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Product Data Certification
Program
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Introduction
Frequently Asked Questions
Application
Process
Currently
Certified Organizations
Introduction
Many publishers and booksellers have long understood that good product
information sells books and that the availability of comprehensive,
accurate and timely product information is critical to the successful
operation of the modern book supply chain. In recent years various
developments have made it easier to prepare and distribute high-quality
information. International standards like ONIX have been helpful and
many publishers, booksellers and data aggregators have adopted it to
organize and communicate information in a standardized way.
Practical guidance has also been made available. The Book Industry
Study Group has prepared Product Metadata Best Practices,
a set of voluntary guidelines that aims to help publishers improve the
quality of their product information throughout the supply chain and
speed the delivery of that information to the vendors’
trading partners.
Now there is a new tool to help publishers improve their product
information and to evaluate quality against industry-wide benchmarks.
It is called the Product Data Certification Program (PDCP). PDCP has
been designed within the BISAC Metadata Committee and is operated by
the Book Industry Study Group, which for
more than 30 years has been working to improve the efficiency of the US
book supply chain. Certification programs like PDCP have been
introduced successfully in several countries and have been proven to
encourage best practice and raise the quality of product information.
Frequently
Asked Questions
What is
the Product Data Certification Program (PDCP)?
PDCP is a voluntary program that enables
publishers (and certain other organizations – see below) to
submit files of product information to the Book Industry Study Group
and to have those files evaluated objectively and against clearly
defined criteria. All publishers participating in the program will get
feedback on the information they supply and those that meet the
criteria for data content and timeliness will be certified by BISG as
Quality Information Providers. PDCP is not intended to replace any
measures already in place between individual publishers and booksellers
to evaluate product information. Instead it seeks to put in place
agreed criteria for measuring data quality and a transparent process
for evaluating and acknowledging it.
Who
is eligible to apply for certification?
PDCP is intended for US publishers, bibliographic
data aggregators, and for any intermediaries to which publishers
delegate responsibility for creating or maintaining product
information. In a second phase of the program to be released later this
year, PDCP will allow recipients of information (e.g., booksellers,
wholesalers and data aggregators) to apply for certification as Quality
Information Recipients.
Do
I have to be a BISG member to apply for certification?
No. BISG membership is encouraged for all applicants, but is not a
requirement of the Product Data Certification Program.
What
are the benefits of Product Data Certification?
- For
the first time, U.S. organizations can get individual feedback
on product data.
- The
program is based on objective and approved criteria derived from
industry-approved best practices.
- Feedback
is provided by a panel of data experts drawn from several leading data
recipients.
- PDCP
establishes and maintains a benchmark for quality product information.
- PDCP
is supported actively by all the major data recipients.
- The
program is designed, maintained and administered by a trusted and
impartial source, BISG.
- Organizations
are acknowledged throughout the industry for their contributions to
data quality.
- PDCP
can help organizations identify areas for data improvement and thereby
support higher sales.
Who
evaluates my data?
Your data
files will be evaluated by a certification panel managed, supervised
and supported by BISG. The panel comprises representatives from leading
data recipients in North America,
including Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble,
BookNet Canada, Bowker, and Ingram. Others may also join the panel.
The panel
will meet at least once every two months to consider all data suppliers
who have applied for certification since the panel’s last
meeting. Data suppliers will have to submit their data for
certification at least two weeks prior to the panel’s next
scheduled meeting in order to be considered for certification at that
meeting. Data suppliers who do not meet the deadline for a meeting will
be evaluated at the following meeting of the panel.
All data
files will be measured against the same criteria (see below for further
details). You will be provided with written feedback on your data files
by BISG and will receive minutes of meetings at which your file is
evaluated. You will be entitled to appeal against any decision made by
the certification panel.
Is
there a charge to participate in the Product Data Certification Program?
The
program will be free-of-charge for the first year of its operation.
BISG will charge a $100 fee for new applicants and for re-certification
each
subsequent year. The program will be open to both BISG members and
non-members under the same fee structure. BISG will review the
feasibility of the fee structure after the program has been in place
for six months.
When
should a product's data be certified?
Products
first become subject to data certification 180 days prior to their
publication or on-sale date and they remain subject to data
certification until 180 days after their publication or on-sale data.
During
the pre-publication period, products will be certified on the presence
of seventeen data points (see below). It is acknowledged that these
data points (with the exception of ISBN-13/EAN.UCC-13) are subject to
change during the pre-publication period, and no data suppliers will be
penalized for changes to this data during the pre-publication period
for any product.
