Re: E-ISSN?

Dear all,

We have been informed about the discussion about ISSN and schema.org and I would like to bring additional information/clarifications.

There are not different types of ISSN but one single identifier. But it is true indeed that according to ISSN rules,  each medium version of a journal (print, online, CD-ROM etc), each language edition and each geographic edition must have a separate ISSN. And most of the publishers use to display the ISSNs assigned to the different versions of their journals on their website, see for instance:

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/calr20/current#.UpTE2Cemn3Q (print/online, see under the title)

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=NEU  (idem, see on the right side).

That being said, the ISSN Network does not support the use of the labels "print ISSN" and "e-ISSN" but recommends rather to indicate:

ISSN 1562-6865 (Online)
ISSN 1063-7710 (Print)
or:
Online edition: ISSN 1562-6865
Print edition: ISSN 1063-7710

In library catalogues, this "erroneous" distinction between "print" and "e-issn" does not exist as you know. ISSNs are noted in the MARC 21 field 022 or in subfield $x of 76X, 77X and 78X and these fields/subfields do not convey any information about the medium (776 is for "other medium versions" in general, not for electronic versions in particular).

Regarding the ISSN-L, it is the first ISSN, among the ISSN assigned to the different medium versions of a same title, entered in the ISSN Register. It is rarely displayed on publishers websites and it is present mostly in bibliographic records being in the ISSN Register (all the records of the ISSN Register are populated with ISSN-L) or in National Catalogues, see for instance:

http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb34432085x/PUBLIC (BNF catalogue)

My knowledge of schema.org is very limited, but I would spontaneously recommend to distinguish  only between ISSN and ISSN-L and not to create a specific property for "e-issn" (if not why not create properties for "CD-ROM ISSN" etc).  Finally, the ISSN International Centre would be more than happy to continue the discussion with you or some of you, preferably from mid-december (and a phone conversation is possible if you feel it can be useful).

Best regards,

François-Xavier PELEGRIN
Head of the Bibliographic Data Section

ISSN International Centre
45, rue de Turbigo
75003 PARIS (France)

Phone : +33 1 44 88 22 11
francois-xavier.pelegrin@issn.org
www.issn.org
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