Survey of Book Publishers and Exclusive Agents

Detailed information for 1998/99

The purpose of the Survey of Book Publishers and Exclusive Agents is to provide statistics on the activities of book publishers and exclusive agents operating in Canada, regardless of the amount of earned revenue.

Data release - July 26, 2000

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The purpose of the Survey of Book Publishers and Exclusive Agents is to provide statistics on the activities of book publishers and exclusive agents operating in Canada, regardless of the amount of earned revenue.

This information is used by the private sector to make strategic decisions and by all levels of government. They contribute to elaboration of policies and programs for the book publishing industry.

Statistical activity

The survey is currently administered as part of the Culture Statistics Program, which was established in 1972 to create, maintain and make available timely and comprehensive data on the culture sector in Canada. Specialized client-driven information needs are met through analytical studies of such topics as the economic impact of culture, the consumption of culture goods and services, government, personal and corporate spending on culture, the culture labour market, and international trade of culture goods and services.

The Guide to Culture Statistics (available through the online catalogue number 87-008-GIE (free)) has been developed by the Culture Statistics Program to facilitate access to culture information throughout Statistics Canada.

Reference period: Calendar year

Collection period: October 1 to April 30

Subjects

• Business, consumer and property services
• Business performance and ownership
• Culture and leisure
• Financial statements and performance
• Information and culture
• Publishing

Data sources and methodology

Target population

Book publishers and exclusive agents operating in Canada, regardless of the amount of earned revenue.

Specifically this is a survey of book publishers who have titles in print and exclusive agents who sold titles published by another firm. Book publishing or exclusive agency must be one of the principle activities of the organization.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.

Error detection

A series of edits are designed to identify problems with the data. These include exhaustive range edits, relationship edits and historical edits. These edits are completed during the processing of the data.

Imputation

Imputation for complete or partial non-response are made to obtain greater analytical details (i.e. specialization) and better historical coherence (i.e. trends) based on other survey results (Annual Survey of Manufactures (record number 2103), Imports from International Trade Division, Corporation Income Tax file), on historic data or on similar firms.

Estimation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology does not apply to this survey.

Data accuracy

The 1998/99 survey covered 643 publishers (including those also acting as exclusive agents), and 57 firms solely functioning as exclusive agents. Data for the territories are not reported because of confidentiality restrictions.