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4. Subject Classification

Custom Categories

These are the custom categories used by punctum. Ideally choose 2, maximum 3 categories.

  • Anthropocene: the "end(s)" of humanity, climate emergency, human impact on the planet
  • Art+Aesthetics: books by/about artists
  • Autotheory: biographical approaches to the theoretical and theoretical approaches to biography
  • Biosphere: nature/ecology studies
  • Built Environments: architecture
  • Capital+Lucre: capitalism, economic theory, expenditure, surplus
  • Cultural Studies+Critical Theory: cultural studies and critical theory
  • Fabulations: fiction, poetry
  • History: history
  • Humanities+University: university studies, humanities
  • Languages+Translations: linguistics, translations, language philosophy
  • Literary Studies: literary studies
  • Manifesto!: manifestos, pamphlets, calls to action
  • Media+Technology: media studies, STS
  • Moving Image: film studies
  • Neurodiverse+Crip: neurodiverse and crip studies/authors
  • New Left Thought: political theory
  • Para-Academia: authors on academic margins, adjunctification, changing the university
  • Pedagogies: pedagogy
  • Philosophy: philosophy
  • Posthumanism: the post-, other-, and more-than-human. Books about the impact of humankind on the planet should go under Anthropocene.
  • Premodern: classical, medieval studies
  • Sex: sexuality, pornography
  • Sound+Noise: sound studies, music, noise
  • Thought Experiments: experimental writing, cross-genre publications
  • TransQueer: LGBTQIA+ studies, authors

Thema

Thema 1.6 is the currently most detailed open subject classification schema. Proper Thema classification is essential to book discoverability. 

Thema's Six Golden Rules

  • Ensure the first subject category is the primary or main subject of the book (with ONIX, use <MainSubject/>)
  • Select further categories that together best describe the subject and scope of the book: use broader codes for wide-ranging approaches; use more precise codes for works that focus on specific topics
    • Don’t assign both a detailed category and a broader ancestor of that category (eg both FJH and FJ)
    • In general, top level codes (eg F or V) are not suitable for use – choose more detailed codes beginning with F or V
  • Assign as many categories as are required to describe the overall content of the work (within reason)
    • It’s very unusual to require more than three or four subject categories (codes beginning A–Y), and often, just one or two categories are enough
  • Observe any scope notes and instructions (see the ✽ symbols above)
  • Add qualifiers (codes beginning 1–6) whenever appropriate, to refine the meaning of the subject categories
    • Qualifiers cannot be used alone, without at least one subject category
  • Always consider the context of the categories within the hierarchy

Furthermore

  • Select codes based on what the publication is about
    • Use one or multiple codes from category headings A–Y
  • If the publication concerns a specific place, choose a qualifier from category 1
  • If the publication concerns a language other than English, choose a qualifier from category 2 (not to be used for the language the title is in)
  • If the publication concerns a specific time period, choose a qualifier from category 3
  • If the publication concerns a specific interest group, choose a qualifier from category 5
    • 5P categories for LGBTQIA+, intersex, trans, disabled, indigenous, Black, etc.
    • 5T for literature of a specific country (used for translations)
  • If the publication concerns a specific artistic, literary, or musical style, choose a qualifier from category 6

BISAC

BISAC is a very rough ad outdated subject classification scheme that inexplicably is still widely used in the book industry. KDP and Asterism Books have this as their standard classification system.

Keywords

Keywords are provided by the author as part of the manuscript submission process, but additional ones are added based on a review of the content, book summary, and the introduction/preface.

LCC

Library of Congress classification (LCC) is assigned by the LOC after they have received the print copy from us upon publication and have processed it into their catalog. Since there is no way to automate ingest of this information into Thoth as of yet, LCC is not recorded in the Thoth record.


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