IETF URNbis WG P. Godefroy
Internet-Draft ISSN International Centre
Obsoletes: 3044 (if approved) November 7, 2012
Intended status: Standards Track
Expires: May 5, 2013
Using International Standard Serial Numbers as Uniform Resource Names
draft-ietf-urnbis-rfc3044bis-issn-urn-01
Abstract
The International Standard Serial Number, ISSN, has been the
authoritative identifier for continuing resources (which include
serials) for more than three decades. Since 2001, the URN (Uniform
Resource Name) namespace "ISSN" has been reserved for ISSNs. The
namespace registration was performed in RFC 3044. This document
redefines -- in a backwards compatible manner -- how the revised ISSN
standard can be supported within the URN framework, taking into
account in particular the latest revision of the ISSN standard in the
ISO framework (ISO 3297:2007). Moreover, additional syntax related
information required by the RFC 2141[bis] has been included. An
updated namespace registration is provided. This document replaces
RFC 3044.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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This Internet-Draft will expire on May 5, 2013.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Fundamental Namespace and Community Considerations . . . . . . 5
3.1. The URN:ISSN Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2. Community Considerations for ISSNs . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. International Standard Serial Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1. Overview / Namespace Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1.1. Allocation of Blocks of ISSNs . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2. ISSN Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.3. Encoding Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.4. Resolution of ISSN-based URNs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.4.1. General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.4.2. Practical Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.5. Additional Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.5.1. ISSN-L (or "Linking ISSN") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.5.2. Updating and Management of URLs Corresponding to
Resources Identified by URN:ISSN . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5. URN Namespace Registration and Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.1. URN Namespace ID Registration for the International
Standard Serial Number (ISSN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
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1. Introduction
One of the basic permanent URI schemes (cf. RFC 3986 [RFC3986],
[IANA-URI]) is 'URN' (Uniform Resource Name) as originally defined in
RFC 2141 [RFC2141] and now being formally specified in RFC 2141bis
[I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn]. Any identifier, when used within
the URN system, needs its own namespace. In August 2011 there were
44 registered URN namespaces (see [IANA-URN]), one of which belongs
to ISSN, International Standard Serial Number, as specified 2001 in
RFC 3044 [RFC3044].
As part of the validation process for the development of URNs, the
IETF URN working group agreed that it is important to demonstrate
that a URN syntax proposal can accommodate existing identifiers from
well established namespaces. One such infrastructure for assigning
and managing names comes from the bibliographic community.
Bibliographic identifiers function as names for objects that exist
both in print and, increasingly, in electronic formats. RFC 2288
[RFC2288] investigated the feasibility of using three identifiers
(ISBN, ISSN and SICI, see below) as URNs, with positive results;
however, it did not formally register corresponding URN namespaces.
This was in part due to the still evolving process to formalize
criteria for namespace definition documents and registration,
consolidated later in the IETF into RFC 3406 [RFC3406]. That RFC, in
turn, is now being updated as well into RFC 3406bis
[I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg].
URN Namespaces have subsequently been registered for both ISBN
(International Standard Book Number) and ISSN (International Serial
Standard Number) in RFCs 3187 and 3044 ([RFC3187], [RFC3044]),
respectively.
The RFC at hand replaces RFC 3044; all ISSN information has been
updated and the namespace registration revised to make it compliant
with stipulations of RFC 3406bis
[I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg], the work-in-progress
successor of RFC 3406 [RFC3406], which in turn had replaced the
legacy RFC 2611 [RFC2611] applied in the initial registration. This
version of the URN:ISSN registration is fully backwards compatible
with the original one, in the sense that all ISSN URNs assigned under
RFC 3044 remain valid and semantically unchanged.
2. Conventions Used in This Document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
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3. Fundamental Namespace and Community Considerations
3.1. The URN:ISSN Namespace
ISSN is an authoritative standard identifier system for continuing
resources and in particular serial publications. Therefore, any
useful and deployable method for identifying these entities for
network-wide reference and making their metadata available on the
Internet needs to be based on ISSNs. ISSNs are authoritatively
referenced in a centrally managed database called the "ISSN
Register", which can be used as the basis for URN:ISSN resolution
services.
