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Recommendation concerning the International Standardization of Statistics Relating to Book Production and Periodicals

19 November 1964


UNESDOC - (PDF) English
- French - Spanish - Russian

The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, at its thirteenth session, held in Paris from 20 October to 20 November 1964,

Considering that under Article IV, paragraph 4, of the Constitution, the Organization may prepare and adopt instruments for the international regulation of questions falling within its competence,

Considering that Article VIII of the Constitution of UNESCO provides that `each Member State shall report periodically to the Organization, in a manner to be determined by the General Conference, on its laws, regulations and statistics relating to educational, scientific and cultural life and institutions, and on the action taken upon the recommendations 'and conventions referred to in Article IV, paragraph 4',

Convinced that it is highly desirable for the national authorities responsible for collecting and communicating statistics relating to book production and periodicals to be guided by certain standards in the matter of definitions, classifications and tabulations, in order to improve the international comparability of such statistics,

Having before it, as item 15.3.2 of the agenda of the session, proposals concerning the international standardization of statistics relating to book production and periodicals,

Having decided at its twelfth session that these proposals should be incorporated in an international instrument, to take the form of a recommendation to Member States,

Adopts this-recommendation this nineteenth day of November 1964.


The General Conference recommends, with a view to the compilation of inter-national statistics, that Member States apply the following provisions concerning definitions, classifications and tabulations of statistics relating to book production and periodicals, by adopting measures, in the form of a national law or otherwise, to give effect, within the territories under their jurisdiction, to the standards and principles formulated in this recommendation.

The General Conference recommends that Member States bring this recommendation to the attention of authorities and services responsible for collecting and communicating statistics relating to book production and periodicals.

The General Conference recommends that Member States forward to it, by the dates and in the form which it shall prescribe, reports concerning action taken by them upon this recommendation.

I. Scope and general definitions

1. The statistics referred to in this recommendation should cover printed periodical and non-periodical publications which are published in a particular country and made available to the public, and, in general, are publications which should be included in the national bibliographies of the various countries.

2. The following publications should be excluded from the statistics mentioned in this recommendation:

(a) Publications issued for advertising purposes, provided that the literary or scientific text is subsidiary and that the publications are distributed free of charge :

(i) Trade catalogues, prospectuses and other types of commercial, industrial and tourist advertising;

(ii) Publications describing activities or technical progress in some branch of industry or commerce and drawing attention to- the products or services supplied by the publisher.

(b) Publications belonging to the following categories, when they are considered to be of a transitory character:

(i) Time-tables, price lists, telephone directories, etc. ;

(ii) Programmes of entertainments, exhibitions, fairs, etc. ;

(iii) Regulations and reports of business firms, company directives, circulars, etc. ;

(iv) Calendars, almanacs, etc.

(c) Publications belonging to the following categories in which the text is not the most important part:

(i) Musical works (scores or music books); provided that the music is more important than the words;

(ii) Maps and charts, with the exception of atlases; for example, astronomical charts, hydrographic, geographical and wall maps, road maps, geological surveys in map form and topographical plans.

3. In compiling the statistics referred to in this recommendation, the following definitions should be used:

(a) A publication is considered to be non periodical if it is published at one time, or, at intervals, by volumes, the number of which is generally determined in advance;

(b) A publication is considered to be a periodical if it constitutes one issue in a continuous series under the same title, published at regular or irregular intervals, over an indefinite period, individual issues in the series being numbered consecutively or each issue being dated;

(c) The term printed includes reproduction by any method of mechanical impression, whatever it may be;

(d) A publication is considered to be published in a particular country if the publisher has his registered office in the country where the statistics are compiled, the place of printing or place of circulation here being it-, relevant. When a publication is issued by one or more publishers who have registered offices in two or more countries, it is considered as Raving been published in the country or countries where it. is issued;

(e) A publication is considered as being made available to the public when it is obtainable either by purchase or by distribution free of charge. Publications intended for a restricted readership, such as certain government publications, those of learned societies, political or professional organizations, etc., are also considered as being available to the public.

II. Book production statistics

Scope 4.


