This page provides links to some relevant articles and publications by International ISBN Agency staff, by staff from the national ISBN agencies, or other articles relevant to the ISBN system. The articles appear on this page in reverse chronological order. Please click on the title of your chosen piece to display the article in a new window.

Global Reach, Local Insights Using book ISBNs to map publishing behaviour. This March 2024 blog was written by a Lithuanian researcher, Eleonora Dagiene. The blog concerns her research into how and why some scholarly publications are evaluated differently, sometimes due to factors such as perceived prestige of the publisher rather than the quality of the research. In doing so, Eleonora makes a persuasive case for the importance of strong metadata and the value of ISBN. Eleonora shows clearly how valuable the ISBN can be to identify publishers; indeed, it provides a useful argument for the critical importance of ISBN.

CILIP Article on ISBN. CILIP is the United Kingdom's library and information association. The March 2019 issue of the CILIP's Periodical of the Cataloguing and Indexing Group featured an article on ISBN, its use in libraries and the role of national ISBN agencies. The article was written by Eleanor Pigg of Nielsen Book, which is the organisation responsible for running the ISBN agency for the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The article was published in the CILIP periodical Catalogue and Index (ISSN: 0008-7629), Issue 194, March 2019. You can visit the webpage for this periodical at https://www.cilip.org.uk/members/group_content_view.asp?group=201298&id=764614.

BIC Bites: Introduction to the International Standard Book Number (ISBN). This short document was published in October 2018 by Book Industry Communication (BIC). BIC Bites are a series of short papers on publishing-related topics and this edition focuses on the ISBN. All BIC Bites can be found at: http://www.bic.org.uk/129/BIC-BITES/.

ISBN: A History Article by Stella Griffiths published in the final print edition of NISO's Information Standards Quarterly (ISSN 1041-0031 Volume 27 Issue 2 & 3).

Do you need an ISBN? What's its purpose? This August 2016 article was written by Stella Griffiths for Book Machine, an online independent community in the publishing sector.

The 50th Anniversary of Standard Book Numbering. On 13 October 2015, during Frankfurt Book Fair, the 50th anniversary of standard book numbering was reached. As part of the celebrations, the Bookseller magazine featured the anniversary in one of its special Frankfurt Book Fair editions.

From Dickens to Dante. A Special Report by Stella Griffiths from the April 2011 issue of ISO Focus+ discussing the importance of the ISBN system and its position as an ISO Standard.