It is possible for highly experienced indexers to obtain Accredited Indexer status without the time and expense of undertaking the full training course. Such applicants should already be working to recognised standards in indexing as laid out in the various standard texts or national standards on indexing
https://www.indexers.org.uk/resources/books-on-indexing/
Applicants need to join the Society of Indexers, provide evidence (see below) of indexing experience over at least 10 years, study the SI training modules and take a test (details below). Successful applicants will be awarded Accredited Indexer status as long as they remain members of SI, and will be able to progress to Advanced Professional Member status in the normal way.
Please note that anyone who has previously failed the Society of Indexers Training in Indexing course is not eligible to apply.
Fees 2024 (2025)
The fee of £526.00 (£544.50) covers the pdf of the SI Training in Indexing course modules and the test. No payment is required until your application with evidence of experience has been received and approved. Should the candidate fail the test one resit is allowed; there is an additional charge for this. For full test fails the fee is £382.50 (£396.00) , for part 1 fails £149.00 (£154.25) and for part 2 fails £223.50 (£231.25).
Criteria for evidence of indexing experience
- At least 10 years of commercial indexing experience immediately prior to the application
- At least 50 books corresponding to at least 20,000 indexable pages, compiled for at least 4 clients *
- other acceptable indexing experience **
*A client is defined as ‘separate organisation invoiced’ for the purposes of this submission.
** It is recognised that valid indexing experience may take many different forms. If your main experience is in journal (serial) indexing, different criteria apply: please apply to the SI office for detail. If your experience is not primarily in conventional book or journal indexing but you feel you are eligible to apply, you are encouraged to contact the Society of Indexers with details, which will be considered by the Accreditation: Experience Route Panel.
Procedure for application
- Join SI if not already a member
- Complete application form on website and submit
- Receive ‘evidence of experience’ form from office
- Submit evidence of experience (see below)
- On approval by SI Office, and when ready, buy the Modules pdf and the test (note time limit below) by bank transfer if in the UK or by requesting an invoice for card payment online if outside the UK.
- Submit the test (3-month time limit for submission)
- Accreditation awarded on successful test result
- One resit of test allowed
Evidence details to be provided for each book title
- For all titles listed: ISBN, Title, Author, Publisher, date delivered (or invoice date), number of pages, invoice number (if applicable).
- Copy of invoice for 20% of titles listed (monetary figures may be blacked out): at least one invoice per named client, to be spread over the previous 10 years. Candidate may be asked to supply further invoices on request.
- Copies of 10% of the indexes listed. These should be in the form sent to the publishers, in .rtf, .doc or .pdf format. They should be from at least four different clients. Please note that these indexes will not be assessed as part of the application procedure.
Accreditation: experience route test
Once your application form and evidence details have been received and approved you will be sent instructions for purchasing the pdf of the Training Course modules and the test paper.
The purpose of the test is to ensure that indexers gaining Accreditation by this route are working to current SI Accreditation standards.
The test consists of two parts. Part 1 comprises a series of questions testing different indexing skills, and Part 2 is an index to the course modules. There are 70 marks for Part 1 and 80 marks for Part 2. Both parts must be passed independently. The overall pass mark is 70%.
The test will be sent out by the SI office as an email attachment and answers should be returned to the office as an email attachment. The time limit for completion of the test is 3 months.
Applicants who do not reach pass standard on the test may resit it once only. If they fail only one part they only need to resit that part. For Part 2 a different test will be sent, with a new text to index. The time limit for completion will be 3 months.
Before resitting, applicants may consider taking part (for an additional fee) in one of the group online tutorials which form part of the training course, or undertaking a one-to-one tutorial.