The book production statistics referred to in this recommendation should cover non-periodical publications corresponding to the characteristics and definitions given in paragraphs 1 and 3 above, with the exception of the publications listed in paragraph 2 above. 5. The following types of publication, inter alia, should be included in book production statistics:

(a) Government publications, i.e., publications issued by public administrations or their subsidiary bodies, except for those which are confidential or designed for internal distribution only;

(b) School textbooks, i.e., books prescribed for pupils receiving education at the first and second level as defined in the recommendation concerning the international standardization of educational statistics adopted by the General Conference on 3 December 1958;

(c) University theses;

(d) Offprints, i.e., reprints of a part of a book or a periodical already published, provided that they have a title and a separate pagination and that they constitute a distinct work;

(e) Publications which form part of a series, but which constitute separate bibliographical units ;

(f) Illustrated works:

(i) Collections of prints, reproductions of works of art, drawings, etc., when such collections form complete, paginated volumes and when the illustrations are accompanied by an explanatory text, however short, referring to these works or to the artists themselves;

(ii) Albums, illustrated books and pamphlets written in the form of continuous narratives, with pictures illustrating certain episodes ;

(iii) Albums and picture books for children.

Definitions

6. The following definitions are without prejudice to existing international agreements and should be used for the particular purpose of drawing up the book production statistics referred to in this recommendation:

(a) A book is a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages, exclusive of the cover pages, published in the country and made available to the public;

(b) A pamphlet is a non-periodical printed publication of at least 5 but not more than 48 pages, exclusive of the cover pages, published in a particular country and made available to the public;

(c) A first edition is the first publication of an original or translated manuscript;

(d) A re-edition is a publication distinguished from previous editions by change made in the contents (revised edition) or layout (new edition);

(e) A reprint is unchanged in contents and layout, apart from correction of typographical errors in the previous edition. A reprint by any publisher other than the original publisher is regarded as a re-edition;

(f) A translation is a publication which reproduces a work in a language other than the original language;

(g) A title is a term used to designate a printed publication which forms a separate whole, whether issued in one or several volumes.

7. Book production statistics should indicate the number of titles and, if possible, the number of copies of published works. Countries not able to supply information on the number of copies produced may, as an interim measure, supply information on number of copies sold or otherwise distributed.

(a) When a work is published in several volumes (not having separate titles) appearing over a period of several years, the work is counted each year as a single unit, whatever the number of volumes published in one year may be.

(b) However, the volume, rather than the title, should be taken as the statistical unit in the following cases :

(i) When two or more separate works are published under the same cover and form a single publication (complete works of an author, selected plays by various authors, etc.);

(ii) When a work appears in several volumes, each volume having a different title and forming a separate whole.

8. Reprints should not be counted in the numbers of titles, but only in the number of copies, as provided in paragraph 11, sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) below.

Classification

9. Book production statistics should, in the first place, be classified by subject groups. Until another classification system has been evolved and adopted, the classification given below, which is based upon the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) and has 23 groups (the figures given in parentheses refer to the corresponding UDC headings), is the one which should be used :

1. Generalities (0); 2. Philosophy, psychology (1); 3. Religion, theology (2); 4. Sociology, statistics (30-31); 5. Political science, political economy (32-33); 6. Law, public administration, welfare, social relief,, insurance (34., 351-354, 36); 7. Military art and science (355-359); 8. Education (37); 9. Trade, communications, transport (38); 10. Ethnography, manners and customs, folklore (39); 11. Linguistics, philology (4); 12. Mathematics (51); 13. Natural sciences (52-59); 14. Medical sciences, public health (61); 15. Technology, industries, trades and crafts (62, 66-69); 16. Agriculture, forestry, stockbreeding, hunting, fishing (63); 17. Domestic science (64); 18. Commercial and business management techniques, communications, transport (65) ; 19. Town planning, architecture, plastic arts, minor arts, photography, music, film, cinema, theatre, radio, television (70-78, 791 792); 20. Entertainment, pastimes, games, sports (790, 793-799); 21. Literature (8): (a) History of literature and literary criticism, (b) Literary texts; 22. Geography, travel (91); 23. History, biography (92-99).

