LibGuides: Finding standards: Home

What is a standard?

A standard is an officially approved specification which covers requirements for the properties, dimensions, performance, qualities and testing of products and services.

Standards can be:

international (with worldwide coverage)
regional (involving co-operation between two or more countries)
national (covering a specific country or sector)

Standards are useful sources for:

current thought and practices in specific industries
detailed technical guidelines
performance or quality guidelines
terminology

Finding standards

British Standards Online [full-text] This link opens in a new window
Access to all British Standards Institution publications (we do not have access to Standards that are classified as 'under review' these are unadopted Standards and not part of our subscription) - for educational use only (see 'Additional Info' for business use options).
Full-text access to all British Standards Institution publications including:
-current, historic, and draft British Standards
-BSI adopted European and international standards
-technical handbooks
-codes of practice
-guidelines
-specifications for products, dimensions, and performance
-glossaries

To access the full-text pdfs you can either view online, or download the file. If you are using your personal computer and wish to download files, you will need to install the FileOpen plugin and make sure Adobe Acrobat Reader is already installed on your computer. Staff using work laptops will need to contact DTS to arrange for these to be installed.

Restrictions on use
British Standards Online may only be used for educational purposes. It must not be used for the purpose of University business processes (including but not limited to Health & Safety, Estate Management) or for monetary reward (including but not limited to knowledge transfer partnerships). For the full British Standards Online terms of use, please access the resource using the link above and click on the "Terms" link at the bottom of the page.

Standards for business purposes
The Estates department have an online subscription to BSI which allows for the access of standards for commercial use. Please contact them if you wish to use the platform for this purpose.

If you require a physical copy of a standard for the purposes of University business processes, these can be obtained directly from the BSI via our University of Reading Membership, which is managed by The Library. Please contact Kate Devaney, Collections Services Manager for further details.

ISO Catalogue
You can find references to other international standards in the International Standards Organization (ISO) Catalogue.

Summon

Standards covered by our British Standards Online subscription can also be found using our Summon discovery service. One search in Summon will find information published in a wide variety of sources including standards, journal articles, book chapters and newspaper articles.

Need further assistance?

If you need help with finding information, then please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian for advice.

Contact your Academic Liaison Librarian

Citing a standard (using the Harvard style)

Elements to include:

Name of authorising organisation
Year of publication (in round brackets)
Number and title of standard (in italics)
Place of publication (if in print)
Publisher (if in print)
Available at: URL (if online)
Accessed: date (if online)

Examples:

Print standard:

Reference list: British Standards Institution (2020) BS ISO 21543:2020: Milk and milk products - guidelines for the application of near infrared spectroscopy. London: British Standards Institution.

In-text citation: (British Standards Institution, 2020)

Online standard

Reference list: British Standards Institution (2020) BS ISO 21543:2020: Milk and milk products - guidelines for the application of near infrared spectroscopy. Available at: https://bsol.bsigroup.com (Accessed: 6 July 2021).

In-text citation: (British Standards Institution, 2020)