BIC Subject Categories and Qualifiers

This is BIC’s Subject Categories and Qualifiers Scheme, version 2.1 released November 2010, the standard classification scheme for the UK book trade and some other English language markets, available from www.bic.org.uk.

Note that BIC has announced that there will be no further development of the BIC scheme, and that Thema is its preferred subject scheme for current and future use. Browse the latest version of the Thema international, multilingual subject category scheme here.

Code	Description
W	Lifestyle, sport and leisure… Note: many headings in Section W relate closely to headings in other sections. Use Section W for popular accounts for general readership; prefer Sections A, K, P, R, T, etc, as appropriate, for serious, specialist and academic works. Do not use “W” on individual books; select appropriate code(s) from Section W below	✽
WJ	Lifestyle and personal style guides… For dating and singles, use VFVG “Dating, relationships, living together and marriage”; for sex manuals, use VFVC “Sex and sexuality, sex manuals”	✽
WJF	Fashion and style guides
WJH	Cosmetics, hair and beauty
WJK	Interior design, decor and style guides
WJS	Shopping guides See also: VSG ”Consumer guides and advice” for practical advice on products; UDBA “Online shopping and auctions”	✽
WJW	Weddings, wedding planners
WJX	Parties, etiquette and entertaining

An ellipsis indicates a category has more detailed subcategories
Click on a category description to reveal these ‘descendant’ subcategories
Indentation indicates the ancestors and descendants of a category
Click the ✽ to see or hide the usage notes
Search for categories (eg ‘celebrity’) using the search field at the top
- Searches are not case-sensitive
- You don’t need to use complete words (eg ‘celeb’)
- Multi-word searches return categories matching any of the individual words
- To search for all the individual words, use + instead of space (eg ‘art+history’)
- To search for an exact phrase, use underline instead of space (eg ‘women’s_health’)
Click on a search result category to see it ‘in context’ with its ancestor and descendant categories
A blank search returns you to the top level of the hierarchy
Read the latest BIC Subject Categories and Qualifiers Usage Guidelines (pdf, revised December 2010)

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