School textbooks and children's books already identified in the above-mentioned subject groups should also be counted separately in the two following additional groups: (a) school textbooks and (b) children's books.

10. Each of these groups should be subdivided as follows:

(a) According to the number of the publication's pages into:

(i) books and

(ii) pamphlets;

(b) According to language:

(i) for the total production of publications, by language of publication;

(ii) for translations only, by original language. Bilingual or multilingual works should form a separate group, namely: `works in two or more languages';

(c) According to order of publication into:

(i) first editions, and

(ii) re-editions, as provided in paragraph 11 (a) and (b).
Tables

11. Tables containing the types of data indicated below should be drawn up annually and the information given should conform to the definitions and classifications set forth in the preceding paragraphs. Attention should be drawn to any differences between such definitions and classifications and those customarily used at the national level. These types of data are:

(a) Statistics relating to the total number of titles, classified by subject and a distinction being made, in each subject, firstly, between books and pamphlets, and, secondly, between first editions and re-editions;

(b) Statistics relating to the total number of copies classified by subject and a distinction being made, in each subject, between books and pamphlets. It would be desirable, so far as possible, to make a further distinction between first editions (and reprints counted with them) and re-editions (and reprints counted with them) ;

(c) Statistics relating to the total number of titles, classified both by subject and by language of publication;

(d) Statistics relating to the total number of copies classified by subject and by language of publication;

(e) Statistics relating to translations: total number of titles, classified both by subject and by original language;

(f) Statistics relating to translations: total number of copies, classified both by subject and by original language.

III. Statistics of periodicals

Scope


12. Statistics of the periodicals referred to in this recommendation should cover all periodicals corresponding to the characteristics and definitions mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 3 above, with the exception of the publications listed in paragraph 2 above.

13. The following categories of publications, inter alia; should be counted in statistics of periodicals:

(a) Government periodicals, i.e., periodicals published by public administrations or their subsidiary bodies, including compilations of laws, regulations, etc., except for those which are confidential or designed for internal distribution only;

(b) Academic and scientific journals, i.e., university journals, the publications of research institutes and other learned or cultural societies, etc. ;

(c) Periodicals of professional, trade union, political or sports organizations, etc., even if they are distributed only to their own members;

(d) Publications appearing annually or less frequently;

(e) Parish magazines;

(f) School magazines and school newspapers;

(g) `House organs', i.e., publications intended for the employees of an industrial or commercial firm or some similar enterprise, or for the clients of the firms;

(h) Entertainment, radio and television programmes, if the literary text in them is substantial.

Definitions

14. The following definitions should be used in compiling statistics of periodicals referred to in this recommendation:

(a) General interest newspapers are periodicals intended for the general public and mainly designed to be a primary source of written information on current events connected with public affairs, international questions, politics, etc. They may also include articles on literary or other subjects as well as illustrations and advertising. This definition includes:

(i) All general interest newspapers mainly reporting events that have occurred in the 24-hour period before going to press, whether they be dailies or not (Sunday newspapers, for instance);

(ii) Non-daily general interest newspapers which give news covering a longer period but which, either owing to their local nature or for other reasons, provide their readers with a primary source of general information;

(b) Other periodicals are those which are either concerned with subjects of very general interest or else mainly publish studies and factual information on such specialized subjects as legislation, finance, trade, medicine, fashion, sports, etc. This definition covers specialized journals, reviews, including those reviews dealing with current events whose aim is to select, condense or comment on facts which have already been reported in general interest newspapers, magazines and all other periodicals apart from general interest newspapers, with the exception of the publications mentioned in paragraph 2 of this recommendation.

Methods of enumeration

15. Statistics of periodicals should show the total number of publications and, if possible, their circulation.

16. In calculating the total number of periodicals, the following methods should be adopted:

a) The following should not be considered as separate publications:

(i) Provincial or local editions of the same publication without substantial difference in news or editorial content. A mere difference in title or in the local news pages is not sufficient for the publication to be considered as a separate newspaper;

(ii) Supplements not sold separately.