During
the post-publication period, products will be certified on thirty data
points (the aforementioned seventeen data points plus thirteen
additional data points [see below]).
What are the data
points being
evaluated for the certification of pre-publication data?
All
products to be
released in the 180 days following the date on which the submitted file
was produced will be evaluated
for the presence of valid data in the following data
elements (the specific ONIX tags to be used for each data element are
detailed in Product Metadata Best Practices):
1.
ISBN-13/EAN.UCC-13
2. Title
3. Contributor(s) ¹
4. Publisher / imprint / brand name
5. Price (prices for all markets where this ISBN may be sold should be
included)
6. Publisher’s proprietary discount code
7. Publisher status code
8. Product availability code
9.
Product form / format / binding / packaging
10. Publication date
11. Strict-on-sale date ²
12. BISAC Subject Code(s)
13. Language of product content
14. Series data ¹
15. Edition data ¹
16. Replaces / replaced by ²
17. Case pack / carton quantity
¹
This data point does not necessarily apply to every product; in cases
where this data does not apply to a given product, an indication should
be given that there is no applicable data.
² This data point does not necessarily apply to every product;
in cases where this data does not apply to a given product, no data
should be supplied in this data element. In such cases, the omission of
this data will not count as an incomplete record for purposes of
certification.
What
are the data points being evaluated for the certification of data upon
a product’s release?
All
products released within the 180 days prior to the date on which the
test file was produced will be evaluated for the
presence of valid data in the following data elements (the
specific ONIX tags to be used for each data element are detailed in Product Metadata Best Practices):
1.
ISBN-13/EAN.UCC-13
2. Title
3. Contributor(s) ¹
4. Publisher / imprint / brand name
5. Price (prices for all markets where this ISBN may be sold should be
included)
6. Publisher’s proprietary discount code
7. Publisher status code
8. Product availability code
9. Product form / format / binding / packaging
10. Publication date
11. Strict-on-sale date ²
12. BISAC Subject Code(s)
13. Language of product content
14. Series data ¹
15. Edition data ¹
16.
Replaces / replaced by ²
17. Case pack / carton quantity
18. Volume number / set data ²
19. ONIX Audience Code
20. Age range of target audience ²
21. Territorial rights
22. Bar code indicator
23. Weight and dimensions
24. Return code
25. Page count, running time, and extent
26. Distributor / vendor of record
27. Number of pieces (if greater than one) ²
28. Textual description of product
29. Illustration details ²
30. Digital image of product
¹
This data point does not necessarily apply to every product; in cases
where this data does not apply to a given product, an indication should
be given that there is no applicable data.
² This data point does not necessarily apply to every product;
in cases where this data does not apply to a given product, no data
should be supplied in this data element. In such cases, the omission of
this data will not count as an incomplete record for purposes of
certification.
What
if a specific data point does not apply to a given product?
Where noted in the lists above, some data points should be supplied as
applicable. Data suppliers using ONIX should utilize the ONIX data
points that indicate, for example, no series data applies to a given
product in such cases. It is expected that in ONIX 3.0 a provision will
be made to indicate that a given set of data (e.g., series data,
edition data, illustration data, etc.) does not apply to a given
product, and such an indication will then be mandatory when no data is
supplied for a given set of data points.
Must
a supplier be ONIX-compliant
for its product data to be certified?
No. BISAC
has designated the BookNet Canada (BNC) Bronze Template (Excel format)
for bibliographic data as an alternative to ONIX for data suppliers who
have not implemented ONIX. Data suppliers who use the BNC Bronze
Template for certification and who meet the certification standards
will receive a “non-ONIX” data certification.
The BNC
Bronze Template (and supporting documentation) may be found on BookNet Canada's website.
Are there any other criteria
used
for certification?
The
following criteria will be considered for each applicant:
- Presence of required data points (see data
points listed above)
- Timeliness (initial pre-publication data
records must be supplied 180 days in advance of a product’s
release)
- Quality of data (i.e., adherence to Product Metadata Best Practices).
Anecdotal feedback from the members of the certification panel will be
provided to each applicant for certification
- Formatting of data files (e.g., does XML pass
DTD validation, does it conform to the encoding expressed in the
message header, is the Excel file produced using the designated template, etc.)
Will data
suppliers receive a numeric grade? If so, what would be a
“passing grade”?
Data
suppliers will
be evaluated on various criteria (see above) and each criterion cannot
be measured in such a way to produce a numeric grade. Data suppliers
will, however, receive a numeric grade for each required data element,
indicating the number of records where that data element was supplied.
