Announcing Key Changes to BIC’s Metadata Excellence Award – MEA

EBooks and Digital Audio Metadata Timeliness Criteria:

Please note, the following timings for metadata for eBooks and Digital Audio frontlist titles will shortly be updated as follows:

  • Metadata should be complete no less than 16 weeks before publication date for eBooks
  • Metadata should be complete no less than 3 weeks before publication date for Digital Audio

The deadlines for these changes will be as follows:

  • Nielsen (BIC’s MEA accreditation scheme assessor) will begin measuring and reporting on these new requirements from April 2025.
  • We will incorporate the measurements into the scoring for MEA results from April 2026 renewals onwards.

Application Fees for Organisations that are not BIC Members

Non-member organisations will be required to pay an Application Fee for accreditation/renewal of accreditation under this scheme from 1st January 2025 onwards. Please see below for more information.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on info@bic.org.uk.

The book industry’s metadata accreditation scheme (UK & Ireland)

The scheme is designed to encourage publishers to appreciate the contribution made by accurate and timely product data to their sales; to enable them to demonstrate their commitment to making that data available in the supply chain; and to enable them to benchmark their performance against their competitors.

Why apply?

Now more than ever, data recipients (including retailers, libraries and consumers) expect increasingly sophisticated data and the current, refreshed scheme seeks to acknowledge and address those requirements. It is very different scheme to the previous one. Offering three levels of award (Bronze, Silver and Gold), the scheme is designed to encourage publishers to appreciate the contribution made by complete, accurate and timely product data to their sales; to reward publishers for their commitment to making that data available in the supply chain; to encourage the practice of regular, good housekeeping of metadata records; and to enable them to benchmark their performance against their competitors.

Currently accredited organisations

Currently accredited organisations

Who can apply?

Application to the revised scheme is open to publishers, and open to BIC members and non-members alike. To qualify for consideration for accreditation, established publishers must publish a minimum of 10 new products per year and each year for the last 5 years.
Newly formed organisations will be treated by exception but must have already published at least 10 new products.
All publishers must be UK or Ireland based, and/or actively selling to the UK / Ireland markets.

Application Fees

Whilst the scheme is open to all, fully paid-up BIC member organisations are eligible to apply free-of-charge as part of their membership benefits.
Non-member organisations are still currently able to apply free-of-charge, but from 1st January 2025 an Application Fee will be introduced.
BIC member organisations will still be able to apply free-of-charge after 1st January 2025 and thereafter.
Full information regarding this can be found in the Accreditation Schemes Charges Policy document below.
Non-member organisations wishing to apply to this scheme should read this document in its entirety before applying.

BIC Accreditation Schemes Charges Policy for non members v1.0Download

Documentation and guidelines for the scheme

  1. Publisher requirements and guidelines to the scheme.
  2. Details of the requirements for each of the 3 metadata sets.
  3. A checklist of items to consider before applying for accreditation.
  4. Details of the requirements for quality control checks (applicable to all levels of the scheme as appropriate).
  5. The MEA Scheme’s online application form. Please note this application form needs to be completed by all publishers applying to the scheme (including those currently accredited under the previous scheme when they are up for renewal) and submitted to BIC on or before the accreditation deadlines listed below. Prior to filling out and submitting the online form, you may wish to view a PDF copy of the questionnaire; this PDF is for reference purposes only and should not be submitted to BIC.

How is MEA different to the previous Product Data Excellence Award (PDEA)?

It is very different, with the major changes being as follows:

  • It employs 3 data sets (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced) as opposed to 2 currently.
  • It builds on the requirements of the current scheme and now also includes several brand-new qualifying criteria including a series of quality control checks, the compulsory use of both ONIX 3.0 (to attain Gold Level), and Thema (at all levels).
  • It will be assessed across the full range of products sold by the publisher
  • No separate digital tick is awarded under the current, revised scheme as product data for all formats will be assessed together. Equally, as ONIX 3.0 is compulsory for the Gold level (with its use being encouraged for both Bronze and Silver levels) there will be no ONIX 3.0 badge awarded under the refreshed scheme.

When did the current, revised scheme take effect?

The first accreditations took place in July 2022.

Nielsen BookData is an approved BIC assessor for the scheme and has collected, measured and recorded the data against the requirements of the MEA scheme from March 2020 with the first set of results being announced in July 2022 based on the prior year’s performance.

With regards to the new quality control checks (QCC), BIC will announce the minimum percentage criteria in late 2023. Publishers are advised to address the QCC requirements ASAP i.e., not wait for this announcement. This is due to the collection of data being on a cumulative basis.

BIC approved assessors

The scheme allows for additional BIC approved assessors to measure and report on publishers’ metadata performance. BIC member organisations that wish to become assessors in addition to Nielsen BookData are invited to apply to BIC for more information, please contact us.

Any questions about this scheme please contact us.

UK Data Aggregators

The documentation, above, refers to 3 UK data aggregators. These are as follows:

  • Bibliographic Data Services Ltd
  • Bowker / ProQuest
  • Nielsen BookData

The MEA Accreditation Scheme application deadlines

  • Friday 27th December 2024
  • Friday 28th March 2025
  • Friday 27th June 2025
  • Friday 26th September 2025
  • Weds 24th December 2025