HOW USE THE ISO CATALOGUE

How to use the ISO Catalogue

The online ISO Standards listing integrates both the ISO Catalogue of published standards and the ISO Technical programme of standards under development. From within the listing, the user can choose to display, as required, Published standards and/or Standards under development and/or Withdrawn standards and/or Projects deleted.
By default, the ISO Standards listing presents the complete listing of Published standards AND Standards under development. The user chooses whether to access the listing By ICS (classified by subject in accordance with the International Classification for Standards) or By TC (sorted according to the ISO technical committee responsible for the preparation and/or maintenance of the standards).

International Standards and other deliverables

The terms International Standards and ISO standards used in these listings denote all standards-type documents, including guides, international standardized profiles, recommendations, technical reports, technical trends assessments, etc. The document type is indicated in its reference number. The following bibliographic information is given for each document:
Reference number - consists of a prefix, a serial number and the year of publication. The prefix will usually be "ISO" to indicate that the publication is an ISO International Standard.
The prefix ISO/IEC denotes a joint ISO and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) publication. ISO/IEC International Standards are most often developed by Joint ISO/IEC Technical Committee JTC 1. IEC International Standards with the prefix IEC, but which carry both the ISO and IEC logos, are also  included in the catalogue. Such standards either belong to JTC 1, or have been developed in close cooperation with an ISO committee.
The following prefixes similarly denote joint international standards:
ISO/ASTM joint ISO and ASTM (American Society of Testing and Materials) International Standard
ISO/CIE: joint ISO and CIE (International Commission on Illumination) International Standard
ISO/HL7 joint ISO and HL7 (Health Level Seven) International Standard
ISO/IEEE: joint ISO and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) International Standard
ISO/OECD joint ISO and OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) International Standard
The prefix may also contain an indication of the type of document:
Amd. denotes an Amendment - a normative document, developed according to consensus procedures, approved according to the procedures relevant to the document being amended, and which changes the technical normative elements of that document.
Cor. denotes a Technical corrigendum - a document issued to correct a technical error or ambiguity in a normative document or to correct information that has become outdated, provided the modification has no effect on the technical normative elements of the document it corrects.
Guide - redefined as an informative document only. Previously ISO and ISO/IEC Guides were developed as either a document dealing with non-normative matters relating to international standardization or a normative document developed by a structure other than a TC/SC, e.g. a policy development committee. A number of such guides are still valid.
ISP denotes an International Standardized Profile - an internally agreed, harmonized document which identifies a standard or group of standards, together with options and parameters, necessary to perform a function or set of functions.
IWA denotes an International Workshop Agreement
PAS denotes a Publicly Available Specification
R denotes a Recommendation. This designation was used up to 1972, when ISO began to publish International Standards. Since then, as they have been revised, ISO recommendations have gradually been republished as International Standards. A very limited number of ISO recommendations still remain valid and available.
TR denotes a Technical Report
TS denotes a Technical Specification
TTA denotes a Technology Trends Assessment - a document published to respond to the need for global collaboration on standardization questions during the early stages of technical innovation and which gives the state of the art or trend in emerging fields. TTAs are typically the result of prestandardization work or research
The prefix is followed by a serial number which may include a part number, separated by a hyphen from the main number. The serial number of a published standard is followed by the year of publication separated from the serial number by a colon.
Title of the standard including, if relevant, the number and title of a specific part of the standard
Current stage - to allow the monitoring of a standard's development and life cycle in a systematic way, a four-digit stage code is used, which indicates the standard's current status. The current stage code is given for each standard or project. The code is linked to a stage code chart giving the explanation for each stage code.
TC/SC - Technical committee/subcommittee - refers to the ISO technical committee and subcommittee responsible for the development and maintenance of the standard. Certain documents are developed and maintained by other ISO organs or by other international organizations. A link leads to information about the committee or organization concerned.
Language - the official languages of ISO are English, French and Russian. ISO International Standards and standards-type documents published by the Central Secretariat are usually in separate (monolingual) English (en) and French (fr) editions and, less frequently, in Russian (ru). Some standards, especially those containing terminology, are published as a bilingual (any two of the official languages), or trilingual (English/French/Russian) edition.  The ISO Central Secretariat also publishes certain official translations in non-official languages. To date, these include standards in Spanish (es) and Arabic (ar).
NOTE: It is possible for standards - and notably terminologies and vocabularies - to include some content in non-official languages. Where applicable, information on the non-official language content is usually given in the standard's abstract in the bibliographical data.
A number of International Standards developed by ISO technical committees require, with a view to their updating or implementation, a competent body which has the requisite infrastructure for ensuring they are used effectively. Information on these bodies, designated by ISO to serve as maintenance agencies or registration authorities, is accessed through the link Maintenance agencies and registration authorities.