Publication Details Field

• The old format which dates back to the beginning of the data format.
• The new format which was devised to provide a more flexible approach to specifying publication details for magazines, particularly from the perspective of data mining.

Although the new format was agreed some decades ago it was only implemented in the v2 index programs so it is translated to the old format in many of the programs. Note that the new format is only used for magazine issues while the old format is used for both books and magazines.

Note that, while the following sections differentiate between "books" and "magazines" there are cases a given item is regarded as both (e.g. the issues of New Worlds after #201, apart for #212-216, were published as paperback anthologies, but continued the issue numbering of the magazine and are usually regarded as part of the same sequence). As such, it is perfectly legal for "book" abbreviations to be used in magazine files and for "magazine" abbreviations to be used in book files. What is critical is that each individual item should have a unique set of publication details associated with it - whether this should use a book or magazine abbreviation can be considered on a case by case basis.

• For items first published in a book which has a defined 7-character abbreviation:
  
  YYYY*XXXXXXX where XXXXXXX is a unique abbreviation for the book in which the item was first published.
  
  
• For items original to the book being indexed which does not have a defined abbreviation:
  
  YYYY(*)
  
  
• For items originally published as standalone items:
  
  YYYYXXX{MMM{DD}} where XXX is an abbreviation for the publisher concerned, and MMM and DD, if specified, are the month and day as for magazines below. If there were multiple simultaneous publishers, then the first listed in the "first edition" section (only) should be listed. Note that this format should be used even if the item is a collection, anthology or magazine which had its own set of publication details (e.g. when a collection is later included in an omnibus).
  
  
• For items where only the year of publication is known:
  
  YYYY (for precise dates)
  YYY? (if only the decade is known)
  YY?? (if only the century is known)
  YYYYBC . (for BC dates)
  YYYYca. (for approximate dates)

In addition, a special Internal ID may be specified for use with cross-reference records - this must start with a '$' followed by up to 11 alphanumeric characters, at least one of which must be non-numeric (e.g. $AHPBkDz or $15ShSurSt). These are never interpreted by the programs - simple used for links - and must simply be unique within the database as a whole. Note that the v2 indexing program uses Internal Ids comprising a '$' followed by a string of digits for books without formal book abbreviations.

• By Date: YYYYXXXMMMDD, where:
  • MMM is a three character month abbreviation (e.g. Jan, Feb). Note that "season" names may also be used instead of month names - 'Wtr' (Winter when referring to the start of the year), 'Spr' (Spring), 'Sum' (Summer), 'Fll' (Fall), 'Aut' (Autumn), 'Win' (Winter when referring to the end of the year), 'Chr' (Christmas).
  • DD is optional and specifies either the day number (padded to the left with a space if a single digit) or the number of the issue in the month in the form '#n' (e.g. May#1 is the First May Number; Aug#3 is the Third August Number and so on). It may also contain three special values: 'ea' for early-month publication; 'md' for mid-month publication; or 'lt' for late-month publication.
    
    
• By Volume/Issue: YYYYXXXvnnmm or YYYYXXXnnnmm where:
  • nn is the volume number (padded to the left with a space if a single digit) if 1 or 2 digits and nnn is the volume number if three digits. If the volume number is four digits or more, or the volume number is three digits and the issue number is either omitted or is three digits or more, then the volume and issue number must be specified in the unformatted section as discussed below.
• mm is the issue number (padded to the left with a space if a single digit). If the issue number is three digits or more then the issue number must be specified in the unformatted section as discussed below.
  
  
• By Issue: YYYYXXX#nn or YYYYXXXnnn where:
  • nn is the issue number (padded to the left with a space if a single digit) if 1 or 2 digits and nnn is the issue number if three digits. If the issue number is four digits or more then the issue number must be specified in the unformatted section as discussed below. Note that three-digit issues are only distinguished from three-digit volumes by the presence/absence of following digits specifying the issues associated with a volume number.
    
    
• As an Annual: YYYYXXX'nn where:
  • the annual is labelled 19nn and was published in YYYY (e.g. 1934XXX'35 indicates the 1935 annual published in 1934).
    
