Overview
ISO 18:1981 - Documentation - Contents list of periodicals defines rules for the presentation and position of the contents list (table of contents) in serial publications. Published as a technical revision that cancels ISO Recommendation R 18-1956, this standard gives practical guidance to ensure consistent, reusable, and machine‑friendly contents lists for journals, magazines and other periodicals.
Keywords: ISO 18, contents list of periodicals, table of contents, periodical documentation, journal contents list
Key topics and technical requirements
- Mandatory contents list: A contents list (sommaire) must be printed in every issue.
- Consistent placement: The contents list must occupy the same position in each issue of a volume/year. Preferred location is the first page of the issue following the second page of the cover; also recommended on the first or fourth cover page.
- Continuation rules: If the contents list begins on the first cover page it may continue on the fourth, and vice versa; if begun on the first page of the issue it may continue on the second.
- Order and grouping: Items should preferably follow the order of appearance in the issue, but grouping by subject (e.g., analyses, chroniques, congresses) is permitted.
- Header and identification: The contents list must be headed “sommaire” and include the issue’s bibliographic identification (biblid) as defined in ISO 30.
- Item elements: For each article or contribution include:
- author name(s) as on the article header,
- full title and subtitles (with continuation indicators for serialized articles),
- first page number and, optionally, last page number (use a hyphenated page range).
- Pagination details: If an article’s text is not contiguous, give inclusive page ranges (e.g., 426–432, 457–458).
- Language handling:
- Announce each article in the article’s original language.
- For translated contents lists, provide a separate list for each language after the original; where only one contents list exists, translated titles may follow originals.
- Layout: Present the contents as a coherent whole with clear separation (e.g., blank lines) between item entries to facilitate reprography.
Applications
- Standardizes the presentation of periodical contents for editors, publishers, and typographers.
- Improves discoverability and indexing for librarians, abstracting services and cataloguers.
- Facilitates consistent reprographic production and easier machine processing for digital archives and aggregators.
Who should use this standard
- Journal and magazine publishers, production editors, typesetters
- Library cataloguers, indexers, abstracting services
- Archivists and digital publishers implementing consistent metadata and layouts
Related standards
- ISO 8 - Documentation: Presentation of periodicals
- ISO 30 - Documentation: Bibliographic identification (biblid) of serials
- ISO/R 215 - Presentation of journal articles (referenced)
- ISO/R 639 - Language, country and authority codes (language identifiers)
Adopting ISO 18 helps ensure uniform, searchable, and reader‑friendly contents lists across multilingual and serial publishing workflows.
