the volume or number of the book in the series that is described in the record. This field is best searched in conjunction with a series title as in the example above. | |
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| SW | Scripture Citation Word [Word Indexed] jubilees.sw. |
| The Scripture Citation Word (SW) is a word indexed version of the Scripture Citation (SR). | |
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| TI | Title [Word Indexed] Preaching in the '00 Zone.ti. systems.ti. |
| The Title (TI) field contains the title of the article, book, essay, issue, review, or serial that is the object of the record. The title index also includes variant titles (displayed in the VT field) and titles bound within the same item (displayed in the WN field). | |
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| TP | Title Phrase [Phrase Indexed] systema moralis christocentricae.tp. |
| The Title Phrase (TP) field contains the title of an article, book, essay, issue, review, or serial. It is searched by exact title. | |
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| UA | Uniform Title [Phrase Indexed] bible latin.ua. |
| The Uniform Title (UA) field contains Uniform Titles that are considered to be added entries rather than the uniform title of the title proper. A uniform title is a standardized form of a title that is created when various versions of a title make an authorized version of the title necessary. | |
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| UP | Update Code [Phrase Indexed] 200207.up. |
| The Update Code (UP) is in the format YYYYMM, where YYYY is the 4 digit year and MM is the month of the update. For example, 200207 signifies July of 2002. | |
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| UR | URL [Display only] |
| The URL (UR) field contains the information needed to locate and access an electronic resource. The field may be used in a bibliographic record for a resource when that resource or a subset of it is available electronically. In addition, it may be used to locate and access an electronic version of a non-electronic resource described in the bibliograhic record or a related electronic resource. This field is not indexed. | |
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| VO | Volume [Word Indexed] 80.vo. 102.vo. |
| The Volume (VO) field contains the volume information for the Host Item for the article, essay, issue, or review described in the record. It is best searched in conjunction with a Journal Name (JN). Results display in the Source field. | |
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| VT | Variant Title |
| The Variant Title (VT) field consists of a form of the title appearing on different parts of an item or a portion of the title proper, or an alternative form of the title when the form differs significantly from the title. It is indexed in the Title (TI) index. | |
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| WN | With |
| The With (WN) field is used when more than one bibliographic work (book, short story, etc) is contained in a physical item at the time of publishing, release, issue, or execution and the works have distinctive titles but lack a collective title. This field is indexed with the Title (TI) field. | |
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| YR | Year [Phrase Indexed] 1997.yr. |
| The Year of Publication (YR) field contains the year in which
a document was published. The year may be searched using four digits, for
example, "1997." Only individual years can be searched here; do not enter a range of years. (Use the Limit to Publication Year to restrict sets to a range of years.) |
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Words of little intrinsic meaning that occur too frequently to be useful in searching text are known as stopwords. You cannot search for the following stopwords by themselves, but you can include them within phrases by placing the entire phrase within quotation marks.
| a | by | having | neither | seem | those |
| about | can | how | no | seen | through |
| after | could | however | nor | several | thus |
| again | did | if | not | should | to |
| all | do | in | obtain | show | under |
| almost | does | into | obtained | showed | up |
| also | done | is | of | shown | upon |
| although | during | it | often | shows | use |
| always | each | its | on | significant | used |
| among | either | itself | only | significantly | using |
| an | enough | just | or | since | various |
| and | especially | kg | other | so | very |
| another | etc | km | our | some | was |
| any | followed | largely | out | such | we |
| approximately | following | like | overall | suggest | were |
| are | for | made | per | than | what |
| as | found | mainly | perhaps | that | when |
| at | from | make | possible | the | whereas |
| be | further | may | previously | their | which |
| because | give | might | quite | theirs | while |
| been | given | min | rather | them | with |
| before | giving | mm | really | then | within |
| being | had | most | regarding | there | would |
| between | hardly | mostly | resulted | these | |
| both | has | must | resulting | they | |
| but | have | nearly | same | this |
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You can use special words and symbols to combine search terms and refine a search. For efficient searching, use the most appropriate operator from the list below to combine search terms. For more information on these and other searching techniques, including command line syntax searching, refer to the Ovid Gateway Help.
