This document establishes the minimum characteristics required for the presentation and identification of periodicals including not only the obvious traditional elements that print periodicals typically display (e.g. title, ISSN, publisher, date), but also the "footprints" of periodicals published on digital dynamic media that enable them to be traced along the path of their history, such as changes of URL and publisher or content provider. Furthermore, this document provides information about persistent identifiers, using ISSN, and citation of periodicals (especially when published online or digitized and when titles have changed). It also makes specific recommendations for presentation and identification aspects of retrospective digitization of periodicals.

This document is applicable to a subcategory of continuing resources identifiable as "periodicals" (see Clause 3).

NOTE 1 For the purposes of this document, newspapers are not considered to be periodicals; therefore, specialized information relevant only to newspapers is not included.

This document does not specifically address or apply to books, including series of books, nor to content that is continuously updated such as loose-leaf services, databases, online reference works, and most websites.

NOTE 2 For information about series titles, see ISO 7275.

This document focuses only on elements of periodicals — printed, born-digital or retrospectively digitized — that relate to the presentation of title and supporting descriptive information, as well as practices related to title identification and content access over time. Therefore, this document is not concerned with the overall design of the periodical, except where that design affects the presentation of the title and has unintended consequences for resource discovery and access to earlier content. Neither is it concerned with the technical specifications for print, born-digital or digitized periodicals. The recommendations might not apply in all circumstances, and do not always accommodate certain artistic, technical or advertising considerations.

This document contains recommendations intended to enable editors and publishers of periodicals to identify and present key information in a form that will help users discover, cite and access their information over time and through any changes. This benefits all stakeholders of the periodical supply chain: publishers, content providers, authors, librarians, and researchers.

The recommendations address the following:

— display of periodical title(s) and other critical identifying information: issues, numbering systems, pagination, etc.;

— retention of title and citation information under which articles were originally published;

— display of title histories, i.e. changes in titles over time together with their dates of coverage;

— specification of appropriate metadata for digital periodicals;

NOTE 3 This document concentrates on metadata elements which are applicable at the title-level and does not provide guidelines for complete article-level metadata.

— display of correct ISSN, including different ISSN for each format, language edition, and for changed titles;

— retention and display of vital publication information across the duration of a periodical, including: publisher names, numbering and dates, editors, editorial boards, and sponsoring organizations, and frequency of publication;

— graphic design that supports clarity and consistency of information, particularly title information and inclusion of information that allows easy access to all content;

— special considerations for retrospective digitization;

— usage of persistent identifiers for identification of periodical titles and articles;

— long-term preservation of periodical information across time.