General Guidelines

Assign Headings that Describe the Serial as a Whole. This seems rather obvious, but this is not always cut and dry in the case of serials, which may have many individual contributors and sections potentially exploring different topics.     

General Principle on Assigning Subject Headings. As a general rule only topics that cover at least 20 percent of the serial should be given a subject heading. (CCM: 15.2.2)

The Number of Headings to Assign. CONSER does not specify a limit but encourages less rather than more in the case of serials.

While there are no specific guidelines that dictate how many or how few subject headings should be assigned to a given description, catalogers should keep in mind that topical access to a serial is not necessarily increased or improved through the assignment of many, specific subject headings. (CCM: 15.2.3)

CONSER does allow the assigning of headings for each of the topics covered in situations where the various aspects of a serial's contents cannot be subsumed comfortably under a broad heading (CCM: 15.2.9)

Level of Specificity. CONSER encourages assigning headings only at one level of the same subject hierarchy. For example, the Journal of Hospital Care would be assigned Hospital care and not the broader term Medical care. (CCM: 15.2.4)

However, the Journal of Mathematics and Sciences would be assigned a heading for  Mathematics and one for Sciences. 

650 #0 $a Mathematics $v Periodicals.

650 #0 $a Science $v Periodicals.

Assigning headings when a corporate body is the subject. Material about a corporate body often receives a heading for that corporate body alone unless the serial also includes coverage of the corporate body's specific activities or fields of focus.  

610 20 $a Minnesota State Board of Medical Examiners $v Periodicals.

650 #0 $a Medical personnel $x Licenses $z Minnesota $v Statistics $v Periodicals.

General-interest publication. Serials like Newsweek, People Weekly, and The Atlantic require no subject headings.

⮚Other Strategies for Doing Subject Analysis

Subject Analysis from the Preceding Title. CONSER recognizes changes in title often have no effect on the subject matter but cautions the cataloger to be aware that some title changes include a change in or a narrowing or broadening of the serial’s scope that might require different subject headings for the new succeeding title. (CCM: 15.4.1)

Consulting the subject analysis on analogous records. Check the serial publication in hand for the mention of a comparable title, serial or nonserial, and consult an appropriate cataloging database for helpful suggestions contained in the subject headings for those works. (CCM: 15.4.3)