About Me
I am an accredited indexer with
the Society of Indexers, having achieved Advanced Professional Membership in 2017. I took on my first commercial indexes in 2012, pursuing indexing as a flexible career option that complemented my part-time job as an Environmental Consultant.
As of 2023 I am exclusively self-employed as an indexer.
I specialise in indexing within Geography, which was the subject of my degree at Cambridge University (MA hons 1st class), including the related disciplines of Environmental Science, Earth Sciences, Economics and Social Science. My professional background as an Environmental Consultant has helped to build upon and strengthen my subject knowledge, particularly within Environmental Science and Environmental Law, and I maintain an active interest in the field through general reading and associate membership of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA).
I live with my husband and 3 children in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and in my spare time enjoy walking and playing the flute.
How I Index
Since I first started indexing, I have always loved doing the work. In part, I purely enjoy the excuse to be reading a wide range of subject matter, which provides me with a way of keeping in touch with the academic world since my graduation in 2012. But beyond that there is something extremely satisfying about the process of organising and mapping out the information for the index, creating a product that captures the text’s concepts and providing multiple routes into that subject for users.
The majority of my work is for academic books, mostly for traditional printed publishing, though I have also indexed e-books and have experience of tagging for embedded indexing too.
In addition to my primary experience in academic indexes, I also indexed the Ringing World, the bellringers’ weekly journal for 10 years (2013-2023). Indexing for an ongoing journal, I learned how to anticipate the structure and wording of the finished index.
Rosie Wood (BA, MSocInd), Accredited Indexer 