Product records that are missing data in ANY of the required measurable
data elements will NOT be counted as records that
“pass” certification. The applicant’s
score will be confidential and not divulged to any parties other than
the applicant, the members of the certification panel, and the BISG
staff who administer the program.
Eighty percent (80%) of
a supplier’s records would have to contain valid data in each
measurable data point (i.e., those data points that apply to every
product) for a supplier’s file to be passed-on to the
certification panel for final evaluation. The
certification panel will then discuss and vote on the certification of
each candidate. A majority vote in favor of certification by the
panel’s members will be necessary for a candidate to be
certified.
Data
points that do not apply to every product (e.g., series data) will NOT
be included in the calculation of a data supplier’s numeric
score, but the omission of such data in records where it should have
been included will be noted by the certification panel in its
evaluation.
Applicants
who wish to appeal their certification status or numeric grade will
have their appeal considered by a subcommittee of the BISG Board of
Directors. This Appeals Subcommittee will review materials submitted by
the applicant as well as the work of the certification panel.
If the
certification panel is able to develop a workable numeric grading
system for the quality of data, such a grade will also be provided. Any
such grading system will not be developed without extensive input from
all concerned parties and it will not be implemented until a subsequent
phase of the Certification Program.
What
types of products will be subject to data certification?
All
products intended for sale to consumers that move through the book
industry supply chain and that are numbered with a Bookland EAN are
subject to data certification. This includes non-book products such as
calendars, stationery, maps, recorded music, video products, games,
etc. that carry Bookland EANs. Multi-volume sets intended for consumer
sale are subject to data certification. Products not intended for sale
to consumers, such as pre-packs, dump-bins, displays, signage, etc.,
are explicitly excluded from data certification. For Phase I of
certification, digital publications such as e-books and downloadable
audio books are excluded from the certification process.
How
many product records must be submitted to the certification panel?
Data
suppliers should provide a file containing all products due to be
released in the next 180 days as well as all products released in the
past 180 days. Backlist product will not be considered in the
certification process at this time. OP/OSI product will not be
considered in the certification process at this time.
Will
each data point in the certification process be evaluated for the
quality of the data it contains?
Yes,
however, the quality evaluation will be strictly anecdotal in this
first phase of certification. It is intended that the certification
that occurs upon a product’s release will, eventually,
evaluate each data point versus BISAC’s Product Metadata Best
Practices guidelines. In the subsequent phase of
certification when quality evaluation is incorporated into the
certification process, it will be understood that pre-publication data
is subject to change, however, the pre-publication certification will
be evaluated for both its presence and its applicability (e.g., price
amounts must be expressed as numbers with two places after the decimal,
titles should be expressed in title case unless the final title is
intended to appear in all uppercase letters, data points that rely on
code lists must be populated with a valid code, etc.).
How
often will a publisher or other data supplier have to be recertified?
Product
Data Certification will be good for one year. Each data supplier will
have to apply for recertification annually, on a rolling twelve-month
basis.
After the
program to certify data suppliers is implemented, a similar process
will be designed for data recipients. It is intended that data
recipients, like data suppliers, will have to provide a sample of their
data to the certification panel, and this data will be evaluated
against the same quality standards used to evaluate data suppliers. In
cases where a data recipient’s data differs from that
supplied by the data provider, the panel will ask data recipients to
identify the source of the substituted data.
Will
BISG’s Product Data Certification Program (PDCP) be
reciprocal with product data certification programs in other countries?
PDCP has
been designed in close consultation with our colleagues at BookNet
Canada (BNC). It is anticipated that any data file that is certified by
BISG will also be acceptable to BNC.
The data
certification programs in place in the UK (BIC Basic) and Australia
(Australian Publishers Association [APA]) require the supply of some
data points specific to those markets (e.g., BIC Subject Codes) that
many North American publishers are not currently capable of supplying.
All data points that are common to the BISG, BIC, and APA certification
programs, however, should be measured using compatible guidelines.
Where
can I find more information about the program?
Instructions for submitting Product Data under the program can be
found
here.
The
latest version of BISAC’s Product Metadata Best Practices can
be found at: http://www.bisg.org/documents/metadata.html.
The
BookNet Canada Bronze Template for submitting files in Excel format can
be found at:
http://www.booknetcanada.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=162&Itemid=169
You may
contact the BISG office for further information by calling 646-336-7141
or e-mailing info@bisg.org.
Currently
Certified Organizations
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