Frequently asked questions

General questions about Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (MPEPIL)

1) What is available online?

2) How often will MPEPIL be updated?

New and updated content will be added three to four times a year. Once the Encyclopedia is "complete" with the originally planned 1700 articles the material will be updated on a rolling basis. Further new articles will also be commissioned to cover significant developments in international law such as: major new cases before international courts and tribunals, agreement of significant new treaties, and the creation of new international organizations and dispute settlement bodies.

3) Is it possible to have a free trial?

4) How can I subscribe to MPEPIL?

5) On which browsers will MPEPIL run?

MPEPIL is designed to display and function correctly on the following browsers:

Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher for Windows
Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher for Macintosh
Mozilla 1.0 and higher for Windows
Mozilla 1.0 and higher for Macintosh
Firefox 1.0 to 3.6 for Windows
Firefox 1.0 to 3.6 for Macintosh
Safari 1.0 and higher for Macintosh

Pages will also display reliably on the following browsers:

Opera 7.0 for windows
Internet Explorer 4.0 for Windows
Internet Explorer 4.5 for Macintosh

Please note that Google Chrome, Firefox 4.0 and higher, and Safari 5.0 and higher are not currently supported browsers so some pages may not display correctly. In particular, the login screen may be absent and prevent access by user name and password. If you have issues logging in to the site, please use an approved browser.

MPEPIL will display reliably at 800x600, though we recommend 1024x768 as the optimum screen resolution.

6) Is MPEPIL accessible to disabled users?

7) May I print text from the MPEPIL?

8) In what order are search results displayed?

Search results are displayed in order of relevance, the most relevant results being those where search terms are found the most times. A weighting is also be given to results where search terms occur in the title of the article as opposed to the article text.

Results may be sorted so that the most recent documents appear first or so that the most relevant documents appear first.

9) Can I bookmark an article in MPEPIL?

You may bookmark or add to your favourites any article in MPEPIL and return to it at any time.

10) What is the editorial policy for this service?

Inclusion policy

The original list of 1700 article topics selected for the MPEPIL were the result of many months of discussion amongst the editorial advisory board of the MPEPIL.

Content updates

New content will be added three to four times a year. Updated articles will also be uploaded at those times. Once the Encyclopedia is "complete" with the originally planned 1700 articles the material will be updated on a rolling basis. Further new articles will also be commissioned to cover significant developments in international law such as: major new cases before international courts and tribunals, agreement of significant new treaties, and the creation of new international organizations and dispute settlement bodies.

Responses to queries

Queries submitted to OUP via the MPEPIL website will be acknowledged within 24 hours of receipt by the Academic Law department, Monday through Friday. If your query cannot be answered right away, we will make every effort to provide an answer within one week.

1) I can't access the MPEPIL subscription site

2) After I enter my username/password and click on "log in" and then try to search or browse the lists, I'm being bounced back to the log-in screen

It is possible that you need to alter your cache settings:

• In IE5: Select Tools: Internet Options on the menu bar, on the General tab select the Settings button and select "every visit to the page"; IE6 +: Select View from the menu bar in Internet Explorer, and then choose Internet Options, General and then Settings, and under "check for newer versions of stored pages" just select "every visit to the page".
• In Mozilla Firefox: Go to Tools / Options / Privacy and ensure that the 'Always clear my private data when I close Firefox' box is checked, and then click Settings and check the 'Cache' box.

3) I have forgotten my user name and password to access MPEPIL

Only account administrators can reset passwords. Please see your librarian or administrator for help.

Individual subscribers: Forgot your password? Have a new one sent to you:

4) Can I access MPEPIL away from my library/institution?

It is possible to have remote access to an institution's subscription, through either a referrer page on the institution's site, or username/password access. Please contact your librarian or account administrator for more details.

5) Do you offer library card access?

6) Is MPEPIL accessible through Athens?

Yes, the MPEPIL subscription site is accessible through Athens. Pease ask your librarian or administrator for details.

