To improve the work process of the National Library of Latvia (NLL), a decision was made to develop a new IT system – Portal for Publishers (Portal). The goal was to create an online space where publishers could request and receive international standard numbers (ISBN , ISSN , ISMN) and barcodes generated from them, as well as UDC indexes. Publishers can also submit legal deposit copies of online publications and reports on publishing activities for statistical purposes.

Arabic Reference Citation Index (ARCI), one of the Egyptian Knowledge Bank projects, introduced an Arabic interface for the Web of Science, providing access to bibliographic information and citations to scholarly articles from Arabic journals. The primary aim of ARCI is to evaluate the quality and research output of Arabic researchers, universities and research organizations. The ISSN Egyptian agency played a key part in promoting the ISSN to be the essential check point in committee discussions, and got agreement that metadata will be re-evaluated based on Egyptian journal records in the ISSN Portal in case of data discrepancies.  For more information on selection criteria, see the brochure, and click here for more information on how to submit a journal.

The ISSN IC, as sponsor and partner of CISPC 2020, will participate in the conference « Challenges in the Scholarly Publishing Cycle 2020 » on Nov. 30th, 2020 at 11:20. Gaëlle Béquet, ISSN-IC Director, and Dominic Mitchell, DOAJ Operations Manager, will give a joint presentation. The program is available.

The ISSN International Centre, i.e. the Registration Authority for the ISO International standard 3297:2020 – Information and documentation, is proud to announce that the standard is now available in English and French. This document defines and promotes the use of a standard code (ISSN) for the unique identification of serials and other continuing resources. Thank you to the international experts who contributed to the development of this sixth version. Long live the ISSN!

Gaëlle Béquet, Director of ISSN International Centre, and Nathalie Cornic, Head of the Metadata and Technical Coordination of the ISSN Network, are invited to participate in the next DOAJ Team meeting to be held on 19 November 2020.

A brief report on the 44th Meeting of Directors of ISSN Centres has been published in the National Diet Library Bibliographic Data Newsletter, vol. 53/54. The article is available in Japanese.

The ISSN International Centre, as sponsor and partner of Challenges in the Scholarly Publishing Cycle (CISPC) 2020, will participate in the conference on Nov. 30th, 2020. Gaëlle Béquet, ISSN-IC Director, and Dominic Mitchell, DOAJ Operations Manager, will give a joint presentation. This event is organised by Research Information magazine in partnership with London Info International. The program is available.

The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina was established on 31 October 1945 by the Regulation on the National Library of the Yugoslav Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2020, the National and University Library of B&H (NULB&H) celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding (31^st October).

In spite of the fact that the Library building (Vijecnica) and 90% of its valuable documentary content were destroyed in the Summer of 1992, the library has succeeded in the revival of most of its services, and it works according to the Law of Librarianship. A huge effort of reconstruction and reconstitution of catalogues and collections based on preserved collections was undertaken. Following the technological development and requirements of users, the library has gradually transformed functions and services in the attempt to adapt towards modern library and information trends. This institution represents Bosnia and Herzegovina in the international library associations, and it is home for the ISSN, ISBN and ISMN agencies.

Ms Rabab Rashwan, Director of ISSN Egypt and coordinator of the Egyptian National Publishing Committee, together with Ana María Cetto, Research Professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and founding President of LATINDEX, participate in the Working Group on Combatting Predatory Academic Journals and Conferences supported by the Interacademy Partnership (IAP). This Working Group met virtually three times in June 2020 to discuss the project’s objectives and priorities, identify key resources and stakeholders, and agree the project plan going forward. The Group’s ongoing work will be divided into four main areas: (1) defining predatory practices, (2) gauging their extent and impact, (3) interventions to help combat them, and (4) an exploration of their root causes.

Keepers Registry (https://keepers.issn.org/) is the service that aims to inform the community of librarians and publishers about the actions taken by archiving agencies across the globe to preserve titles of digitised and born-digital serial publications bearing an eISSN, in order to promote long-term access to documentary resources, and thus consolidate scientific references for the world of research. In July 2019, ISSN International Centre took over from EDINA the Keepers Registry as a natural extension of the ISSN Portal’s services. This strategic decision turns the ISSN Portal into an irreplaceable source of information about periodicals, including their preservation by the partner archiving agencies.

Gaëlle Béquet, Director of ISSN International Centre, outlines the work of the Keepers Registry – followed by interviews with four of its partner agencies: Portico (USA), Public Knowledge Project (Canada), the National Digital Preservation Program (China), and the Cariniana Network/IBICT (Brazil).