Secure your ISSN for print and online

• The ISSN is an international standard and is issued by 93 national ISSN centers worldwide. ISSNs are issued to “continuing resources” such as newspapers but also magazines, scholarly journals, blogs, some database and websites, and other kinds of publications.

• One basic piece of information about ISSN is that most changes of title ⁠— even some that do not seem significant ⁠— require a new ISSN.

>> For example, if ISSN Center staff is working on a newspaper and realized the ISSN being used by the publisher and USPS belongs to the former title, new numbers will be assigned. We will notify the NNA and publisher if this happens.

• You can use your new ISSN right away. It should be displayed in a place where information about the publication such as frequency, publisher, etc. is displayed. The Postal Service has specific information about ISSN in the publishing statement. NNA and the Library of Congress staff will communicate the new ISSN to the USPS along with the USPS number so USPS can update its records. This may not happen for a while because the Library of Congress is sending batch updates to USPS.

>> The ISSN should be displayed on the paper and on the website. If you have a periodicals rate permit, the ISSN should be added to the USPS identification statement. We will notify the USPS of your ISSN so their files and Library of Congress files can stay in sync. If you do not have a periodicals permit, the ISSN should be displayed in your publication statement. E.g., The Wonderful Times, ISSN 1234-5678, is published weekly by The Wonderful Times Company, Wonderful USA.

• ISSNs that end in “X”: These are perfectly valid. The last digit of the ISSN is a check digit that is based on an algorithm that helps guard against mis-transcriptions.

>> For example, the ISSN for the print version of Time magazine is ISSN: 0040-781X.