ISO 4 (Information and documentation — Rules for the abbreviation of title words and titles of publications) is an
international standard
An international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International O ...
which defines a uniform system for the abbreviation of
serial publication titles, i.e., titles of publications such as
scientific journals that are published in regular installments.
The
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries.
M ...
(ISO) has appointed the
ISSN International Centre as the
registration authority for ISO 4. It maintains the ''List of Title Word Abbreviations'' (''LTWA''), which contains standard abbreviations for words commonly found in serial titles. , the standard's most recent update came in 1997, when its third edition was released.
A major use of ISO 4 is to abbreviate the names of scientific journals using the LTWA. For instance, under ISO 4 standards, the ''
Journal of Biological Chemistry'' is cited as ''J. Biol. Chem.'', and the ''
Journal of Polymer Science Part A'' should be cited as ''J. Polym. Sci. A'' (capitalization is not specified by the standard). The standard notes that "Full stops shall only be used to indicate an abbreviation. Full stops may be omitted from abbreviated words in applications that require limited use of punctuation" (section 4.6).
It was initially published in 1972 (ISO 4:1972), with a second edition published in 1984 (ISO 4:1984),
and the third edition in 1997 (ISO 4:1997).
See also
*
ISSN
An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit to uniquely identify a periodical publication (periodical), such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs a ...
*
CODEN
CODEN – according to ASTM standard E250 – is a six-character, alphanumeric bibliographic code that provides concise, unique and unambiguous identification of the titles of periodicals and non-serial publications from all subject areas.
COD ...
References
External links
List of title word abbreviationsText of the standard (third edition, 1997)Tool for generating ISO 4 abbreviations
#00004
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