v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 714 entries across 20 domains · CC-BY 4.0714 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack BStablev2026.2

ISNI

International Standard Name Identifier (ISO 27729), a 16-digit identifier for the public identity of a person or organisation involved in the creation, production, management, or distribution of content, administered by the ISNI International Agency.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
ISNI 0000 0001 2103 2683 (Stephen Hawking).
Is an instance
An ISNI assigned to an academic publisher's corporate identity for music-licensing or library-cataloguing crosswalks.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A library's local authority record number (LCCN) is not an ISNI.
Not an instance
A researcher's email address is not an ISNI.

Editorial commentary

ISNI is the ISO-standardised identifier for ‘public identities’ across creative and research sectors. Each ISNI is a 16-digit number, often presented in four groups of four (e.g. 0000 0001 2103 2683), with a final MOD-11 check digit. The registry is large (millions of records) and ingests name authority data from national libraries, music industry sources, and ORCID. An individual researcher’s ORCID iD and ISNI may both exist; the ISNI block 0000-0001-5000-0007 through 0000-0003-5000-0001 is reserved for ORCID-issued iDs that have a corresponding ISNI.

References

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Also known as

International Standard Name Identifier · ISO 27729 identifier

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="ISNI"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/isni" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "ISNI",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/isni",
  "description": "International Standard Name Identifier (ISO 27729), a 16-digit identifier for the public identity of a person or organisation involved in the creation, production, management, or distribution of content, administered by the ISNI International Agency.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/the-persistent-identifier-ecosystem/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/isni",
  "sameAs": [
    "International Standard Name Identifier",
    "ISO 27729 identifier"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}

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