3.2. Community Considerations for ISSNs
ISSNs are assigned under the auspices of the ISSN International
Centre and national ISSN Centres. ISSN assignment is a well managed
and understood process, but as in any process administered by humans
errors do take place. While some errors may happen in the ISSN
Register itself and are readily corrected, most errors happen in the
outside world through the use of inappropriate ISSN in external
references or the resources themselves.
Continuing resources, including serials, most often consist of
component parts such as volumes, issues, articles. The ISSN standard
does not allow the identification of component parts of the serial
designated by the ISSN, and the URN:ISSN Namespace equally does not
support such augmentation -- neither by an added NSS component nor by
use of URI fragment identifiers.
For all the communities interested in the identification of
continuing resources and their contents, URN:ISSN-based
identification and resolution services offer efficient, reliable and
persistent access to resources and/or resource-related services. The
users will not need special tools for this as Web browsers are
sufficient to display bibliographic information or when appropriate,
an access point to the resources themselves.
The next chapter presents an overview of the application of the URN:
ISSN namespace and the principles, and systems used, for the
resolution of ISSN-based URNs.
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4. International Standard Serial Numbers
4.1. Overview / Namespace Considerations
Each ISSN is a unique identifier for a specific serial or other
continuing resource in a defined medium.
ISSNs are applicable to serials and other continuing resources,
whether past, present, or to be produced in the foreseeable future,
whatever the medium of production. Continuing resources are issued
over time with no predetermined conclusion, they include serials and
ongoing integrating resources. ISSNs are assigned to the entire
population of serials and to ongoing integrating resources.
Serials are resources for which additional information is supplied
indefinitely in a succession of discrete parts. All serials are
eligible for an ISSN. Also eligible for ISSN assignment are those
bibliographic resources issued in successive issues or parts that
bear numbering and that also bear other characteristics of a serial
(e.g. frequency in the title), but whose duration is limited (e.g.
the newsletter of an event).
Ongoing integrating resources are resources that are updated over
time and with no predetermined conclusion, for which the updates are
integrated into the resources and do not remain discrete. Those
ongoing integrating resources that are eligible for an ISSN must be
updated indefinitely, and/or have an update statement. Advertising
and individual home pages, online diaries, personal weblogs, and web
sites consisting exclusively of links are not eligible for an ISSN.
Individual monographs, technical reports, sound and video recordings,
printed music publications, audiovisual works and musical works have
their own identifier systems. Such items may carry an ISSN in
addition to their own standard numbers when they are part of a
continuing resource.
Only one ISSN is assigned to a continuing resource in a defined
medium. This ISSN is permanently linked to the so called key title,
a standardized form of title derived from information appearing on
the continuing resource. A key title is unique to a particular
continuing resource. Titles that would otherwise not be unique are
made unique by the addition of qualifying elements. In cases where
the title changes sufficiently (as per specific rules defined in the
ISSN Manual) to warrant creating a new key title, a new ISSN is
assigned. In cases where the medium of the continuing resource
changes, a new ISSN and a new key title are assigned.
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Changes in publisher, country, language, frequency, subject scope or
any other characteristic of a given continuing resource do not
warrant the assignment of a new ISSN. Title changes that are deemed
minor are registered in the ISSN metadata as "variant titles".
When a new ISSN is assigned to a continuing resource (because of a
significant title change or of a media change), both the "former" and
"new" ISSN are deemed valid and identify two distinct entities: each
of them identifies the continuing resource in its incarnation in a
given time interval, under a particular key title and/or physical
medium. "Dead" continuing resources are dead in the sense that they
are no longer updated, but they continue to be accessible in library
shelves or as archives on servers and their continuing identification
is an obvious need for the whole chain of stakeholders.
In such cases, ISSNs, through the metadata stored in the ISSN records
of the ISSN Register are reciprocally linked. In fact, one of the
major aspects of the ISSN Register is its linking structure through
which various incarnations of continuing resources are reciprocally
linked using the ISSN as pointer. There are different categories of
such links (for former and successor titles, other media editions,
other language editions, supplements etc.). A given ISSN may thus be
linked directly to a number of other ISSN, which in turn may be
linked to other ISSNs, etc. We can thus define the concepts of
directly and indirectly linked ISSNs.