    
• Approximate dates: YYYYXXXca.
  
  
• Differentiating multiple issues: YYYYXXX_nn where:
  • nn is a numeric sequence number (padded to the left with a space if a single digit) used to differentiate multiple issues. This is never displayed but is primarily used for linking to the relevant cover scan.

The fields above which are fewer than 12 characters in length (or 15 with a 5-character abbreviation) can be truncated if there is nothing specified in the unformatted section but must be padded with space characters to 12 characters if there is such that the unformatted section (also known as notes) always starts at the 13th (or 16th) character.

Unformatted Section (Notes) for Magazine

By default the fields in the formatted part of the field are converted into a date (e.g. May 29 1937) and anything in the unformatted section is inserted between the month/day and the year, making it easy to handle the simpler forms of complex date such as May/Jun 1937. However, this can be changed by inserting a "%" character into the notes which will result in everything before the "%" being inserted between the month/day and the year and everything after the "%" being added after the year. If the "%" character is the first character in the notes section then the remaining text is added after the year and, in this case only, a "(" may be used instead of the "%" (for backwards compatibility).

The one exception to this is when specifying that an item originally appeared as a multi-part sequence (designated by appending "+n" to the field). If this is the only data in this section (i.e. the "+" immediately follows the formatted part of the field) then it may be specified simply as "+n" and will be displayed as "␢(+n)" after the year field. However, if anything else is included in this section, the full "␢(+n)" must be specified explicitly. Note that, in US files only, if the number of parts is 9 or fewer, and the final two characters in the formatted section are both spaces, then the "+n" might be moved two spaces to the left into the formatted section of the file; this anomaly is corrected in UK versions of the files.

While there are no official "rules" for the way the data is formatted in this section, the most common examples are shown below.

New Format of Publication Details

The new format for publication details is only currently used in UK files, and is based around a date/issue construct of the form:

year|mthda|vol:iss|#wno|'xx|%description

• "year" is the 4-character year in the same format as the old format (e.g. "1974", "19??", "1650ca.")
• "mthda" is the month/day in the same format as the old format (e.g. "Dec16", "Aug#1", "Spr")
• "vol:iss" is a volume and issue number preceded with a 'v' and with a ':' as divider, allowing either field to be as small/large as required (e.g. "v12:9963")
• "#wno" is a whole issue number of any length (e.g. "#1" or "#13376")
• "'xx" is the year number of an annual, as in the old format
• %description can be used in two different ways:
  • to indicate that the issue does not have any formal date or numbering but has a description (e.g. "Undead Special"), or that the date is specified but in a non-standard format (e.g. "Halloween" or "Michaelmas")
  • when there is a need to distinguish between two issues which would, otherwise, be displayed identically. In this latter case (only) the description should be enclosed in brackets (this will ensure it is displayed after the year field(s) rather than before it.)

1995|Jul|#97 or 1995|#97|Jul

1995|Dec|#112/|#113/1996|Jan|#114

• |abbrev|<date|issue>| for items that appeared in a single issue
• |abbrev|<date|issue>+n| for items that appeared in n+1 issues for which the last issue is not known
• |abbrev|<date|issue>-<date|issue>| for items that appeared in multiple issues for which we know the first and last issues, but not the ones in between
• |abbrev|<date|issue>&<date|issue>…| for items that appeared in multiple issues, all of which are known

• (unpublished): some contents were announced for this issue but it was never published
• (unpublished spoof): similar to the previous but the magazine itself is a spoof
• (var.n): multiple versions of this issue exist, distinguished by "var.1", "var.2", etc.

Note that the new format is only intended for use to support formats that the old format did not support and/or to provide a more structured format to replace the unformatted/notes section of the old format. As such, some of the "simple cases" described under the old format have no equivalent in the new format as there is no advantage in coding them any other way.

• ABC or AbcDe represent 3 and 5 character magazine abbreviations, for magazines whose issues are typically identified by date
• PQR or PqrSt represent 3 and 5 character magazine abbreviations, for magazines whose issues are typically identified by volume and issue number
• VWXor VwxYz represent 3 and 5 character magazine abbreviations, for magazines whose issues are typically identified by whole issue number