Minor changes to the assignment of accession numbers from Update 200906
As from update 200906, we have moved over to our new Thomson Reuters (Scientific) Production System (TSPS). While there are no changes to data formats, there are some minor changes to the assignment of both primary accession numbers (PANs) and secondary accession numbers (SANs).
PANs and SANs have until now been assigned to Basic records at the end of the production process. Once the data was extracted for a particular update, it was sorted by patent country and the PANs then assigned to the new Basics. Two series of SANs were then assigned to Chemical and Non-Chemical patents for the production of some of our legacy microform products.
In the new system, PANs are assigned as soon as each individual Basic is identified rather than after the update extraction. We will no longer sort the data by patent country before assigning the PANs and we have ceased applying SANs as we no longer produce the microform products to which they relate.. From 200907 there will be a mixture of records completed in both the old and new production systems and this will continue for some time. Records from the new production system (TSPS) will commence with the PAN 2009-E00001.
Records from the old production system (DPS) will follow on from the PANs generated up to 200905 (the last PAN provided in 200905 was 2009-A98116)
This in effect means that there will be a gap in the accession number sequence which will gradually be filled as we complete all the records currently loaded into the old production system.
Also as a consequence of each Basic being sent as soon as it is ready, there will not be a continuous series of PANs in the range starting 2009-E00001 in each update.