4.1.1. Allocation of Blocks of ISSNs
The ISSN International Centre is responsible for the allocation of
blocks of ISSN to National Centres. Each Centre receives limited
blocks of numbers. In using blocks of ISSNs, National ISSN Centres
adhere to the following procedures:
I. Report all ISSNs assigned by their centre to the ISSN Register;
II. Assign the ISSNs within their allocated block consecutively and
use up one block completely before starting another block;
III. Ensure that ISSN assignments made in advance of publication or
production of a continuing resource are recorded in the ISSN Register
by determining if publication or production of the resource has
occurred and creating the appropriate ISSN records.
Although it is possible, on the basis of internal management
procedures of the ISSN Register, to determine in a majority of cases
that a given ISSN is part of a given block of ISSNs allocated to a
given ISSN National Centre, this feature cannot be used for ISSN
resolution mechanisms for the following reasons:
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- The country of publication of a continuing resource may change
over time (which implies that the responsibility of a given ISSN
may be switched from one ISSN National Centre to another and that
the ISSN block from which the given ISSN was used may not
correspond to the actual country of publication).
- A significant number of ISSNs were initially assigned in a
"multinational" framework where the block of ISSNs was not
attached to a given country.
- There exists a significant number of "multinational" publications
where "national" responsibility for ISSN assignment and management
has necessarily to be defined on somewhat arbitrary basis, which
may vary over time.
For similar or identical reasons, although metadata attached to an
ISSN in the framework of the ISSN Register defines the current
National ISSN Centre responsible for the management of the ISSN and
its corresponding ISSN record, this information cannot and should not
be used to infer a resolution path.
4.2. ISSN Structure
An ISSN consists of eight digits. These are the Arabic numerals 0 to
9, except that an upper case X can sometimes occur in the final
position as a check digit (when representing the number "10"). Since
ISSNs are likely to be used in the same context as codes designed for
other purposes, a distinction must be preserved in the form of
presentation. An ISSN therefore appears as two groups of four
digits, separated by a hyphen:
ISSN 0317-8471
ISSN 1050-124X
The check digit is always located in the extreme right (low order)
position, and is calculated on a modulus 11 basis using weights 8 to
2.
4.3. Encoding Considerations
Embedding ISSNs within the URN framework does not present encoding
problems, since all of the characters that can appear in an ISSN (the
10 digits (0 to 9), the hyphen and capital letter X) are valid in the
namespace-specific string (NSS) part of the URN. Percent-encoding,
as described in RFC 2141bis [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn], is
never needed. In order to improve readability of the NSS, central
hyphens SHOULD always be used.
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Example: URN:ISSN:1234-1231
4.4. Resolution of ISSN-based URNs
4.4.1. General
For URN resolution purposes, all elements, including the check digit
and the central hyphen, must be taken into account.
If a local resource stores and manages ISSNs without a central
hyphen, it SHOULD be programmatically inserted for the constitution
of URN:ISSN.
Applications, such as the national bibliography or the open archive
of a university, can use the URN as the persistent address of the
resource. There is just one place (the URN registry) where the
address is mapped to one or more physical locations.
4.4.2. Practical Aspects
Persistence is one of the key features for any persistent identifier
system. There are three inter-related aspects of persistence that
need to be discussed: persistence of the resource itself, persistence
of the identifier, and persistence of the URN-based resolvers.
Persistence of the resources: continuing resources are complex
objects that evolve over time. In their (mostly) paper incarnations,
they have been stored on library shelves sometimes for centuries.
Bibliographic records mediate identification and access. If a
continuing resource is available on print only, its URN:ISSN will
resolve to the bibliographic record in the ISSN register.
The ISSN Register has identified (at the beginning of 2012) almost
100,000 online continuing resources that may or may not have print
equivalents. Furthermore, vast digitization efforts are now
undertaken over the world to create electronic archives of printed
continuing resources (these initiatives have often a dual aim of long
term preservation and economies in shelving space); efforts are also
under way to manage the long term preservation of online continuing
resources.
