ISSN - International Standard Serial Number
The ISSN is an internationally accepted standard identifier for periodicals, serial publications and other continuing resources. It unambiguously distinguishes an individual serial from all others, even those with identical titles. The ISSN enables the identification and location of publications in databases.
The ISSN is closely linked to the title of a publication. If the title changes, the ISSN must be changed, too.
The ISSN provides booksellers and libraries with a useful tool for handling serials. A machine-readable ISSN can be used for the exchange of data among various data systems, for example information retrieval, borrowing, invoicing and accounting systems. The ISSN can also be incorporated into the EAN barcode.
Besides enabling the identification and location of a serial publication, the ISSN makes it available to a wider audience because the details of all serials assigned an ISSN are added both to the Fennica Online Catalogue (the Finnish national bibliography) and the international ISSN Portal database.
Renewal of the ISSN standard
The ISSN standard (ISO 3297) has been renewed. The new standard includes the new standard number, ISSN-L (i.e. Linking ISSN). The ISSN-L is part of the ISSN services in Finland from the beginning of the year 2009.
Further information on
ISSN standard
Further information on
ISSN-L
