Publication Identifier 1: ISBN

Publication identifier is a unique number given to separate editions and variation of a publication to help find information on that special written product using a set of codes.

All of us have names and other identifying characteristics and titles that could be common to several thousands of people.  But each person has an identifying tag, including national number, Social Security number, or ID number, which is unique to only that special person.

The same is true of books, journals, titles of articles, subject matter, and a host of other characteristics of the written word.

The identifying tag assigned for each separate edition and variation (except reprintings) of a publication is called “publication identifier” that helps in finding information on an article or publication using a set of codes.

There are several types of publication identifier. Some of these are discussed in this article:

• International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
• International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

As its name indicates, ISBN is an identifying tag for books. If you look at the back cover of your books, you will see a barcode with a thirteen-or ten-digits-long number (thirteen, if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, but ten, if assigned before 2007).

The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors.

Depending on the size of publishing industry within a certain country, the method of assigning an ISBN will be different since it is country-specific.

Assigning publication identifier ISBN for each book in each country is done by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for that country or territory regardless of the publication language. The ISBN number is determined by the location of publication, not by the language in which the book is published.

Each ISBN consists of 5 elements with each section being separated by spaces or hyphens. Three of the five elements may be of varying length:

• Prefix element– currently this can only be either 978 or 979. It is always 3 digits in length
• Registration group element– this identifies the particular country, geographical region, or language area participating in the ISBN system. This element may be between 1 and 5 digits in length
• Registrant element– this identifies the particular publisher or imprint. This may be up to 7 digits in length
• Publication element– this identifies the particular edition and format of a specific title. This may be up to 6 digits in length
• Check digit– this is always the final single digit that mathematically validates the rest of the number. It is calculated using a Modulus 10 system with alternate weights of 1 and 3.

History of ISBN

The initial ISBN identification format was devised in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker (known as Father of the ISBN), and in 1968 in the United States by Emery Koltay who later became director of the US ISBN agency R.R. Bowker.

ISBN was first 9 digits long, used by British bookstores to sell their books, as well as to prevent over-circulation and easier balance control. This code was later expanded to ten digits and then thirteen digits under the guidance of the International Organization for Standardization (ICAO) to become globally applicable. This standard has been issued as ISO 2018 in 1970 with nine digits, in 1997 with ten digits, and after 2007 with thirteen digits.