All these efforts that have as a goal the persistence of the
continuing resources will be all the more successful if they benefit
from a standardized identification layer. This obviously also has an
impact on the management of contents (volumes, issues, and first and
foremost articles) where linking frameworks that appeared during the
last ten years (CROSSREF or Open URL) make heavy use of the ISSN.
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Persistence of the identifier: The ISSN as an identifier is
persistent in the sense that once assigned, an ISSN will never be re-
assigned to a different continuing resource.
Persistence of the resolvers: URN resolvers are not static. The
services they'll supply will change over time, due to changes in
technical infrastructure. For instance, new URN resolution services
may be added or modified over time. Persistence of the resolvers
themselves is mainly an organizational issue, related to the
persistence of organizations maintaining them. As URN:ISSN
resolution services will be based on the ISSN Register, which is
itself a persistent resource that has been maintained for almost 35
years, we may thus assume that URN:ISSN resolution services will be
persistent.
The ISSN Register will initially support four resolution services
specified in RFC 2483 [RFC2483], namely I2L, I2Ls, I2C and I2Cs.
Only I2C and I2Cs (URI to URC(s); delivery of descriptive metadata
related to the resource) are valid for non-networked resources.
Descriptive metadata can only be supplied in the MARC21 format. The
resolutions service will be conformant with the syntax defined for
the query instruction for URN service selection specified in
RFC 2141bis [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn].
Due to the structure of the ISSN, it is assumed that URN:ISSN
resolution can only be reliably achieved through a central service,
based on the ISSN Register that in turn can benefit from automated
linking with other local resources using the ISSN as an identifier.
Only a combination of the authority of the centralized ISSN Register
and of local data can guarantee both reliability and persistence.
4.5. Additional Considerations
4.5.1. ISSN-L (or "Linking ISSN")
In the framework of URN:ISSN resolution, the ISSN-L is a very
important new feature.
The ISSN-L (or "linking ISSN") is an important modification
introduced in the latest revision of the ISSN standard in the ISO
framework.
The ISSN-L has been defined to meet the need for a collocation, or
grouping mechanism that brings together the various media versions of
a continuing resource, and thus facilitate content management.
The ISSN-L is an ISSN designated by the ISSN Network to group the
different media versions of a continuing resource.
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Only one ISSN-L is designated regardless of how many different media
versions of a continuing resource exist. A continuing resource will
be associated with only one ISSN-L.
4.5.1.1. Designation of the ISSN-L
The designation of the ISSN-L is carried out either by a centre of
the ISSN Network or is performed automatically as records are added
to the ISSN Register. It is done either by those ISSN National
Centres that are able to undertake this responsibility, or by the
International Centre. The records produced by these National Centres
include the ISSN-L in the ISSN records under their responsibility.
4.5.1.2. Rules for the Designation of the ISSN-L
The first ISSN assigned, in the ISSN Register, to any media version
of a continuing resource is designated by default to function also as
the ISSN-L and applies to all other media versions of that resource
identified in the ISSN Register. An ISSN-L is designated for each
continuing resource identified in the ISSN Register, even if the
continuing resource is issued in only one medium. Only one ISSN-L is
designated regardless of how many different media versions of a
continuing resource exist.
In the framework of URN:ISSN resolution, whether an ISSN is submitted
as an ISSN-L or as an ISSN should be considered as having no
practical impact as the response should always include by default
basic resolution data for all ISSNs that may be linked through a
common ISSN-L.
For efficient practical resolution purposes, it should not be assumed
that the requesting service has an unambiguous knowledge of either:
o the media version associated to a given ISSN; or
o the ISSN which is designated to function as the ISSN-L that links
the different media versions.