(b) On the other hand, publications in the following categories should be considered as separate publications:

(i) Provincial or local editions differing substantially from the main publication in news or editorial content;

(ii) Supplements sold separately;

(iii) Special editions (such as Sunday newspapers, etc.);

(iv) Morning and evening dailies, provided they have separate titles or constitute separate legal entities;

(v) Different language editions of the same publication, if published in a particular country.

17. Circulation figures should show the average daily circulation, or the average circulation per issue in the case of non-daily publications. These figures should include the number of copies sold, either directly or by subscription, plus the number of free copies" regularly distributed, both inside the country and abroad, except unsold copies. When circulation data are not available, the number of copies printed should be indicated.

Classification

18. Periodicals should, first of all, be subdivided into two categories: general interest newspapers and other periodicals.

19. General interest newspapers: statistics relating to general interest newspapers should, as far as possible, be classified as follows:

(a) By language; publications issued in bilingual or multilingual editions should be placed in a separate category;

(b) By frequency:

(i) Newspapers published at least 4 times a week; a distinction should also be made between morning and evening newspapers;

(ii) Newspapers published 3 times a week or less frequently; a distinction should also be made between newspapers published 2 or 3 times a week, once a week, or less frequently.

20: Other periodicals: statistics relating to this category should be classified as follows

(a) By language; publications issued in bilingual or multilingual editions should be placed in a separate category;

(b) By frequency: periodicals which appear:

(i) At least 4 times a week;

(ii) From 1 to 3 times a week;

(iii) Two or 3 times a month;

(iv) From 8 to 12 times a year;

(v) From 5 to 7 times a year;

(vi) From 2 to 4 times a year;

(vii) Once a year or at longer intervals;

(viii) Irregularly.

(c) By subject: until another classification system has been evolved and adopted, the classification given below, which is based on the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) and contains 23 subject groups, should be used for international statistics of periodicals (the figures given in parentheses refer to the corresponding UDC headings):

1. Generalities (0); 2. Philosophy, psychology (1); 3. Religion, theology (2); 4. Sociology, statistics (30-31); 5. Political science, political economy (32-33); 6. Law, public administration, welfare, social relief, insurance (34, 351-354, 36); 7. Military art and science (355-359); 8. Education (37); 9. Trade, communications, transport (38); 10. Ethnography, manners and customs, folklore (39);'11. Linguistics, philology (4); 12. Mathematics (51); 13. Natural sciences (52-59); 14. Medical sciences, public health (61); 15. Technology, industries, trades and crafts (62, 66-69); 16. Agriculture, forestry, stock-breeding, hunting, fishing (63); 17. Domestic science (64); 18. Commercial and business management techniques, communications, transport (65); 19. Town planning, architecture, plastic arts, minor arts, photography, music, film, cinema, theatre, radio, television (70-78, 791792); 20. Entertainment, pastimes, games, sports (790, 793-799); 21. Literature (8); 22. Geography, travel (91); 23. History, biography (92-99).

(d) The publications in the classification below will not be counted according to the 23 groups listed above, but should be counted as a separate classification:

(i) Children's and adolescents' magazines ;

(ii) Comics and humour magazines;

(iii) Parish magazines;

(iv) School magazines and school newspapers;

(v)`House organs'.

Tables

21. Tables containing the types of data indicated below should be drawn up annually and the information given should conform as far as possible to the definitions and classifications set forth in the preceding paragraphs. Attention should be drawn to any differences between such definitions and classifications and those customarily used at the national level. These types of data are:

(a) General interest newspapers and other periodicals: statistics of the total number of publications and their circulation, classified by frequency and by main language of publication;

(b) Other periodicals: statistics of the total number of periodicals and their circulation, classified by subject group and by frequency of publication.


The foregoing is the authentic text of the Recommendation duly adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization during its thirteenth session, which was held in Paris and declared closed the twentieth day of November 1964.

IN FAITH WHEREOF we have appended our signatures this twenty-first day of November 1964.

The President of the General Conference
The Director-General


UNESDOC - (PDF) English
- French - Spanish - Russian
Date of adoption 1964
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