How do you quote a note without overreading it?

A note is quoted without overreading it by citing the publisher, the document, the edition, the category, and the level, by reproducing the words stated in the note, and by stopping at the boundary the note states. A quotation that adds a word, extends an example, or applies the note to a specific business, has overread the note, even if the added word seems harmless, because the note is a definition, and a definition must be quoted as stated, not as extended.

What must a quotation include?

A quotation must include the category code and heading, the level, the version or edition of the note, and the list from which the words are taken: description, includes, includes also, or excludes. A quotation from the note for class 01.11 must therefore state that Eurostat states, in the note for class 01.11 in Part 3 of the manual, in its includes list, the growing of cereals, leguminous crops and oil seeds, with the examples given. A quotation from the excludes list for the same class must state that Eurostat states, in the excludes list for class 01.11, growing of rice, see class 01.12, and the other exclusions with their cross references. A quotation that gives the code without the level, or the list without the edition, cannot be checked, because the same code in another version, or the same heading in another list, may state a different scope.

The edition matters because the notes belong to a publication with a date. The manual cited in this guide is the 2025 edition (FIXED), with a manuscript completed in April 2025 (FIXED). The index, by contrast, is disseminated online and is designed to evolve, so an index entry must carry the date or version consulted. A quotation that mixes a manual description from one edition with an index entry from a later revision, without stating both dates, mixes versions, and the mixed quotation cannot be verified as a single statement. Each part of a quotation must carry its own source date, and the parts must be checked for agreement before they are presented together.

Quotation element	Why it is required
Publisher and document	Shows the note is from Eurostat, in the manual, not from a secondary source
Edition or version	Shows the note belongs to the version stated, and can be checked in that edition
Category code, heading, level	Shows which position the note defines, at which level of the hierarchy
List name	Shows whether the words are a description, an inclusion, an additional inclusion, or an exclusion
Cross reference, where stated	Shows the other side of the boundary, and the note to read next

What counts as overreading?

Overreading takes several forms. Extending an example is overreading: treating an illustrative list, introduced by the words for example, as if it named every activity in the category, and concluding that an unlisted activity is excluded, when the general statement may include it and the excludes list may not exclude it. Extending a heading is overreading: treating heading words as if they defined the category, and including an activity because it shares a word with the heading, when the excludes list states that the activity is classified elsewhere. Extending a condition is overreading: treating an inclusion stated with a condition, such as associated with growing, as if it applied without the condition, and including third party processing that the excludes list assigns elsewhere.

Applying a note to a specific case is also overreading, in the sense used by the guardrails for this site. A note states what a category covers, for statistical purposes. It does not state the principal activity of a unit, and it does not state the entry for a business. A quotation that ends with a conclusion about a specific business, drawn from the note alone, has applied a definition as if it were an assignment, and has skipped the classification rules and the institute or register that make the assignment. The quotation must stop at the definition, and the assignment question must be put to the institute or register, with the facts about the unit as recorded there.

How is a note paraphrased safely?

A paraphrase must also keep the date labels required by the voice rules for this site. Every date in a guide carries a label, FIXED for a date in force or on a published timetable, and EXPECTED for a proposal, target, or expectation not yet fixed. A paraphrase that introduces a date, such as the edition date of the manual, must label it. A paraphrase that introduces a range, such as the period for which a version was used, must label the range. A date without a label must not be used, even in a paraphrase, because the label is part of the citation discipline for this site, and an unlabelled date cannot be checked for its status.

What does a careful quotation not do?

A careful quotation does not decide a code, an entry, or an eligibility, and it does not present a mapping as a guarantee. It states what Eurostat states, in the note cited, for the category cited, in the edition cited, and it stops there. The reader is then directed to the next source for the next question: the correspondence table for a move between versions, the introductory guidelines for a classification rule, and the institute or register for an entry. A quotation that stays inside its source, and that directs the reader onward for the questions it does not answer, is useful precisely because it does not overclaim. The limit is part of the usefulness, as the voice profile for this site states.

Cite the note with its publisher, edition, category, level and list, reproduce the words as stated, and confirm any entry with the national statistical institute or the business register that holds the record.