The URN:ISSN resolution service should make no such assumption
concerning the knowledge of the requesting service. The URN:ISSN
resolution should make available sufficient authoritative metadata so
as to allow the requesting service to obtain the expected response,
even if the ISSN submitted is not used fully adequately by the
requestor. URN:ISSN resolution metadata should allow the requesting
service to check and correct if necessary its potentially incorrect
assumptions, so as to avoid the following situations:
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o an ISSN would be left unresolved (for instance because a "print"
ISSN was sent instead of the "online" ISSN and I2L service is
requested);
o the requesting service would be left unaware of the existence of
other ISSN linked through a common linking ISSN-L, because it
would have submitted for resolution an ISSN not designated as
ISSN-L;
o the requesting service would have to perform several successive
URN:ISSN resolution requests for all ISSN linked through a common
ISSN-L.
Examples:
URN:ISSN:1234-1231 identifies the current print edition of
"Medical News".
URN:ISSN:1560-1560 identifies the current online edition of
"Medical News".
The ISSN-L linking both media versions of "Medical News" happens to
be ISSN-L 1234-1231 (i.e based on the ISSN 1234-1231, designated as
such in the framework of the management of the ISSN Register).
The resolution of URN:ISSN:1234-1231 should be equivalent to the
resolution of URN:ISSN 1560-1560; i.e., in both cases one should find
a reference to the other media version.
4.5.2. Updating and Management of URLs Corresponding to Resources
Identified by URN:ISSN
As already indicated, continuing resources are complex objects or
sets of objects that evolve over time and can be partly or fully
duplicated, published, archived, remixed. Various entities
(publishers, issuing bodies, libraries, content aggregators,
archiving institutions, subscription services, ...) may be partly or
fully responsible over time for the online management of these
objects.
Their stewardship may be ambiguously implemented for various reasons:
o It may extend over a restricted sub-set of the resource (only from
a given year for instance).
o It may express itself over time through various technical
implementations, which may translate into server name and URL
changes.
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o It may or may not be associated with an adequate stewardship over
the appropriate identification of the objects (inadequate ISSN
being used for media versions, title changes not taken into
account, ...).
o The ISSN assigned may or may not be used in a consistent and
standardized machine processable form in the objects themselves or
in external reference lists. Even if an appropriate ISSN is used
in the stored metadata, it may be duplicated at the level of all
the sub-objects (volumes, issues, articles, ...) making it
impractical to ascertain the adequate entry point of the
continuing resource itself as a whole.
In some cases, continuing resources are not processed or managed as
such and only their constituent parts (for instance, volumes, issues,
articles, ...) are made directly accessible as evolving sets.
Last but not least, commercial publications may restrict access to
authenticated users only.
This practically means that "resolution" (in the sense of
localization) of continuing resources can best be achieved in the
framework of long term coordinated efforts, but cannot be guaranteed
in all cases. The best results will of course be obtained with
"preservation silos" or big entities. Concerning the "long tail" of
small publications, preservation initiatives are best equipped to
handle the link between identification and access to the resources
themselves.
This means that URN:ISSN resolution will not be able to offer "full
resolution" (i.e. reliable access to the resource itself) in all
cases, even if the resource is "online".
On the other hand, URN:ISSN extended resolution services could be
offered on a systematic basis thanks to the metadata stored in the
ISSN Register and its potential linking with external resources, such
as:
o basic metadata stored in the ISSN Register identifying or
describing the resource, including, as stated above, metadata from
the ISSN records linked through a common ISSN-L; in particular,
the minimum set of data should include the category of the ISSN as
defined above, so as to allow for instance an adequate processing
of "cancelled ISSNs";
o access to the direct or indirect linking structure associating the
ISSN with other continuing resources;
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o linking to administrative metadata such as archiving and
preservation information about the resource or in a more general
and wider way, to any kind of relevant ancillary information:
publisher, issuing body, availability through third party outfits,
such as union catalogues etc., external evaluation and
authentication data, in fact to any other party or service
offering relevant ISSN based metadata.
URN:ISSN resolution services can be both human readable and machine
processable so as to support semantic web compatible services.
It should finally be noted that as the ISSN Register is a
subscription based resource, URN:ISSN resolution cannot be a fully
open service.
5. URN Namespace Registration and Use
The formal URN Namespace Identifier Registration for the pre-2007
version of the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) standard
was done in RFC 3044 [RFC3044].
The revised ISSN standard does not require a new namespace, but the
registration is updated here. The registrant organization has moved
from a former address to a new one in Paris. Moreover, the
description of the NSS and resolution details have been amended.
5.1. URN Namespace ID Registration for the International Standard
Serial Number (ISSN)
This registration describes how the International Standard Serial
Number (ISSN) can be supported within the URN framework.
[ RFC Editor: please replace "XXXX" in all instances of "RFC XXXX"
below by the RFC number assigned to this document. ]
Namespace ID: ISSN
This Namespace ID has already been assigned to the International
Standard Serial Number in January 2001 when the namespace was
initially registered.
Kind of named resources:
Continuing (serial) publications.
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Registration Information:
Version: 2
Date: 2012-10-31
Declared registrant of the namespace:
Registering Organization: Centre international d'Enregistrement
des Publications en Serie - CIEPS-ISSN - ISSN International Centre
Designated Contact Person:
Name: Ms. Francoise Pelle
Affiliation: Director, ISSN International Centre
Email: issnic@issn.org
Postal: 45 rue de Turbigo, 75003 PARIS, FRANCE
Web URL: <http://www.issn.org/>
Declaration of syntactic structure of NSS part:
The ISSN syntax (used literally as the NSS) is as follows:
NNNN-NNNC
where N is a Digit character [0..9]
C is either a Digit character or letter "X" [0..9,X]
C is the check character
Example 1: URN:ISSN:1234-1231
Example 2: URN:ISSN: 0259-000X
Relevant ancillary documentation:
The ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is a unique
machine-readable identification number, which identifies
unambiguously any continuing resource. This number is defined in
ISO Standard 3297:2007. ISSNs have been in use for more than 30
years and they have deeply affected the handling of continuing
resources and their contents. 88 countries are officially ISSN
members (at the beginning of 2012).
The administration of the ISSN system is carried out at two
levels: International Centre and National Centres.
The ISSN International Centre is located in Paris (France).
The main functions of the Centre are:
* To promote, co-ordinate and supervise the world-wide use of the
ISSN system.
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* To maintain and publish the ISSN Register.
* To allocate blocks of ISSNs to ISSN National Centres.
* to assign ISSN to international publications and to serials
issued in countries with no National Centre.
Detailed information about ISSN usage can be found from the ISSN
Users' Manual. The manual is available at
<http://www.issn.org/2-23364-ISSN-Manual.php>
Conformance with URN Syntax:
Legal ISSN characters are 0-9 and hyphen and X. No percent-
encoding is needed. Hyphen carries no semantic content but SHOULD
NOT be dropped from the NSS.
Rules for Lexical Equivalence of NSS part:
ISSN numbers are usually printed with the letters 'ISSN' and a
single blank preceding the ISSN proper (for instance: ISSN 1234-
1231). Any data preceding the ISSN MUST NOT be included in the
NSS. No percent encoding is needed.
Prior to comparing the NSS of two ISSN-based URNs for equivalence,
all hyphens, if present, MUST be removed and letter 'X'
capitalized.
Note that, according to RFC 2141bis
[I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn], the prefix "URN:ISSN:" is case-
insensitive; generic URI parsing and comparison software
frequently uses lower case as the canonical (normalized) form.
The URNs are equivalent if the normalized forms obtained this way
compare equal.
Usage of query instructions:
'ISSN' URN resolvers initially support four of the resolution
services specified in RFC 2483 [RFC2483], namely I2L, I2Ls, I2C
and I2Cs. Only I2C and I2Cs (URI to URC(s); delivery of
descriptive metadata related to the resource) are valid for non-
networked resources, and hence I2C is the default service.
'ISSN' URN resolution by the ISSN International Centre will ignore
query keywords other than "s".
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Usage of fragment part:
There are no provisions for support of the fragment part in URI
references to 'ISSN' URNs.
However, the MARC21 format used to return metadata for 'ISSN' URNs
can be interpreted by cognizant resolution clients.
Identifier uniqueness and persistence considerations:
ISBN is a unique identifier. ISSN is a unique and persistent
identifier. An ISSN, once it has been assigned, MUST NOT be re-
used for another continuing resource. 'ISSN' URNs inherit the
uniqueness and persistence properties from ISSNs.
