Document naming convention

Document titles play a pivotal role in conveying the purpose and content of the document, enabling efficient information retrieval and fostering collaboration among individuals involved in standardization efforts. By adhering to a well-defined naming convention, we ensure that every document contributes to the development of international standards while supporting the principles of national delegation. Indeed, the document you are about to create will not only be read by experts of your committee or working group but also by national experts indirectly involved in your group work but who might not have the whole document background. It is therefore critical that your document title is as self-explanatory as possible to enhance the accessibility and discoverability of information.

General recommendations

ISO and CEN N documents are accessed not only by experts involved directly in technical committees and working groups but also by National Mirror Committees (NMCs). NMCs represent the interest of National Standards Bodies participating in the development of international standards. NMCs registered in the Global Directory have direct access to all N documents of the mapped ISO and CEN committees [read more].

To facilitate the understanding of circulated N documents it is therefore critical to:

• Set a clear, plain, and meaningful title. This information is displayed in most email notifications and is the very first information seen by experts in the Documents platform.

• Include a description to explicit the document context. This information is also displayed below the document title and when hovering on the document’s title.

• Set the corresponding meta data appropriately. For example, creating a meeting agenda as a General document with no extra meta data, makes it difficult to search for a document and understand what it is about.

• When available, tag documents with the appropriate project, meeting and/or ballot. This will automatically list and identify the documents as part of the project, meeting or ballot documents and allow the search based on one of these content types.

• Indicate the expected action and date so that experts have a better understanding of what is expected from them.

Meeting documents naming convention

Face to face and hybrid meetings:

[YYYY-MM-DD] - [Location ([Meeting type])] - [Document main topic] – [Document maturity]

Virtual meetings:

[YYYY-MM-DD] – Virtual meeting - [Document main topic]

Let's break down each component of the naming convention:

• [YYYY-MM-DD]: Include the start date of the meeting in the format Year-Month-Day.
• [Location]: For face-to-face and hybrid meetings: the location where the meeting is taking place. This could be the name of the city, venue, or any other relevant identifier that helps distinguish between different meetings held in different locations.
• [Meeting type]: “Face-to-face” or “Hybrid”. For 100% online meetings, please use “Virtual”
• [Document main topic]: Describe the type or topic of the document concisely. Use terms such as "Agenda," "Minutes," "Working Session," or a specific topic relevant to the meeting to indicate its purpose or focus.
• [Document maturity]: If relevant, indication of how final the document is. Indicate if the document is a “Draft”, a Revision (“Rev. 1”) or the “final” version.

Examples:

• 2021-09-29 - La Coruña (hybrid) – Agenda – Draft ver. 2

• 2005-08-15 - Warsaw (face-to-face) - Announcement of cancellation of ISO/TC 37 meeting

• 2024-03 -05 – Virtual meeting - Working documents for discussion for plenary schedule

Ballot documents naming convention

[Subtype] - [Ballot reference] [ballot name if any but do not repeat the project title]- [if result of voting, mention APPROVED/REJECTED]

Let's break down the updated components of the naming convention for ISO ballot documents:

• [Subtype]: Begin the document title with the type of the document within the ballot context. This could be the specific document type, such as "Voting Results," "Reference document," or any other relevant designation that distinguishes the document within the ballot process.
• [Ballot reference]: Indicate the ballot reference as registered in the Ballots platform (i.e. ISO/DPAS 12344.5”, “ISO/CD 4349”).
• [ballot name if any but do not repeat the project title]: Indicate the ballot title as registered in the Ballots platform (i.e. “Technical communication vocabulary”, “Method for the determination of the Recycling-index”)
• [if result of voting, mention APPROVED/REJECTED]: If the shared ballot document contains ballot results, please indicate if the ballot was approved or reject in the document title and in capital letters.

Examples:

• Result of voting - prEN ISO/NP 18708 - Solid recovered fuels — Determination of bulk density – Enquiry ballot – APPROVED
• Reference document – Ad hoc ballot - Election of the liaison officer to ISO/TC 323
• Result of voting – ISO/DPAS 89624 -1 Technical communication vocabulary - Draft Publicly Available Specification ballot - REJECTED

Decision documents naming convention

[Draft or not] - [By correspondence or not] - [Decision main topic]

The year and number of the decision being part of the Decision document type, it is recommended to not repeat this information and only indicate if the resolution or recommendation is a draft or not and a short and concise description of the decision topic.

Examples:

• Approving a liaison with committee ISO/XYZ

• Confirmation or disbandment of liaison with committee ISO/XYZ

• Creation of new liaison with organization XYZ

• Approval of strategic business plan

• Establishment of work group

• Appointing of WG convenor

• Approval to submit new project about XYZ

• Approval of a revision

• Approval of WG XYZ recommendation

• Modification of scope for project XYZ

• Advance document/registration of document for next stage

• Approval of document for publication

• Systematic review of decision

• Next meeting details

• Approval of a date limit extension

• Appointment of a Chair (or Chair elect) for committee ISO/TC ABC/SC XYZ

• Change of deliverable

Project document naming convention

[Subtype] - [Project reference] - [Document main topic] – [Expected action if important]

Let's break down each component of the naming convention:

• [Subtype]: The type of project document (i.e. “Form”, “Draft” etc.)
• [Project reference]: Project reference including the document and part number and the project id (i.e. “ISO/DIC 24495-1”, “ISO/CD 21911”)
• [Document main topic]: A short description of what the main topic covered in the document (i.e. “Project limit extension request”, “Revised proposal of Short Circuit test method”, “Detailed observations and comments from Japanese delegation”)
• [Expected action if important]: If the expected action for the committee is important, you may reinforce it at the end of the document title (i.e. “For voting”).

Examples:

• Comments - ISO/DIS 24495-1 - Detailed observations and comments from Japanese delegation
• Form 8A – ISO/CD 21911 – Decision to proceed to Draft International Standard