An ISSN-IC and DOAJ Journey to Openness

The ISSN Register was created by UNESCO and France in the 1970s to index and identify analogue and digital serial publications. The ISSN database was available only to Member States and subscribers until 2013, when the ROAD database of open access scientific resources was made available on the web. This movement to free up ISSN data has accelerated under the impetus of a new management and thanks to the support of member countries, leading to the opening of the ISSN Portal in 2018. Today, the ISSN Portal offers a suite of services to libraries, publishers and the information industry that aims to trace as accurately as possible the trajectory of serial publications from their birth to their long-term preservation.

This presentation is intended to provide an overview of the progress made since the opening of ROAD in 2013 and an outline of the 2024 strategy.