Getting into the ADB

While anyone can add an article to Wikipedia, and just as easily edit someone else’s article, the processes involved in ‘getting into’ the Australian Dictionary of Biography are much more involved. 

First of all you have to be dead. Then you have to be selected for inclusion by one of the ADB’s Working Parties that have been formed in each of the States. There are also Commonwealth, Armed Services and Indigenous Working Parties based in Canberra. The Working Parties consist of scholars and experts in many fields. As well as selecting individuals who have made a prominent contribution to the Australian nation for inclusion in the ADB, the Working Parties attempt to reflect the rich variety of Australian life by including representatives of every social group and sphere of endeavour. Among the biographies of those prominent in politics, business, religion, the land, the professions and the arts you will also find rabbiter, Joseph Copeley, and the exuberant cricket supporter, Stephen Gascoigne.

The ADB Working Parties decide how many words will be allotted to each entry and nominate authors. The entries range in length from 500 to 6000 words. ADB authors, like the members of the Working Parties, and the ADB Editorial Board, which meets regularly to advise the General Editor on policy matters, give their services without payment. Over 4500 authors have written for the ADB since the project started in 1957, making the ADB the largest, longest-existing and most co-operative historical project undertaken in Australia. 

Authors with a particular knowledge of the subjects or their fields are commissioned to write ADB entries. Some authors become so captivated by their research that they embark on full-scale biographies of their subjects. After writing the ADB entry on Miles Franklin, for example, Jill Roe started on a 709-page biography, Stella Miles Franklin, published last year by Fourth Estate.

A team of researchers, based in the National Centre of Biography at the ANU, edit authors’ articles in accordance with the ADB’s conventions and style. The ADB prides itself on the accuracy of its articles. As well as obtaining the birth, death and marriage certificates of subjects, ADB staff can be routinely found at the National Library of Australia, and other record-holding institutions, wading through volumes of newspapers, annual reports, and post office directories, in their attempts to verify claims made in entries. The entries are also read a number of times, and commented upon, by the General Editor of the ADB and the chair of the relevant Working Party, as well as the ADB’s Editorial Fellows, Emeritus Professors John Molony, Ken Inglis, and Ian Hancock. The edited versions are then sent to authors for approval before publication.