4.4.1. International standard book number (ISBN)

Any monographic publication is assigned an international standard book number (ISBN) by the Publications Office.

Any monographic publication (see Section 4.3.1) is assigned an international standard book number (ISBN) by the Publications Office.

The assignment of an ISBN has no legal meaning or value with regard to the copyright of the work concerned or its content.

An ISBN cannot be modified, replaced or reused once it has been assigned to a product.

A separate ISBN is required for:

each language version of a publication;
each separate format of a product (in the case of a work published and made available in versions in different formats (PDF, HTML, etc.), each version must be allocated a separate ISBN);
each separate edition containing significant amendments affecting one or more parts of a product, and also in cases where the title has been changed; on the other hand, it is not necessary to assign a separate ISBN to a product if only the price has been changed or the product has undergone only slight amendments, such as correction of printing errors, if the edition, form and publisher remain unchanged;
any amendment to the form of a product (hardback, paperback, online version, etc.).

In the case of multiple volumes, an ISBN is assigned to each volume and a collective ISBN is assigned to the set of volumes. The collective ISBN and the ISBN of the respective volumes must be printed on the reverse of the title page of each volume.

NB:

A separate chapter within a work may also be assigned an ISBN if it forms a complete whole. Separate parts (e.g. chapters) of monographic publications, separate drawings or articles taken from continuing resources made available separately may also be identified by an ISBN.

Where a publication is published jointly or as a co-edition by two or more publishers, each publisher may assign its own ISBN and display it on the copyright page. However, only one ISBN in barcode form must appear on the back cover or dust jacket of a publication.

An ISBN must also be assigned to loose-leaf publications with a predetermined publication end date (i.e. which are not intended to be published indefinitely). On the other hand, continually updated loose-leaf publications (integrated resources) or updated individual parts must not be assigned an ISBN.

ISBN location and display

author code

The ISBN, which must always appear on the product itself, has since 1 January 2007 comprised 13 digits organised into five groups, preceded by the prefix ISBN followed by a space:

Group 1: prefix or EAN (European Article Numbering) code defining the ‘book’ as the article identified (the prefixes currently available are 978 and 979);
Group 2: group identifier (92 = international organisations);
Group 3: publisher identifier (author code);
Group 4: title identifier (within the publisher’s production);
Group 5: check digit.

ISBN 978-92-79-00077-5

Printed publications

For printed publications, the ISBN must be printed together with all other identifiers on the reverse of the title page (see example in Section 5.3.1). If that is not possible, it must appear at the bottom of the title page or be included with the copyright notice.

It must also appear on the lower portion of the back cover (and the lower portion of the dust jacket) (see example in Section 5.1.1).

NB:

In co-editions, the ISBN of the co-editor may also appear on the lower portion of the back cover and/or the lower portion of the dust jacket in barcode form.

Electronic publications or other types of non-printed products

For online publications, the ISBN must be included on the title screen or its equivalent, and/or on the screen displaying the copyright notice.

For any other product (CD-ROM, DVD, etc.), the ISBN must appear on a label permanently affixed to the product or, if that is not possible, on the lower portion of all the product’s permanent packaging (box, sleeve, holder, etc.).

The ISBN must also be included in all metadata contained within the publication or product.

tip: