ISSN & ISRC Validator
A journal number and a recording number, and they are opposites: an ISSN can be checked — it carries a check digit — while an ISRC cannot, because it has none at all. Paste either, or a mixed column of both.
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The periodical barcode does not contain the ISSN check digit
A magazine's EAN-13 is 977, then the first seven digits of the
ISSN, then a two-digit price or variant code, then a GS1 check digit of its own. The ISSN's
own check character never makes it into the barcode.
So going from barcode back to ISSN means recomputing that character. Forget it, and you produce an ISSN that is one character wrong — which is the classic mistake in serials data and the reason this page shows both forms side by side.
An ISRC cannot be verified by anyone, including us
There is no check digit anywhere in the twelve characters. A tool can tell you an ISRC is the right shape — five characters of prefix, two of year, five of designation — and that is genuinely all. If a page tells you an ISRC is "valid", it means well formed, and you should read it that way.
This is why the result above says "shape checked" rather than showing a tick that would look the same as the ISSN's.
QM is not a country, and that is fine
The first two characters started life as a country code and usually still are one. But IFPI
allocates the whole five-character prefix, and QM, QZ and
QT exist precisely because large registrants ran out of national space. Plenty of
online validators reject them as "not a valid country code". They are wrong, and a great many
perfectly good ISRCs get flagged because of it.
Print and electronic are two different ISSNs
The same journal on paper and online carries two distinct numbers, linked by a third called the ISSN-L. Resolving one to another needs the ISSN-L table from the ISSN International Centre — this page checks the number in front of it and does not claim to link editions.
ISSN checks (8 rules)
ISSN-L01 An ISSN is eight characters
Four digits, a hyphen, then three digits and a check character. Anything else is not an ISSN — most often it is an ISBN, which is 10 or 13 digits and identifies a book rather than a serial.
ISSN-C01 ISSN check digit is wrong
The eighth character is computed from the seven before it with a modulus 11 algorithm. A mismatch means a digit is wrong; the expected character is given so you can tell a typo from a transposition.
Fix: Use the expected check character, or re-key the ISSN from the masthead.
ISSN-X01 X is only a check character
Modulus 11 can produce a remainder of 10, which is written X. That makes X legal in the final position and nowhere else — an X among the first seven characters is a mis-keyed digit.
ISSN-H01 Written without its hyphen
An ISSN is presented as two groups of four separated by a hyphen. Systems generally accept it either way, but the two forms do not match each other when anything compares strings exactly.
Fix: Store the canonical hyphenated form.
ISSN-E01 The periodical barcode drops the ISSN check digit
A magazine’s EAN-13 is 977, then the first SEVEN digits of the ISSN, then a two-digit price or variant code, then a GS1 Mod-10 check digit of its own. The ISSN’s own check character is not carried. Going back from barcode to ISSN therefore means recomputing that character — forgetting to is the classic mistake in this trade.
ISSN-B01 This looks like an ISBN, not an ISSN
Ten or thirteen digits identify a book, not a serial. The two get mixed up in the same spreadsheet column all the time, and a serials system will simply reject the value.
Fix: Validate it as an ISBN instead.
ISSN-P01 Print and electronic editions have different ISSNs
The same journal on paper and online carries two distinct ISSNs, tied together by a third number, the ISSN-L. Resolving one to the other requires the ISSN-L table published by the ISSN International Centre; this tool checks the number in front of it and does not claim to link editions.
ISSN-V01 Valid ISSN
Eight characters with a check digit that agrees with the seven before it.
ISRC checks (11 rules)
ISRC-N01 An ISRC has no check digit at all
Unlike a barcode or an ISSN, an ISRC carries no self-check of any kind. So the only question any tool can answer about one is whether it is SHAPED correctly — never whether it was really issued, and never whether it belongs to this recording. Treat a pass here as "well formed", not as "verified".
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-L01 An ISRC is twelve characters
Five characters of prefix code, two digits of year, five digits of designation code. The hyphens people write between the groups are presentation only and are not part of the code.
Fix: Store the twelve characters without hyphens and without the literal "ISRC" label.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-S01 Separators or the ISRC label came along with the code
Printed form shows the code with hyphens and a leading "ISRC". Both belong on the page, not in the data field — and a distributor comparing codes as strings will treat the decorated and undecorated forms as different recordings.
Fix: Store the bare twelve characters.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-C01 The first two characters are not always a country
They began as a country code and are still usually one, but IFPI now allocates the whole five-character prefix, and codes such as QM, QZ and QT are deliberately not countries — they exist because large registrants exhausted their national space. A validator that rejects QM for "not being a country" is wrong, and there are many such validators.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-C02 Prefix opens with letters that are neither a country nor a known allocation
The first two characters are letters but match no ISO 3166-1 country code and none of the documented non-country allocations. That does not make the code impossible — IFPI allocates new prefixes — but it is worth a second look, since it is also what a typo produces.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-A01 Prefix code must be letters and digits only
The five-character prefix is alphanumeric. Punctuation or spaces inside it mean the value has been mangled, usually by a spreadsheet or by copying out of a PDF.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-Y01 Year of reference is not two digits
Characters six and seven are the last two digits of the year the code was assigned. Letters here mean the groups have been mis-split — very often because a hyphen was dropped and the parts shifted along.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-Y02 That two-digit year has no reading as a year of assignment
IFPI defines these two characters as the year the ISRC was assigned, and ISRC began in 1989 — so as an assignment year a value resolves to 19xx only for 89 to 99, and to 20xx only up to the current year. A value between those windows names a year that either predates the scheme or has not happened yet. The other explanation is back catalogue: a registrant coding an old recording with its RECORDING year. This tool cannot tell those two apart from the code alone, so it shows you both and calls neither.
Fix: Check against the release: a recent assignment should carry a recent year.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-D01 Designation code must be five digits
The last five characters are digits assigned by the registrant, unique within the year. A capital O typed for a zero is the usual cause of a letter turning up here.
Fix: Check for the letter O standing in for the digit 0.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
ISRC-D02 Designation code looks like a placeholder
All zeros, or a value that is suspiciously round. Since the designation code must not repeat within a calendar year, a column full of 00000 means the codes were never really assigned.
Source: Own engineering rule, not part of the ISRC standard: derived from patterns seen in real catalogues.
ISRC-V01 Well-formed ISRC
All four parts are the right shape. Remember there is no check digit, so this says the code is possible, not that it is real.
Source: IFPI — ISRC Structure
Structure only. An ISRC has no check digit, so no tool — this one included — can tell you whether a well-formed code was ever really issued.