This all-inclusive index to the Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) accesses more than 16 years of scientific material, encompassing a wide variety of marine geoscience subdisciplines. The index contains three separate indexes, reflecting the interwoven nature of the marine geoscience subdisciplines: (1) subject, (2) paleontological, and (3) site.

Materials included in the subject index include entries pertaining to (1) sedimentology, (2) geography and geomorphology, (3) geophysics, (4) igneous petrology, and (5) geochemistry (organic and inorganic). References to geographic names, both of surface and undersea features, are included in the subject index even if they are mentioned merely in passing.

Entries in the paleontological index are grouped under eight main divisions: (1) diatoms; (2) foraminifers, benthic; (3) foraminifers, planktonic; (4) nannofossils; (5) other fossil groups (macrofossils, sponges, trace fossils, and others); (6) pollen and spores; (7) radiolarians; and (8) silicoflagellates. Site numbers are omitted from the paleontological index; locations are identified by the geographic name. Ecological, environmental, and climatological information derived from paleontological evidence appears in the subject index.

The site index was designed to serve two functions: (1) briefly to abstract the contents of each site chapter, and (2) to list all references to particular sites contained in volumes other than the report of the leg during which the site was drilled. These references are captured under the site number itself or under the geographic location of the site.