ISSN Generator

How the ISSN identifies a serial

The ISSN — International Standard Serial Number is the global identifier for serial publications: scientific journals, newspapers, magazines, annuals, monographic series. Standardised as ISO 3297 in 1971, it is an eight-digit code written with a hyphen in the middle (NNNN-NNNN). Each medium of the same publication — print, online, CD-ROM — gets a distinct ISSN; the ISSN-L ("linking ISSN") groups them under a single resolver so a citation always reaches the right title regardless of carrier.

The first seven digits are sequential and carry no semantic meaning (no country block, unlike ISBN). The eighth digit is the check digit, computed with weights 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2: multiply each of the first seven digits by its weight, sum the products, take the remainder modulo 11, subtract it from 11; if the result is 10 write X; if the result is 11 write 0.

EISSN, ISSN-L and the ROAD directory

An EISSN is just an ISSN assigned to the electronic version of a serial — the rules and the check digit math are identical. The ISSN-L is one of those ISSNs chosen as the canonical linking identifier; databases such as CrossRef, Scopus and OpenAlex use it to merge print and online citations. The ROAD directory (Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources), maintained by the ISSN International Centre, lists open-access serials with an ISSN.

Who issues ISSNs

The ISSN International Centre, headquartered in Paris and a UNESCO partner, runs the global register with the help of around ninety national centres. In Brazil the national centre is the IBICT — Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia; in Portugal it is the Biblioteca Nacional; in the USA the Library of Congress. Requesting an ISSN is free in most countries.

ISBN, ISSN, DOI, ISMN, ORCID

ISBN identifies a book (a one-off publication). ISSN identifies a serial (recurring). ISMN identifies printed music. DOI identifies an article or any digital object independently of where it is hosted. ORCID identifies the researcher. They are complementary: a journal has one ISSN, each article has a DOI, each author has an ORCID, and they all live in the same metadata pipeline.

FAQ

Can I use an ISSN on my personal blog? Only formal periodicals with a stable editorial line, schedule and title qualify. Personal blogs, marketing newsletters and one-off PDFs usually do not.

Is an ISSN mandatory for Qualis CAPES or indexing? Yes. Journals evaluated by Qualis CAPES, Scopus, Web of Science, DOAJ and SciELO require an ISSN as a base requirement.

Does the ISSN change between countries? No. The block is sequentially assigned by the international centre and has no country prefix. The same algorithm validates an ISSN no matter who issued it.

Does the tool send my data anywhere? No. Generation runs entirely in your browser with JavaScript — nothing is transmitted to the server.