The number of important changes in the contents of a book's copyright page is different from the number of prints. There is no difference between the version number and the printing number before the founding of the People's Republic of China. No matter whether the content of the book has changed or not, every time it is printed, it is regarded as a version. After the founding of New China, the General Administration of Publishing issued 1954 "Book Version Record Regulations", which separated the version from the printing number. The edition number is used to count the important changes of the edition content: the book published at the 1 th time is called the 1 edition or the first edition, and the book published after a large increase or deletion is called the second edition, and so on. When a book is reprinted, if the content has not changed or only slightly changed, it will not be reprinted, that is, the version will not change. If the title, format, binding, cover and publishing house of the same book change, the version will remain unchanged. In this way, the edition with important changes in the contents of the statistical edition is completely separated from the printing number of statistical printing times, and readers can choose according to the edition when buying or reading books.

In addition, after 2000, CIP (Book Cataloguing in Edition) has been fully used in China, and books published before 2000 must be registered for reprint, which will be considered as reprint.