1. The new Eurostat yearbook: an online publication in Statistics Explained, with rolling updates Point 15 of the agenda
Jukka Piirto
Unit B6: Dissemination

2. Structure of this presentation
Recent decisions on the Eurostat yearbook
Yearbook evolution, especially since 2008
Criticism of and justifications for the recent decisions
Future issues

3. Recent decisions on the Eurostat yearbook
Eurostat has decided during the past year to
discontinue both the paper and the PDF yearbook
move to a rolling update of the online yearbook in Statistics Explained

4. Eurostat yearbook evolution 1/6
Evolution from an annual paper & PDF publication to a rollingly updated online-only publication
(1996)─2010 editions
Preparation: Word, Excel, s
Output: printed book and web PDF in English, German and French (until 2001 also in some other languages)
Slide DWG October 2013

5. Eurostat yearbook evolution 2/6
2011─2012 editions
Preparation: In Statistics Explained → Improvements:
A unique collaborative preparation environment with built-in history and talk
Content becomes earlier published in English in Statistics Explained
Output: Book & PDF in English only, online yearbook in three languages, in articles also in 18 additional languages
Slide DWG October 2013

6. Intermezzo: How is an article updated in Statistics Explained?
The responsible production unit chooses whether they update themselves or ask the Dissemination unit's contractor to update, possibly with instructions from the production unit.
Then the contractor checks the production unit's work (harmonization) or vice versa.
Discussion is continued until agreement with the production unit (responsible for content) and the Dissemination unit (responsible for presentation).
Slide DWG October 2013

7. Eurostat yearbook evolution 3/6
Slide DWG October 2013

8. Eurostat yearbook evolution 4/6
Croatian not before autumn 2014
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9. Eurostat yearbook evolution 5/6
2013 edition
Output: - Printed book & PDF discontinued.
- All 89 English, German and French articles are online as well as the 17 multilingual articles.
Continuously updated online-only publication
From the latter half of 2013 onwards
Online-only publication → full-scale rolling update, when every article is updated at most suitable time period(s) during the year.
NB: No annual edition, the term "yearbook" has only historical relevance.
Slide DWG October 2013

10. Eurostat yearbook evolution 6/6
Work will be spread more evenly throughout the year → earlier bottlenecks avoided
Rolling translation
Freshness improvement from rolling update and rolling translation
English: 0–12 months, in average 6 months
Other languages: 1½–18 months, in average 9½ months.
Slide DWG October 2013

11. Criticism and justifications 1/3
No printed book anymore
Very low sales figures (price EUR 30)
English
German
French
Little feedback from the free dissemination to MEPs, Commission senior management and national parliaments (EU, Candidate Countries and EFTA).
High electronic usage
PDF downloads annually
online yearbook visit figures: next slide

12. = Yearbook article
Cumulative figures for around 4 years

13. Criticism and justifications 2/3
2. No PDF anymore, although it is by far the most downloaded Eurostat PDF publication
Producing PDF with full layout consumes resources (time and money)
One electronic format is enough
Advantages of online yearbook in Statistics Explained
For users
Freshness
Searchability and findability
Easier linking
Readable on all devices
For producers
Preparation environment = Publication environment

14. Criticism and justifications 3/3
No single temporal reference
Even when there was a unique data extraction period the reference periods varied across the data sources
Coherence of the articles, e.g. revisions of common denominators (GDP, total population, …)
Even when there was a unique data extraction period there was no guarantee that different articles had used the same revision of common denominators.
Fresh vs. slightly more coherent outdated content?
Data extraction month is mentioned in the beginning of each article.
The user can always extract the latest data via data codes underneath the tables, figures and maps.

15. Future issues 1/2
Archiving Annual yearbook PDF creation inside Statistics Explained in addition to the annual whole Statistics Explained wide PDF archiving?
Slide DWG October 2013

16. Future issues 2/2 Incorporation of dynamic visualisations?
with the frozen data of the descriptive/analytic text of the article
with online data, possibly fresher than the data used for the descriptive/analytic text of the article
Slide DWG October 2013