ISO 4:1997 pdf free download. Information and documentation — Rules for the abbreviation of title words and titles of publications.
The rules contained herein are applicable to the abbreviation of the titles of serials and, if appropriate, of non-serial publications. They are intended to guide and assist authors. editors, librarians, and others working in various fields of information transfer in preparing unambiguous abbreviations for the titles of publications cited, for example, in footnotes, references and bibliographies. Such citations include those produced by abstracting and indexing services, lists of references accompanying articles, and public or private files where document identification is a concern.
Owing to the large number of different serial and non-serial publications subject to reference by abbreviated citation, the many different languages in which they are published, the different ways of recording them and the widely diversified backgrounds of persons using title abbreviations, it is not possible to set down rules that will In every instance assure unassisted reconstruction of the original titles of the publications cited in abbreviated form. As one way to facilitate this identification, authors and editors who make extensive use of title abbreviations in their pubhcations are urged to make available to their readers, at frequent intervals, lists of the abbreviated titles they use, with corresponding equivalent unabbreviated titles.
The basic principle underlying this International Standard is that each title should have its own unique abbreviation. This is to be achieved through application of the rules provided by this International Standard ri conjunction with a list of standardized title word abbreviations. It is recognized that for international information exchange an international system for the establishment of unique title abbreviations of serials is also necessary. By this arrangement, no two titles will have identical abbreviations, nor will a single abbreviation represent more than one title.
ISO 4:1997 gives rules for abbreviating titles of serials and, if appropriate, non-serial documents in languages using the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek alphabets. This International Standard also serves as the basis for the establishment of title word abbreviations by the ISSN Network.
Whether the method of abbreviation is truncation or contraction (or a combination of those methods), at least two letters shall be dropped from the word to be abbreviated. Words from which only a single letter would be dropped are not abbreviated.
The mt,thod of indicating an abbreviation shall be a full 5top (period). Abbreviations are normally followed by a full stop. However, in some applications the full stop may be omitted (see also 4.6).
3.2 Diacritic marks
Diacritic marks shall be retained in the word abbreviations. For languages where an alternative spelling without diacritics is also possible, this alternative may be used instead. Diacritic marks occurring in transliterated words shall be retained in the abbreviations (see 3.11).