Springer Nature and the ISSN International Centre have been initiating a centralised process for the assignment of International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN) to serial publications of Springer Nature.

The new process for requesting ISSN standardises and automates the way unique identifiers are requested, before their publication, for periodicals and books series published under the various imprints of Springer Nature. Springer Nature thus has only one point of contact for all new ISSN assignments.

The new process involves the automated ISSN assignment to pre-publications through transfer of metadata from Springer Nature to the ISSN International Centre. Springer Nature will get ISSNs more quickly, and the ISSN International Centre will immediately share the new data with ISSN National Centres via the ISSN Register, the database which provides authoritative information about serial publications worldwide.