Inside 41 Applying for an ISBN Please consult your university about the ISBN rules. We can request an ISBN for you if you want. You can indicate this in your quote request. After you have completed the ISBN request form in your portal you will find the ISBN in about two days on the ‘specifications’ page in your portal. What is an ISBN? The ISBN is a unique code that can be assigned to a book. The abbreviation stands for International Standard Book Number, consisting of 13 digits. When you apply for an ISBN, you indicate which category it falls into by means of a ‘NUR’ code. This makes editions findable worldwide for (online) bookshops, libraries and archives and for people who are searching specifically for the subject of your book. Is an ISBN mandatory? No. If you want to sell your book through your own website or through a social media platform, an ISBN is not necessary. However, the ISBN is useful for the findability of your book. An ISBN does not mean there will be a barcode on your book, it will only be mentioned in the colophon. If you want to sell your book through a (online) bookshop however, a barcode is necessary. Do i need an e-book ISBN? No. In fact, the same applies here. If you want to sell an e-book through mainstream online book retailers (including iBooks), your e-book will need an ISBN. Otherwise, an e-book ISBN has no added value. What is a DOI number? DOI (Digital Object Identifiers) numbers are unique numbers that can be assigned to a digital document. The purpose of the DOI is that with the help of this number, the referenced document can always be found online in a standard way, independent of any changes to an Internet address. For the findability of the book, a DOI as an identifier is nowadays more important than an ISBN. Please consult your university for the use of an ISBN, ISSN or DOI.
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