ISGuides: Computer Science: Finding British Standards

What are standards?

SES - The Society for Standards Professionals - have a useful FAQ explaining what a standard is, and the terminology used by standards organizations.

British Standards

British Standards Online (BSOL) This link opens in a new window
Updated daily, BSOL is the most complete collection of current, draft and withdrawn British Standards available anywhere.

BSOL includes all British standards and international and European standards that have been adopted as British standards (e.g. Eurocodes, OHSAS).

Note: this is searched by Discovery. However, if you know you are looking for standards it is quicker to search BSOL directly.

To view the PDF online select 'Quick View'. To download and view offline select 'Download PDF'
More information about downloading/viewing offline:
The FileOpen plugin is needed to download standards and to read them offline. You can install FileOpen on your own laptop, but downloading of standards via FileOpen is not currently available in the university PC labs.

When you download a standard to read later, you will still need an internet connection to authenticate the documents the first time you open them. After that, you will be able to access the documents offline. The file downloaded is licensed to a sole named user who is permitted to install a single electronic copy of it, for use on a single computer. You are permitted to print a single copy of a document. Printing one or many pages, or the entire document will count as a single print so it’s recommended that if you need a printed version, that you print the entire document.

Standards/Regulations/Technical Advice

a bibliographic, citation and full-text database of more than 50,000 British and adopted European and international standards. Updated daily, BSOL allows you download access to the most complete collection of current, draft and withdrawn British Standards available anywhere. So if you are looking for British Standards, ISO standards, Eurocodes, OHSAS etc, use this resource.

BSOL Examples

BS 11000-1:2010. Collaborative business relationships. A framework specification.
Publication Date: 2010
BS 18004:2008. Guide to achieving effective occupational health and safety performance.
Publication Date: 2008
BS ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015. Systems and software engineering. System life cycle processes.
Publication Date: 2015
BS ISO/IEC/IEEE 18880:2015. Information technology. Ubiquitous green community control network protocol
Publication Date: 2015
BS ISO 10006:2003 by Quality management systems. Guidelines for quality management in projects
Publication Date: 2003

Where to find standards

Abbreviation	Sources
API Recommended Practice ### API Standard YYYY-####	American Petroleum Institute publications. Read only versions of these are available on the API website. Create an account at http://publications.api.org/Default.aspx . Then login and browse to the standard. Some older API standards are available on paper in the Edinburgh campus library.
ANSI	American National Standards Institute - contact the library for advice.
ASME	American Society of Mechanical Engineers - contact the library for advice.
ASTM	American Society for Testing Materials. If you are a member of IMechE you can get ASTM standards through the IMechE library. Otherwise, contact the Heriot-Watt University library for advice.
BS ####-#:YYYY BS EN #####:YYYY BS ISO ####:YYYY BS IEC #####-#:YYYY	British standards available from British Standards Online.
Eurocodes	Available from British Standards Online . See the Eurocodes guide.
EN #####:YYYY	EN standards are European Standards from CEN, CENELEC or ETSI. Many of these have a BS equivalent - try searching British Standards Online
IEC #####-#:YYYY	Many IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standards have a BS equivalent - try searching British Standards Online
IEEE Std ####-YYYY IEEE P###.###	IEEE standards are available from IEEE XPlore.
ISO ####:YYYY	Many ISO (International Standards Organisation) standards have a BS equivalent - try searching British Standards Online
SD 2## SD 5##	BREEAM Technical Standards and Environmental and Sustainability Standards are available from the Construction Information Service (info4education).

The Society for Standards Professionals has links to many more standards providers, including government and trade-related bodies. You can use this page to decode unfamiliar abbreviations.