Data Methodology
Last updated
The data model
- Work
- A story as written: a novel, novella, novelette, short story, graphic novel or companion. A work appears once, however many times it has been printed.
- Edition / collection
- A book you can own that contains one or more works: a story collection, an omnibus or an anthology. Collections may contain other collections. A paperback, hardcover and ebook of the same novel are the same work, never separate entries.
- Order
- A sequence of works. Publication order is computed from first-publication dates. Every other order (story chronology, author-recommended, alternative) is a separate, cited list. Works may share a position when a source treats them as concurrent; works a source does not place are shown as "not placed", never slotted in by guesswork.
- Source
- Every work, order, collection and conflict cites one or more sources, each with its type and the date we accessed it.
Source ranking
- Author's official website or statements
- Publisher pages
- Official bibliographies and timelines
- Library catalogues and bibliographic databases (ISBN records, Open Library, ISFDB)
- Secondary references (encyclopaedias, established fan reference wikis) — used for cross-checking; when they are the only source we found, the page says so
Goodreads, Reddit and retailer pages may help us find leads, but are not used as the sole source for a fact.
Verification levels
Each series page shows a computed label: every work cites an author or publisher source; some works cite only secondary or catalogue sources; or secondary and catalogue sources only — official check pending. The label is calculated from the data, not set by hand. It describes citations, not every individual field: a work can cite its publisher for its series number while its date comes from a library catalogue. Each fact's own sources are listed on the page.
Dates
We record first publication in the original language, at the precision the source gives (year, month or day). Where UK and US (or original and translated) dates differ, we note it. Works with the same day of publication share a position; otherwise ties are broken by the official series number.
Automated checks
Every build validates the data and fails on: missing or unknown sources, duplicate works, unknown work ids in orders or collections, a collection id that collides with a work id, circular collection nesting, invalid dates and works listed twice in one order.
Updates
Each series shows a "last verified" date. New releases and corrections are added through the same sourced process. See How we verify reading orders and Corrections.