ISTC

ISTC is an acronym that is used for several distinct organizations and standards in different fields. The most widely recognized meanings are described below.

International Standard Text Code (ISTC) is a bibliographic identifier created to uniquely identify literary texts, independent of language, edition, or format. The ISTC is designed to facilitate rights management, licensing, and metadata workflows by providing a stable, text-level identifier for works such as novels, plays, poems, and other literary texts. It is intended to complement existing identifiers like ISBN and is administered by the International ISTC Agency, with adoption among publishers, libraries, and bibliographic databases.

International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) refers to a multinational organization established in Moscow in the early 1990s to address issues of science and technology development in the post–Cold War era. Its core aim is to reduce the risk of proliferation by engaging scientists from former weapons programs in peaceful research and development. The ISTC provides project funding, research opportunities, and collaboration programs, working with member states and partner organizations to advance scientific activity and to repurpose scientific expertise toward civilian applications.

Other uses of the acronym ISTC exist, including local or institution-specific centers such as Information Systems and Technology Centers or similar entities within universities or government agencies. Because ISTC is used by multiple organizations, the intended meaning is typically clarified by context.

In summary, ISTC most commonly denotes the International Standard Text Code for bibliographic identification and the International Science and Technology Center focused on peaceful science collaboration, with other specialized uses also in circulation.