2026-10-27 –, LUMC03
The ISSN International Centre recently launched a new portal offering enhanced services and tools for accessing and exploring the ISSN Register. This session will present these new functionalities and demonstrate how they improve discovery, navigation, and use of ISSN data for the community.
The presentation will also introduce ISSN-H, a new identifier defined in the revised ISO 3297:2022 standard. ISSN-H is designed to link serial publications that have undergone title changes and therefore received multiple ISSNs over time. By grouping these related resources under a single identifier, ISSN-H enables the identification of families of serial publications.
We will explain the principles guiding ISSN-H assignments and illustrate how this identifier can simplify identification and management of serials for libraries, publishers, and metadata users. The session will also situate ISSN-H within the broader persistent identifier (PID) ecosystem.
In March 2026, the ISSN International Centre launched a new ISSN Portal designed to improve access to the ISSN Register and provide enhanced services for the global serials community. The portal introduces improved search capabilities, clearer navigation, and indexes that allow users to explore relationships between serial resources and their identifiers more easily. Libraries, publishers, aggregators, and metadata specialists can retrieve authoritative ISSN data, visualize links between related resources, and integrate identifiers into their workflows. By improving the discoverability and usability of ISSN metadata, the portal reinforces the role of ISSN within the infrastructure supporting scholarly communication and the broader persistent identifier (PID) ecosystem.
At the same time, the ISSN International Centre is implementing a new identifier introduced in the revised ISO 3297:2022 standard: ISSN-H (History ISSN). Serial publications frequently undergo major title changes during their lifespan. According to ISSN cataloguing rules, each major change in title requires the assignment of a new ISSN and a new key title, as each title represents a distinct continuing resource in the ISSN Register. Consequently, a single serial publication may accumulate several ISSNs over time, each corresponding to a different stage in its bibliographic history.
The ISO 3297 revision expanded the concept of cluster ISSNs, identifiers designed to group related ISSN records together. ISSN-H is one of these cluster identifiers. Its purpose is to collocate the various titles that are related successively over time, enabling all ISSNs associated with a serial’s historical development to be grouped under a single identifier representing the publication’s lineage.
The construction of ISSN-H clusters relies on the bibliographic relationships recorded in the ISSN Register. ISSN records contain linking fields that describe how continuing resources relate to one another across their publication history. When a serial changes title, cataloguers record relationships between earlier and later titles using linking entries such as former title (MARC 780) and successor title (MARC 785). Other relationships—such as connections between print and electronic editions—are recorded using MARC field 776. Together, these links form a network of relationships reflecting the evolution of a publication over time.
The ISSN International Centre calculates the ISSN-H identifier by analysing these linking relationships in the ISSN Register. All titles belonging to the same historical chain can then be grouped within a single ISSN-H cluster. The ISSN-H identifier itself remains distinct from the individual ISSNs assigned to each title record.
ISSN-H complements the existing ISSN-L (Linking ISSN), another cluster identifier used to collocate different medium versions of the same continuing resource, such as print and online editions. While ISSN-L connects manifestations of a single title across formats, ISSN-H focuses on the historical continuity of a serial across title changes.
For libraries, ISSN-H simplifies the identification and tracking of serial publications that evolve over time. For publishers and metadata providers, it provides a clearer way to represent title histories and relationships between serial resources.
Gaëlle Béquet is the Director of the ISSN International Centre. Prior to this position, she has managed several academic libraries. She defended her PhD in information science in 2011 and she published a book about the development of digital libraries in Austria, France and the UK in 2014. She was Chair of ISO TC46 Information & Documentation 2014-2022.