Editorial Guidelines
These documents contain information about editorial practice for the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)®, the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)®, the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)®, the Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA)®, and the Getty Iconography Authority (IA)™. The guidelines are subject to frequent modification and addition.
Purpose of these guidelines
These editorial guidelines for the AAT, ULAN, TGN, CONA, and IA contain rules and guidelines intended for contributors to the Getty vocabularies and the editors of the Getty Vocabulary Program. References to the in-house editorial system, VCS (Vocabulary Coordination System), may appear. Contributors to the AAT, TGN, ULAN, CONA, IA, and implementers of the vocabulary data should consult these guidelines, extrapolating information and guidance appropriate for their own needs and uses.
These editorial guidelines for the AAT, ULAN, TGN, CONA, and IA contain rules and guidelines intended for contributors to the Getty vocabularies and the editors of the Getty Vocabulary Program. References to the in-house editorial system, VCS (Vocabulary Coordination System), may appear. Contributors to the AAT, TGN, ULAN, CONA, IA, and implementers of the vocabulary data should consult these guidelines, extrapolating information and guidance appropriate for their own needs and uses.
![]() |
|
Editorial Guidelines: Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3.1. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 3.2. Identifying Numbers, Status Flags, and Subject Sources
Chapter 3.3. Terms
Chapter 3.4. Scope Note
Chapter 3.5. Associative Relationships
Chapter 3.8. Administrative Flags, Notes, and Revision History
Chapter 4.1. Appendix A: Diacritics
Chapter 4.2. Appendix B: Dates
Chapter 4.3. Appendix C: Sources
Chapter 4.4. Appendix D: Contributors and Large Translations
Chapter 4.5. Appendix E: Languages
Chapter 5.0. Addendum Z: Data Dictionary
Chapter 5.1. SQL Queries for the Vocabularies
Chapter 6.0. AAT Bibliography
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3.1. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 3.2. Identifying Numbers, Status Flags, and Subject Sources
Chapter 3.3. Terms
Chapter 3.4. Scope Note
Chapter 3.5. Associative Relationships
Chapter 3.8. Administrative Flags, Notes, and Revision History
Chapter 4.1. Appendix A: Diacritics
Chapter 4.2. Appendix B: Dates
Chapter 4.3. Appendix C: Sources
Chapter 4.4. Appendix D: Contributors and Large Translations
Chapter 4.5. Appendix E: Languages
Chapter 5.0. Addendum Z: Data Dictionary
Chapter 5.1. SQL Queries for the Vocabularies
Chapter 6.0. AAT Bibliography
Editorial Guidelines: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3.1. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 3.2. Identifying Numbers, Status Flags, and Subject Sources
Chapter 3.3. Names
Chapter 3.4. Descriptive Note
Chapter 3.5. Associative Relationships
Chapter 3.6. Place Types
Chapter 3.7. Coordinates
Chapter 3.8. Adminsitrative Flags, Notes, and Revision History
Chapter 4.1. Appendix A: Diacritics
Chapter 4.2. Appendix B: Dates
Chapter 4.3. Appendix C: Sources
Chapter 4.4. Appendix D: Contributors
Chapter 4.5. Appendix E: Languages
Chapter 4.6. Appendix F: Place Types
Chapter 5.0. Addendum Z: Data Dictionary
Chapter 5.1. SQL Queries for the Vocabularies
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3.1. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 3.2. Identifying Numbers, Status Flags, and Subject Sources
Chapter 3.3. Names
Chapter 3.4. Descriptive Note
Chapter 3.5. Associative Relationships
Chapter 3.6. Place Types
Chapter 3.7. Coordinates
Chapter 3.8. Adminsitrative Flags, Notes, and Revision History
Chapter 4.1. Appendix A: Diacritics
Chapter 4.2. Appendix B: Dates
Chapter 4.3. Appendix C: Sources
Chapter 4.4. Appendix D: Contributors
Chapter 4.5. Appendix E: Languages
Chapter 4.6. Appendix F: Place Types
Chapter 5.0. Addendum Z: Data Dictionary
Chapter 5.1. SQL Queries for the Vocabularies
Editorial Guidelines: Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3.1. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 3.2. Identifying Numbers, Status Flags, and Subject Sources