| Operator | Syntax | Example | Results |
| OR | OR | transexual or berdache | Retrieves records that contain either term or both terms. |
| AND | AND | spirituality and atheism | Retrieves records that contain both terms. |
| NOT | NOT | wicca not female | Retrieves records that contain the first term but not the second term. |
| ADJ | ADJ | witch hunts | Retrieves records that contain both terms, in order, and adjacent in the same sentence. |
| ADJn | women adj4 martyrdom | Retrieves records that contain both terms, in either order, with no more than n number of words between. The example will retrieve records containing the phrase, "women and martyrdom in El Salvador." | |
| FREQ | x.fd./FREQ=n | gender.ab. /freq=5 | Retrieves records that contain n occurrences of the term in the specified field. The example will retrieve records containing the word "gender," at least five times in the Abstract (ab) field. |
| $ | x$ | rat$ | The unlimited truncation symbol, $, retrieves records that contain the search term and all possible suffix variations of a root word. The example will retrieve records containing words such as rat, rats, rate, rationalize, ratify, etc. |
| x$n | dog$1 | The limited truncation symbol, $n, Retrieves records that contain the search term and all possible suffix variations of a root word with the maximum number of characters that may follow the root word or phrase, specified by n.The example will retrieve records containing words such as dog and dogs, but not dogma. | |
| # | # | wom#n | The mandated wildcard symbol, #, retrieves records that contain the search term with substituted character(s) in the specified locations. The example will retrieve records containing woman and women. |
| ? | ? | colo?r | The optional wildcard symbol, ?, retrieves records that contain the search term with either no characters substituted, or with substituted character(s) in the specified locations. The example will retrieve records containing color and colour. |
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Popular Command and Sentence Syntax for Limits:
| English | |
| Sentence Syntax: | limit 1 to English |
| Command Syntax: | ..l/1 en=y |
| Languages | |
| Sentence Syntax: | limit 1 to French |
| Command Syntax: | ..l/1 lg=fre |
| Publication Types | |
| Sentence Syntax: | limit 1 to article |
| limit 1 to book master | |
| limit 1 to essay | |
| Publication Years | |
| Sentence Syntax: | ..1/1 yr=96 |
| limit 1 to yr=1996 | |
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| Command Syntax: | ..c/atla |
| Sentence Syntax: | use atla |
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ARTICLE
Accession Number
ATLA0001207010
Author
Galan, Jose M
Title
What is he, the dog
Source
Ugarit-Forschungen. 1994. 25: 173-180
Note
Title Enrichment: "dog" as appellative in EA and Egyptian texts.
Subject Heading
Tell el-Amarna tablets
Dogs (in religion, folklore)
Egyptian literature
ISSN
0342-2356
Linking Record
ATLA0001253947
Publication Type
Article
Update Code
200207
Year
1994
Language
English
BOOK
Accession Number
ATLA0001260418
Title
Dumbarton Oaks papers no. 52 (1998)
Source
Washington, D.C : Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1998;
no. 52 (1998). no.: vi + 342 p: figs, map, photos
Series Display
Dumbarton Oaks Papers. v 52.
Note
Includes bibliography
Linking Record
ATLA0001255713
Publication Type
Book
Update Code
200207
Year
1998
Language
English
ESSAY
Accession Number
ATLA0001246280
Author
Sarngadhara
White, David Gordon, edt, [Translator]
Title
Predicting the future with dogs
Source
Religions of India in practice. Princeton, NJ : Princeton Univ Pr, 1995
288-303
Note
Title Enrichment: Eng tr of Sarngadhara Paddhatti 81:1-120.
Subject Heading
Dogs (in religion, folklore)
Omens
Hinduism -- Ritual
ISBN
0691043256
0691043248
Linking Record
ATLA0001233645
Publication Type
Essay
Update Code
200207
Year
1995
Language
English
ISSUE
Accession Number
ATLA0000207865
Title
Bulletin on Islam and Christiam-Muslim Relations in Africa 7 O 1989
Source
Bulletin on Islam and Christiam-Muslim Relations in Africa.
ISSN
0264-1356
Linking Record
ATLA0000022924
Publication Type
Issue
Update Code
200207
Year
Language
Undetermined
REVIEW
Accession Number
ATLA0001255710
Author
Christopher,Brother
Title
On God and dogs: a Christian theology of compassion for animals
Source
St Vladimir's Theological Quarterly. 2001. 45: (2) 206-213
Related Works
Review of:Webb, Stephen H. On God and dogs. xii, 222 p. New York : Oxford
Univ Pr, 1998..ATLA0000018901
Related Work Linking Record
ATLA0000018901
ISSN
0036-3227
Linking Record
ATLA0001255683
Publication Type
Review
Update Code
200207
Year
2001
Language
English
SERIAL
Accession Number
ATLA0000003343
Title
Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations
Variant Title
ATLA abbreviation: Islam Chr-Mus Rel
Source
Birmingham, England : Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim
Relations, 1990-.
Note
Language Note: English
Publication Type
Serial
Update Code
200207
Year
Unknown
Language
Undetermined
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ATLA Religion Database is a copyright of the American Theological Library Association, (1988). All Rights Reserved.
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Field Guide Revised May 31, 2005
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