Help:How to merge titles
If you see an author (or artist, or editor) has a work listed twice in the ISFDB, then the two works can probably be merged. Here's a checklist to run through before you merge them, followed by instructions on how to merge.
- If something is a candidate for merging, then the titles should match exactly, and so should the author/editor name. For example, if you see two versions of a Robert Sheckley story, "Shape", and "Keep Your Shape", and you happen to know that these are the same story, that's not a candidate for merging. This story was in fact published under both those titles, so that's a variant title. Merging destroys one title record in favour of another, so we only do it when the titles are identical. Similarly, Heinlein's "Successful Operation" was originally published as by "Lyle Monroe", and later republished under Heinlein's own name. These are also variants, despite the title being identical; merges require that the author and title field both match identically. See How to record a pseudonym and How to record a variant title for help on how to deal with those situations.
- Don't confuse separate publications with separate titles. To be quite sure that a merge is necessary, the most straightforward thing to do is use the Advanced Search screen. Enter the title and author's name and submit the search; the results will list titles, not publications. If you don't see two identical listings here, then there's no merge to do.
- If you do see two (or more) identical listings, you can click on the title link in each case to look at the publications for each title. Once you have decided that the titles really do need to be merged, return to the search results page, and check the box on the left of every title that you want to merge. Then click the "Merge Selected Records" button.
- A title merge results screen will display, showing you the different records you're merging, and highlighting any differences between them. The screen will display a green background for any fields that were identical across all the records that are being merged. This should always include the title and author. However, perhaps one record showed the story as just "short fiction", which gives a value of "sf" in the title_storylen field, whereas another record showed the story as "ss", for "short story", which is more specific, meaning that it's under 7500 words. In that case, both values will be shown on a red background, and you can choose which value to preserve on the merged record. For the example given, you would want to preserve the "ss", since that's more specific, unless you had some reason to believe it was incorrect or unreliable. Click on the radio button next to the value you want to keep, and then click on the "Complete Merge" button.
- This will submit the record. Once a moderator approves it, the merge is complete.