Process of identifier assignment:
Assignment of ISSNs is controlled, and 'ISSN' URNs immediately
inherit this property. There are three levels of control: the
ISSN International Centre, national ISSN Centres, and finally all
the stakeholders responsible for a correct use of the ISSN system.
Process for identifier resolution:
See Section 4.4 of RFC XXXX.
Validation mechanism:
The check digit helps to assure the correctness of an ISSN number
assigned for a continuing resource when it has been entered or
processed. Applications processing bibliographic data such as
integrated library systems MAY use the check digit to check the
correctness of the ISSN string. If the number is found to be
wrong due to, e.g., a typing error made by a publisher, the
correct ISSN SHOULD nevertheless be used while the wrong number
may be stored alongside for reference. Although the resource
itself may only contain the wrong number, national bibliographies
and systems used by relevant communities often will contain both
the wrong and correct ISSN number.
Scope:
ISSN is a global identifier system used for identification of
continuing resources. It is very widely used and supported by the
publishing and scholarly publication communities.
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6. Security Considerations
This document proposes means of encoding ISSNs within the URN
framework. An ISSN-based URN resolution service is depicted here,
but in a generic level only; thus questions of secure or
authenticated resolution mechanisms are excluded. It does not deal
with means of validating the integrity or authenticating the source
or provenance of URNs that contain ISSNs. Issues regarding
intellectual property rights associated with objects identified by
the ISSNs are also beyond the scope of this document.
Access control mechanisms may be implemented to limit access to some
or all URN resolution services available in the URN Register. Such
mechanisms, if any, will be discussed separately.
7. IANA Considerations
IANA is asked to update the existing registration of the Formal URN
Namespace 'ISSN' using the template given above in Section 5.1, which
follows the outline specified in RFC 3406bis
[I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg].
8. Acknowledgements
This draft is part of the URNBIS effort to revise the basic URN RFCs.
The aim in the IETF is to bring these RFCs in alignment with the
current URI Standard (STD 63, RFC 3986), ABNF, and IANA guidelines.
The PERSID project <http://www.persid.org/> is a significant impulse
to this work.
9. References
9.1. Normative References
[I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn]
Hoenes, A., "Uniform Resource Name (URN) Syntax",
draft-ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn-03 (work in progress),
October 2012.
[I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg]
Hoenes, A., "Defining Uniform Resource Name (URN)
Namespaces", draft-ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg-03
(work in progress), October 2012.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
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Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
RFC 3986, January 2005.
9.2. Informative References
[I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3187bis-isbn-urn]
Huttunen, M., Hakala, J., and A. Hoenes, "Using
International Standard Book Numbers as Uniform Resource
Names", draft-ietf-urnbis-rfc3187bis-isbn-urn-03 (work in
progress), October 2012.
[IANA-URI]
IANA, "URI Schemes Registry",
<http://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes>.
[IANA-URN]
IANA, "URN Namespace Registry",
<http://www.iana.org/assignments/urn-namespaces>.
[RFC2141] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.
[RFC2288] Lynch, C., Preston, C., and R. Jr, "Using Existing
Bibliographic Identifiers as Uniform Resource Names",
RFC 2288, February 1998.
[RFC2483] Mealling, M. and R. Daniel, "URI Resolution Services
Necessary for URN Resolution", RFC 2483, January 1999.
[RFC2611] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
"URN Namespace Definition Mechanisms", BCP 33, RFC 2611,
June 1999.
[RFC3044] Rozenfeld, S., "Using The ISSN (International Serial
Standard Number) as URN (Uniform Resource Names) within an
ISSN-URN Namespace", RFC 3044, January 2001.
[RFC3187] Hakala, J. and H. Walravens, "Using International Standard
Book Numbers as Uniform Resource Names", RFC 3187,
October 2001.
[RFC3406] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
"Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition
Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002.
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Author's Address
Pierre Godefroy
ISSN International Centre
45 rue de Turbigo
Paris, 75003
France
Phone: +33-1-44-88-22-18
Email: godefroy@issn.org
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