7) What is your policy on cookies?

1) Why are some accented characters displaying as boxes?

We recommend installing the Arial Unicode font to ensure that all characters display properly.

2) I've spotted an error in MPEPIL.

3) One of the links in MPEPIL doesn't work.

4) I am having problems with searching.

5) How do I cite an article from MPEPIL?

Articles in the online edition of the MPEPIL should be cited as follows:

A. Kiss, 'Abuse of Process', in R Wolfrum (ed), The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Oxford University Press, 2008-, online edition, [www.mpepil.com], visited on [DATE]

6) What are Subjects and Article Types?

Subjects are high-level categories which indicate the subject matter of the document. Article types are similar but relate to those articles that are about similar kinds of thing e.g. cases or places, but don't necessary deal with the same legal subject matter.

7) I think that an article needs updating

8) I think you are missing an article which really should be included in this service

9) How can I find out when an article will be available on the site?

Please contact us.

1) Which methods of access to MPEPIL are available?

Librarians or account administrators have the option to allow their users to access MPEPIL by the following methods:

• Library card
• IP address (logs users directly into the website from your network)
• User name and password (for a limited number of concurrent users)
• Referring URL (from a secure page on your organization's site)

2) Our institution connects to the internet using NAT, can we access MPEPIL?

3) Users with off-site access to MPEPIL.

4) Questions about proxy servers

a) Will our proxy server IP address(es) be enough to allow access to MPEPIL?

Yes. However, if you are accessing MPEPIL through a proxy server then you will need to give us the IP address of the proxy server in order for you to access the MPEPIL site.

5) Questions relating to IP addresses

6) Questions about passwords

7) Does MPEPIL support federated searching and meta-search?

MPEPIL supports meta-search, accessible by meta-search software via HTTP request. MPEPIL supports the method="get" using a base url of: http://www.mpepil.com/subscriber_search_results?.

After that it is a matter of using the correct combination of the following parameters:

1. "searchType=Quick" for Quick Search, and "query=" for query
   Advanced searches can be specified as follows:
2. "searchType=Advanced" for Advanced Search

Where the parameter of the search is one or a combination of:

3. "title="
4. "author="
5. "fullText="
6. "bibliography="
7. "selectDocuments="
8. "subject="

Terms should be linked by the + (plus) sign. Multiple parameters should be connected by an ampersand (&).

Example searches

http://www.mpepil.com/subscriber_search_results?searchType=Quick&query=greenland
http://www.mpepil.com/subscriber_search_results?searchType=Advanced&fullText=greenland&subject=Territory
http://www.mpepil.com/subscriber_search_results?searchType=Advanced&author=klabbers&bibliography=bittner&selectDocuments=vienna+convention

8) Does MPEPIL support Shibboleth?

1) How do I use Subscriber services?

Subscriber services are only available to subscribers of MPEPIL who are logged in to the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law site. Once you have logged in to the site, just click the Subscriber services link from the Home page. Once on the Subscriber services page, you will be required to enter your administrator username and password in order to access the following services:

• View subscription information and IP addresses
• View or change your account preferences
• View your institutional usage reports

2) Can I see usage statistics for my library/institution?

3) How do I update my institution's subscription record?

4) Can I add my library's logo to MPEPIL?

1) Is MPEPIL OpenURL compliant?

2) What is the service identifier (sid) for OpenURL from MPEPIL?

The service identifier (sid) is OUP:MPEPIL.

3) What information should I register for OpenURL?

You should register the following information for OpenURL in Subscriber Services:

1. the resolver address (e.g. http://resolver.library.edu);
2. the version of the OpenURL standard your resolver requests; this will be one of:
   • 0.1
   • 1.0
   Note that IC currently supports only version 0.1 of the standard; 1.0 should not be selected;
3. the format in which OpenURL query parameters should be sent to the resolver: this will be one of:
1. key-value pairs (KEV)
2. XML Note that MPEPIL will provide OpenURL query parameters in KEV format: XML should not be selected.

