International Organization for Standardization

Name and abbreviations

The International Organization for Standardization in French is Organisation internationale de normalisation and in Russian, Международная организация по стандартизации (Mezhdunarodnaya organizatsiya po standartizatsii).

A common misconception is that ISO is an abbreviation for "International Standardization Organization" or a similar title in another language. In fact, the letters do not officially represent an acronym or initialism. The organization provides this explanation of the name:Because 'International Organization for Standardization' would have different acronyms in different languages (IOS in English, OIN in French), our founders decided to give it the short form ISO. ISO is derived from the Greek word isos (ίσος, meaning "equal"). Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of our name is always ISO.During the founding meetings of the new organization, however, the Greek word explanation was not invoked.

Both the name ISO and the ISO logo are registered trademarks and their use is restricted.

History

The organization that is known today as ISO began in 1926 as the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA), which primarily focused on mechanical engineering. The ISA was suspended in 1942 during World War II but, after the war, the ISA was approached by the recently formed United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) with a proposal to form a new global standards body.

In October 1946, ISA and UNSCC delegates from 25 countries met in London and agreed to join forces to create the International Organization for Standardization. The organization officially began operations on 23 February 1947.

ISO Standards were originally known as ISO Recommendations (ISO/R), e.g., "ISO 1" was issued in 1951 as "ISO/R 1".

Structure and organization

ISO is a voluntary organization whose members are recognized authorities on standards, each one representing one country. Members meet annually at a General Assembly to discuss the strategic objectives of ISO. The organization is coordinated by a central secretariat, based in Vernier, Canton of Geneva.

A council with a rotating membership of 20 member bodies provides guidance and governance, including setting the annual budget of the central secretariat.

The technical management board is responsible for more than 250 technical committees, who develop the ISO standards.

Joint technical committee with IEC

ISO has a joint technical committee (JTC) with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to develop standards relating to information technology (IT). Known as JTC 1 and entitled "Information technology", it was created in 1987 and its mission is "to develop worldwide Information and Communication Technology (ICT) standards for business and consumer applications."

There was previously also a JTC 2 that was created in 2009 for a joint project to establish common terminology for "standardization in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources". It was later disbanded.

Membership

As of 2026, there are 175 national members representing ISO in their country, with each country having only one member.

ISO has three membership categories,

Member bodies are national bodies considered the most representative standards body in each country. These are the only members of ISO that have voting rights.

Correspondent members are countries that do not have their own standards organization. These members are informed about the work of ISO, but do not participate in standards promulgation.

Subscriber members are countries with small economies. They pay reduced membership fees, but can follow the development of standards.

Participating members are called "P" members, as opposed to observing members, who are called "O" members.

Financing

ISO is funded by a combination of:

Organizations that manage the specific projects or loan experts to participate in the technical work

Subscriptions from member bodies, whose subscriptions are in proportion to each country's gross national product and trade figures

Sale of standards

International standards and other publications

International standards are the main products of ISO. It also publishes technical reports, technical specifications, publicly available specifications, technical corrigenda (corrections), and guides.

International standards

These are designated using the format ISO[/IEC] [/ASTM] [IS] nnnnn[-p]:[yyyy] Title, where nnnnn is the number of the standard, p is an optional part number, yyyy is the year published, and Title describes the subject. IEC for International Electrotechnical Commission is included if the standard results from the work of ISO/IEC JTC 1 (the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee). ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) is used for standards developed in cooperation with ASTM International. yyyy and IS are not used for an incomplete or unpublished standard and, under some circumstances, may be left off the title of a published work.

Technical reports

These are issued when a technical committee or subcommittee has collected data of a different kind from that normally published as an International Standard, such as references and explanations. The naming conventions for these are the same as for standards, except TR prepended instead of IS in the report's name.

For example:

ISO/IEC TR 17799:2000 Code of Practice for Information Security Management

ISO/TR 19033:2000 Technical product documentation – Metadata for construction documentation

Technical and publicly available specifications

Technical specifications may be produced when "the subject in question is still under development or where for any other reason there is the future but not immediate possibility of an agreement to publish an International Standard". A publicly available specification is usually "an intermediate specification, published prior to the development of a full International Standard, or, in IEC may be a 'dual logo' publication published in collaboration with an external organization". By convention, both types of specification are named in a manner similar to the organization's technical reports.

Document copyright

ISO documents have strict copyright restrictions and ISO charges for most copies. As of 2020, the typical cost of a copy of an ISO standard is about US$120 or more (and electronic copies typically have a single-user licence, so they cannot be shared among groups of people). Some standards by ISO and its official US representative (and, via the US National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission) are made freely available.

Standardization process

A standard published by ISO/IEC is the last stage of a long process that commonly starts with the proposal of new work within a committee. Some abbreviations used for marking a standard with its status are:

PWI – Preliminary Work Item

NP or NWIP – New Proposal / New Work Item Proposal (e.g., ISO/IEC NP 23007)

AWI – Approved new Work Item (e.g., ISO/IEC AWI 15444-14)

WD – Working Draft (e.g., ISO/IEC WD 27032)

CD – Committee Draft (e.g., ISO/IEC CD 23000-5)

FCD – Final Committee Draft (e.g., ISO/IEC FCD 23000-12)

DIS – Draft International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC DIS 14297)

FDIS – Final Draft International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC FDIS 27003)

PRF – Proof of a new International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC PRF 18018)

IS – International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007)

Abbreviations used for amendments are:

NP Amd – New Proposal Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 15444-2:2004/NP Amd 3)

AWI Amd – Approved new Work Item Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 14492:2001/AWI Amd 4)

WD Amd – Working Draft Amendment (e.g., ISO 11092:1993/WD Amd 1)

International Workshop Agreements

International Workshop Agreements (IWAs) are documents that establish a collaboration agreement that allow "key industry players to negotiate in an open workshop environment" outside of ISO in a way that may eventually lead to development of an ISO standard.

Products named after ISO

On occasion, the fact that many of the ISO-created standards are ubiquitous has led to common use of "ISO" to describe the product that conforms to a standard. Some examples of this are:

Disk images ending in the file extension "ISO" to signify that they are using the ISO 9660 standard file system as opposed to another file system—hence disc images commonly being referred to as "ISOs".

The sensitivity of a photographic film to light (its "film speed") is described by ISO 6, ISO 2240, and ISO 5800. Hence, the speed of the film often is referred to by its ISO number.

As it was originally defined in ISO 518, the flash hot shoe found on cameras often is called the "ISO shoe".

ISO 11783, the communication protocol for the agriculture industry, which is marketed as ISOBUS.

ISO 13216, the standardized attachment points for child safety seats, which is marketed as ISOFIX.

ISO 668, the standardized intermodal containers, sometimes called "ISO containers".

ISO awards

ISO presents several awards to acknowledge the valuable contributions made in the realm of international standardization:

The Lawrence D. Eicher Award: This award acknowledges outstanding standards development. It is available to all ISO and ISO/IEC technical committees.

The ISO Next Generation Award: Aimed at young professionals from ISO member nations, this award highlights those who advocate for sustainability-centric standardization and emphasize the importance of partnerships.

The ISO Excellence Award: Dedicated to recognizing the endeavours of ISO's technical professionals, any individual nominated as an expert, project leader, or convenor in a committee working group is eligible for this award.