Help on using search

Specific searches

Several ways are provided to help you find the standards, work items or information publications of interest to you:

• a quick Search box on the top banner of each page.
• an Advanced Search each for Standards and for Publications and e-products. You can get to these searches by clicking on the Advanced Search link under the search box

Search by keywords and phrases

• If you enter more than one keyword, the search will default to the logical operator AND. For example, if you enter the words water quality, the search result will return those items containing both words, although not necessarily together as a phrase.
• lf you wish to search for items containing any one of a number of words, then you should insert OR between each keyword, e.g., water OR quality will return any item which contains either of the words water or quality or both.
• If you wish to search for items containing an exact phrase or combination of words in a specific order, then you should enclose the phrase within quotation marks, e.g. "water quality".

The search is not case-sensitive, i. e. a search on Shipbuilding will yield the same result as shipbuilding or SHIPBUILDING.

You can truncate a search term by using * as a wild card character. For example, ship* will search for ships, shipbuilding, shipping, as well as other terms starting with "ship"), *land will find inland, subland, etc.

Search by document reference (ISO) number

You can search for an ISO standard by entering the numerical part of the reference number of the document requested.

• For example, if you are searching for ISO 31 and its parts, enter the search criteria 31 in the ISO number field. The search result will also include any associated amendments or corrigenda.
• If you wish to find a specific part of a standard, e.g., ISO 31-11, you can enter 31-11 directly in any of the search boxes or, if you are using the Extended search form, you can use the separate fields provided for the ISO number, in this case 31, and for the ISO part number, in this case 11.

Advanced search

Search for a specific document type or supplement type

By default the search looks for all standards-type documents. Select from the options given to restrict your search to a specific type of document, e.g. Guides, Technical Reports, etc., or to a specific type of supplement, e.g. Amendments, Technical corrigenda, etc.

Search by ICS (International Classification for Standards)

You can search for standards and/or projects classified by subject in accordance with any technical field and/or group and/or sub-group of the ICS. The search form links to the List of ICS fields, which gives a description of all ICS fields, groups and sub-groups.

Search by stage code

Allows a search for standards which have reached a particular stage in their development or life cycle. The stage codes used by ISO are based on the international harmonized stage code system. The search form links to a stage code chart giving the explanatory name for each valid stage code. 

In combination with a search by stage code, ALWAYS either select or define a date or period when the stage code was reached.

Search by committee

Allows you to restrict your search to the standards and/or projects of a specific ISO committee and/or one of its subcommittees. Although it is possible to browse through the lists of standards and/or projects by committee, as described above, using the Advanced search will also allow you to find withdrawn standards or deleted projects by committee, or to refine or extend your search according to the other criteria you select.

Search scope

You can search on published standards (Catalogue) and/or work items (Technical programme) and/or Withdrawn standards and/or Deleted projects, by checking the appropriate boxes in the search scope. The default search scope has been designed to adapt according to the environment (published standards and/or projects) which the user is working in, and to remain constant across several searches insofar as possible. However, because it is so easy to change environment when linking from search results to various parts of ISO Online, we would advise that you check that the search scope matches your requirement whenever you launch a search.