Forum:Reference books - what do we cover?

We seem to have a somewhat inconsistent approach to reference works.

They all fall into a few broad categories.

Licenced works
 * Licenced non-fiction these generally got the Doctor Who logo on them and they're published by licence holders such as Virgin Books, BBC Books and Big Finish Productions. Such works are Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years, The New Audio Adventures: The Inside Story and Doctor Who: The Inside Story.
 * Licenced fiction these also generally have the Doctor Who logo on them, but there's exceptions like The Adventures of K9 and Other Mechanical Creatures, but they're things like the The Doctor Who Illustrated A to Z, Doctor Who: The Monsters and Doctor Who: Aliens and Enemies.

Then after this we come to a in-between region of things. Some works explicitly state they're "unofficial" or "unauthorised", but these terms seem to be a legal one, rather than explicitly stating their information sources and there's some that don't state anything.


 * Guides like Pocket Essentials: Doctor Who and ''Howe's Transcendental Toybox.


 * Biographical works like The Nine Lives of Doctor Who don't state any licensing at all.

Analytical works


 * These are works that seek to understand the Doctor Who universe, phenomena and to break down elements of the fan world. These do and don't state that they're "unauthorised". Those that don't state anything are such works as Time and Relative Dissertations in Space, Doctor Who and Philosophy and Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text.


 * While those that do state they're unauthorised are works such as About Time and I, Who both of which we state in our Tardis:Resources as a valid source of information and we have detailed pages for.
 * These and books like Memoirs of an Edwardian Adventurer and Running Through Corridors would vaguely fall into the "review and analysis" category of books.

I don't think a blanket approach of 'if it's not licenced by the copyright holder then it's out' is the best approach.

As books such as Time and Relative Dissertations in Space, Doctor Who and Philosophy and Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text are all essentially journals/essays and in the case of the Unfolding Text a long media text.

Also, while About Time and I, Who might state they're unauthorised they're all just texts of analysis. And while they both do have a Critique/Review element to them they're short compared to the rest of their text.

But all this said, I don't know where we draw the line on what we do and don't cover.

Do we go with something arbitrary like 'it has to be published by a recognised publisher' like Telos Publishing or Mad Norwegian Press? Which would discount Memoirs of an Edwardian Adventurer (published by Pageturner Publishing) and The Nine Lives of Doctor Who (published by Headline).

Or do we state they have to be published by "established authors" or "established authorities on Doctor Who", the latter could mean anything however.

Or do we come up with a criteria that it must fulfill? So that if it fulfills a certain amount it's in?

Or some other system, process or other method? --Tangerineduel / talk 05:18, January 15, 2012 (UTC)