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14 - How to check that an ISBN is correct

from Appendixes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

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Summary

The last digit of an ISBN (see pp. 176–7) is known as the check digit and is used to pick up errors in transcribing the previous twelve digits (or the previous nine under the old 10-digit system). The check digit of an old 10- digit ISBN was always one digit (1–9 or x, meaning 10). In a 13-digit ISBN the check digit is always one digit between 0 and 9; there is no x (10) in the new system.

The check digit of a 13-digit ISBN can be calculated using a modulus 10 algorithm, as follows:

  • The first twelve digits are multiplied alternately by 1 and 3, and then added together.

  • The resulting total is divided by 10, to determine the remainder.

  • The remainder is subtracted from 10, and the result is the check digit. If the remainder is 0, no subtraction is required; the check digit will be 0.

For an ISBN to be valid, the sum of the first twelve digits multiplied alternately by 1 and 3 plus the check digit must be divisible by 10 without a remainder.

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Butcher's Copy-editing
The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders
, pp. 484
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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