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Entry is to indexing as batting average is to baseball – i.e., a central concept and therefore one that is mentioned frequently. However, entry differs from batting average in a major way. Given the same statistics about the number of at bats, walks and hits that a player had during a specific time period, different baseball fans will come up with the same batting average. But, given the same excerpt from an index, different indexers may not agree about the number of entries in the excerpt. For example: given

indexing, 6, 11-14

some indexers will say that the excerpt contains one entry having two locators, 6 and 11-14. Others will say it contains two entries, one referring to a discussion appearing on a page 6 and the other to a discussion spanning a pages 11 to 14. Still others will say it contains five entries, one referring to page 6 and the others to pages 11, 12, 13 and 14, which have been conflated into a single locator. The different counts reflect disagreements about the meaning of entry. To some, the number of entries in an index is equivalent to the number of main headings in it; to others, it is equivalent to the total number of locators; to still others, it is equivalent to the total number of pages subsumed within the locators.

Regardless of how entries are counted, their most important qualities are the accuracy with which they represent the content of the document and its location, and their usefulness to the intended users of the index, which is itself heavily dependent on the terms used to signify content. Achieving those qualities is a major objective of indexing.

Guidelines pertaining to entries:

Avoid arbitrary limits on the number of entries in an index, however defined. The number should be governed solely by the document's content and the needs of the intended users. If concepts or topics are not indexed, they will not be retrievable and the index will not accurately represent the document.
Avoid having to add entries during the final edit. Usually, adding entries that late is much more difficult than eliminating superfluous entries.
Make sure entries are formatted in accordance with your editor's wishes. The most important areas of agreement include alphabetization of headings (word-by-word vs. letter-by-letter), arrangement of subheadings (alphabetical vs. non-alphabetical ordering), style (run-in style vs. indented style), the format of page references (full numbering vs. conflated numbering), the format and placement of cross-references (run off from main heading vs. placed as last subheading), and physical constraints (column width, characters per column, number of columns and number of lines).

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