Template:PublicationFields:PubType

• Pub Type - Identifies the type of publication. It is a drop down menu of the following choices:
  • ANTHOLOGY. Used for anything containing fiction by more than one author. For example, "Late Knight Edition" contains stories by both Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm, individually; this is an anthology, not a collection. If a book of Conan stories contains stories which are all partly or wholly by Robert E. Howard, it is a collection; if one or more of the stories is by Lin Carter or L. Sprague de Camp, not in collaboration with Howard, then the book is an anthology.
  • CHAPTERBOOK. This is used for anything smaller or flimsier than a standard paperback. These are often, but not always, saddle-stapled; publications from conventions are frequently in this format.
  • COLLECTION. A single-author collection. See notes under ANTHOLOGY, above. Note that the "single-author" can be a collaboration: e.g. a collection of stories by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth would qualify as a collection. However, if such a collection included one story by Frederik Pohl alone, it would be regarded as a single-author collection of Frederik Pohl's. If it also contained one story by Kornbluth alone, it would be an anthology.
  • MAGAZINE. It can be difficult in some cases to determine if something should be regarded as a magazine or a book. Some magazines were published in book format; some books were published as series with letter columns and regular dates of publication. Borderline cases should be discussed on the magazine or book wiki pages, but generally a magazine must have a common title from issue to issue, and an enumeration or dating system of some kind. This still leaves anthology series such as New Worlds Quarterly as judgement calls. In these cases, look for a consensus on the publication bibliographic wiki page. If no discussion exists, use your best judgement and document the decision on the wiki page.
  • NONFICTION. Used for books that are predominantly or completely non-fiction. A single story in an essay collection of Isaac Asimov's does not make it a collection. This type supersedes the other types; if a book is non-fiction, you don't need to worry about whether it's a chapbook, or whether it is better described as a collection or an anthology. A publication that collects both non-fiction and fiction together should be classified by whichever appears to be predominant. Mixtures of both are more usual in magazines than in books, so the question does not arise often.
  • NOVEL. Used when the book is devoted to a single work of fiction. The addition of a single short story makes the book an collection, not a novel. However, sample chapters placed at the end of a book for advertising reasons do not make a novel into a collection.
  • OMNIBUS. A publication may be classified is an omnibus if it contains multiple works that have previously been published independently, and at least one of them is a novel. However, generally this category should not be used unless the other categories do not seem appropriate. For example, if a publication contains stories that have previously been published independently in pamphlet form, this should be classified as an anthology. A collection such as Robert Heinlein's "The Past Through Tomorrow" should be categorized as a collection, although one of the works is a novel. "Omnibus" is appropriate for such publications as the SFBC's collections of three independent novels by different authors under one set of covers; or for a single-volume edition of all the Amber novels by Roger Zelazny. The distinction between "Omnibus" and the other types is somewhat subjective and may require discussion and consensus on the publication biblio wiki page.
  • Boxed sets. A boxed set will typically contain books that have their own ISBNs. In such cases the boxed set is not of interest, as it is only a form of packaging; a note can be made in note field for the books contained in the boxed set, but the boxed set itself does not need a separate entity. If a boxed set or other packaging format does not have separately identifiable publications, however, then the whole package is an omnibus, anthology, or collection, as appropriate.