Chapter 3.3. Names
Chapter 3.4. Descriptive Note
Chapter 3.5. Associative Relationships
Chapter 3.6. Biographical Information
Chapter 3.7. Events
Chapter 3.8. Administrative Flags, Notes, and Revision History
Chapter 4.1. Appendix A: Diacritics
Chapter 4.2. Appendix B: Dates
Chapter 4.3. Appendix C: Sources
Chapter 4.4. Appendix D: Contributors
Chapter 4.5. Appendix E: Languages
Chapter 4.6. Appendix F: Roles
Chapter 4.7. Appendix G: Nationalities and Places
Chapter 5.0. Addendum Z: Data Dictionary
Chapter 5.1. SQL Queries for the Vocabularies
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3.1. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 3.2. Identifying Numbers, Status Flags, and Subject Sources
Chapter 3.3. Names
Chapter 3.4. Descriptive Note
Chapter 3.5. Associative Relationships
Chapter 3.6. Biographical Information
Chapter 3.7. Events
Chapter 3.8. Administrative Flags, Notes, and Revision History
Chapter 4.1. Appendix A: Diacritics
Chapter 4.2. Appendix B: Dates
Chapter 4.3. Appendix C: Sources
Chapter 4.4. Appendix D: Contributors
Chapter 4.5. Appendix E: Languages
Chapter 4.6. Appendix F: Roles
Chapter 4.7. Appendix G: Nationalities and Places
Chapter 5.0. Addendum Z: Data Dictionary
Chapter 5.1. SQL Queries for the Vocabularies
Editorial Guidelines: Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA)
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3.1. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 3.2. Identifying Numbers, Status Flags, and Subject Sources
Chapter 3.3. Titles and Names
Chapter 3.4. Descriptive Note
Chapter 3.5. Associative Relationships
Chapter 3.6.1 Work Type, Creator, Dates, Location
Chapter 3.6.2 Physical Characteristics, Culture, Provenance
Chapter 3.6.3 Depicted Subject, Iconography Authority
Chapter 3.7. Events
Chapter 3.8. Administrative Flags, Notes, and Revision History
Chapter 4.1. Appendix A: Diacritics
Chapter 4.2. Appendix B: Dates
Chapter 4.3. Appendix C: Sources
Chapter 4.4. Appendix D: Contributors
Chapter 4.5. Appendix E: Languages
Chapter 5.0. Addendum Z: Data Dictionary
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3.1. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 3.2. Identifying Numbers, Status Flags, and Subject Sources
Chapter 3.3. Titles and Names
Chapter 3.4. Descriptive Note
Chapter 3.5. Associative Relationships
Chapter 3.6.1 Work Type, Creator, Dates, Location
Chapter 3.6.2 Physical Characteristics, Culture, Provenance
Chapter 3.6.3 Depicted Subject, Iconography Authority
Chapter 3.7. Events
Chapter 3.8. Administrative Flags, Notes, and Revision History
Chapter 4.1. Appendix A: Diacritics
Chapter 4.2. Appendix B: Dates
Chapter 4.3. Appendix C: Sources
Chapter 4.4. Appendix D: Contributors
Chapter 4.5. Appendix E: Languages
Chapter 5.0. Addendum Z: Data Dictionary
Editorial Guidelines: Getty Iconography Authority (IA)
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3. Identifying Numbers
Chapter 4. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 5. Iconography Type, Label
Chapter 6. Iconography Names
Chapter 7. Descriptive Note
Chapter 8. Dates
Chapter 9. Associative Relationships and Other Links
Chapter 10. Sources
Chapter 1. Table of Contents, Introduction
Chapter 2. General Guidelines
Chapter 3. Identifying Numbers
Chapter 4. Hierarchical Relationships
Chapter 5. Iconography Type, Label
Chapter 6. Iconography Names
Chapter 7. Descriptive Note
Chapter 8. Dates
Chapter 9. Associative Relationships and Other Links
Chapter 10. Sources
The Art & Architecture Thesaurus® (AAT), the Union List of Artist Names® (ULAN), the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names® (TGN), the Cultural Objects Name Authority® (CONA), and the Getty Iconography Authority (IA) are copyrighted by the J. Paul Getty Trust. Companies and institutions interested in regular or extensive use of the vocabularies should consider obtaining the data as Linked Open Data or in other formats. All available Getty vocabulary data is provided fee-free under the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) 1.0.
Revised 12 July 2022
Revised 12 July 2022