4) When will I be able to specify OpenURL query parameters in XML format?

Query parameters in XML format will be enabled when MPEPIL supports version 1.0 of the OpenURL standard.

5) How will accented characters be handled by MPEPIL?

MPEPIL uses accented forms of characters in its OpenURLs: these are the characters concerned plus their accents, so, for example, MPEPIL uses "é" instead of "e". We do this to provide the simplest solution for resolvers interpreting these characters and interfacing with other systems (e.g. library catalogues).

6) Will MPEPIL handle any DOI (digital object identifier) information in its OpenURL links?

MPEPIL does not handle any DOIs in its OpenURL links. We may incorporate these into our OpenURLs at some stage in the future.

7) Are OUP's products OpenURL targets or referring sources?

OUP's online products are currently only referring sources.

8) Can I add my library's OpenURL resolver logo to MPEPIL?

9) Can I turn OpenURL links on and off?

Yes, you can view any article in MPEPIL with the OpenURL links turned on or off. The default display is OpenURL links turned on. From within any article, there is a light blue box below the Table of Contents. Simply click the 'Turn OFF OpenURL links' or 'Turn ON OpenURL links' as required.

Questions about the Oxford Law Citator

1) What is the Oxford Law Citator ?

The Oxford Law Citator is a state-of-the-art navigation tool which integrates the content of all online law resources from Oxford University Press, providing direct links between our case reports, primary materials, and value-added commentary.

A unique Citator, record exists for each case report, instrument, commentary, or other material published on any online law resources from OUP. Within this record you will find citation details and links to the item. In addition you will find other useful information about the item, such as lists of other items that reference or are referenced by the item, links to related items, items from the same jurisdiction, and more.

To access the Citator record for any particular item, click on the Citator logo within the item title, the Citator entry within the item table of contents, or any active links throughout the item text.

2) How do I get back to MPEPIL from the Oxford Law Citator ?

There are a number of ways to return to the MPEPIL service from the Oxford Law Citator:

• Use your browser's Back button;
• Click on the link at top of the Citator page to the report on the OUP service;
• Enter the document online at the specific place in the report, commentary or full text at which a specific decision is mentioned or discussed, via the links which appear under the "Referenced at" heading in the links section.

3) Which links take me to the MPEPIL service, and which links take me further into the Citator ?

The orange-coloured links take you to the MPEPIL service, and the dark blue-coloured links take you further into the Oxford Law Citator.

4) Why is there no link to a document in an OUP service from the Citator Page I am looking at?

Each document published on OUP's services has its own Citator Page. However, the number of records in the Citator is many times the number of documents on OUP's services, as part of the process of marking up the links is to create a separate Citator page for each item mentioned or discussed within OUP's online content, whether or not that item, or any report on that item, is actually included within OUP's online collection. Therefore, some Citator records do not link to a document, as we may not have it in an Oxford online service.

The aim is to provide users with the information that they need to continue their research, and with the facility to move between published documents that mention the same decisions, instruments or commentary.

5) What kinds of references are added to the Citator ?

The process of enhancement incorporates into the Oxford Law Citator references within OUP services to cases, instruments (legislation, treaties, institutional rules etc), commentary (journal articles, monographs etc) and other official documents.

Questions about Email Alerts

1) What do emails alerts provide?

2) What content is included?

Email alerts provide details on all content published on the resource. This will include archive items which are being uploaded to the resource retrospectively, as well as never before published content.

3) How often are they sent?

Alerts are sent following each update to the MPEPIL service, approximately once a quarter

4) How do I change my settings?

Email alert settings can be accessed by placing your email address back into the email alerts sign-up box, or following the instructions sent within the email alerts sign-up email or any subsequent email alerts.

5) How do I unsubscribe from email alerts?

To unsubscribe follow the instructions within the email alert settings.

6) Why am I receiving duplicate email alerts?

The customization of the email alerts allows users to make selections which may produce duplicate data across multiple alerts.