Changes in assigning ISBN from 2024

The Czech National Agency for ISBN and ISMN would like to inform you about the new principles of assigning ISBN that came into force this year.

  1. From 2024, ISBNs are also assigned to audiobooks. An audiobook that is assigned an ISBN should comply with the following recommendations:
  • the audiobook should be available to the public (e.g. through a supply chain),
  • the audiobook should be an audio version of a text product, even if the text product has never been published,
  • information on the title, publisher and copyright, etc. should be an integral part of the audiobook, either within the main file or in a separate file (similar to a bibliography),
  • it is advisable to read the above information about the audiobook at the beginning or end of the audiobook.

To report audiobooks (available on a physical medium or online for download), use this form.

  1. If you are co-publishing with another publisher(s), only one of the publisher-co-editors now assigns an ISBN. It is recommended that the co-editor who will be responsible for the distribution of the publication assigns the ISBN to the publication published.
  2. If you publish a journal twice a year but print it as a double issue, you do not assign an ISBN. (On the other hand, the current practice of assigning ISBNs to yearbooks remains unchanged, i.e., normal yearbooks are assigned ISBNs.)
  3. For an up-to-date overview of the types of documents that are or are not assigned an ISBN number use this link.

The main types of documents, for which ISBN is not assigned, are:

  • paper goods in paperback or hardback (e.g. diaries, notebooks, memory albums, colouring books for children and adults),
  • playing cards or board games,
  • crosswords, sudoku,
  • leaflets,
  • wall documents (calendars, posters).