The word counts for the fiction types are those used by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), and the magazine page equivalents are those used by William G. Contento in his online & CD-ROM databases (see the bibliography for the titles). Mr. Contento, in a letter, states:

"We estimate story lengths from the page count, which maps fairly well with the given word counts for books and digest magazines. For 8½ x 11" magazines there are about twice as many words per page, with pulp magazines being half-way between them. Of course you have to allow for type size, illustrations, etc., but we believe our length indicators are accurate for the majority of stories."

It was not until the January 1966 issue (whole number 176) of F&SF that the table of contents broke down the stories into types (the breakdown never included vignettes). However, the definitions for the fiction types at that time differed from that used by the SFWA today. Because the SFWA definitions are used throughout the whole database, there will be discrepancies between the magazines' TOCs and the tables in the database.

Notes. Not all 'notes from the editor' made it into the Stories Tables. To be included in the database, a 'note', as labeled in the 'Type' field, had to have one or more of the following elements:

1. Have something of importance concerning the magazine; e.g., raise of cover price, change of publishing schedule, publisher, or editor, etc.

2. Announcement of a story contest, or the results of one, a request for readers' opinions, the results of a survey, or stories that get a lot of reader letters that prompt a note from the editor. Also announcements of F&SF 1sts, such as a first serial, or a new department, or a new series of cover art.

Book Reviews. An attempt was made to list all the books reviewed in the 'Comments' field. Due to lack of space, this was not always possible. When it wasn't possible, books that were omitted were those that either had the shortest reviews, or those that were already reviewed in a previous issue.

The earlier book reviews, by co-editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas, tended to be one sentence or one paragraph reviews that basically just mentioned books that were recently published. Towards the latter half of the 1950s, true evaluations were being published, with the result that the book review columns were longer, perhaps fewer books reviewed each issue, and I was able to list more or all the books mentioned. Reviewers also began to start the columns with a discourse on a subject related to book publishing or the genres. These, too, were mentioned, when possible, in the 'Comments' field.