What is the Rev. 5 publication status?

The Rev. 5 publication status for ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, rests on the official UNSD classification detail and the Rev. 5 publication document, both published by the UN Statistics Division. Those two sources are the references to cite and to check codes against, rather than summaries on secondary sites. Where a secondary site disagrees with UNSD, the UNSD version prevails for any code statement.

Which two sources anchor a Rev. 5 claim?

The opening paragraph names exactly two anchors: the official UNSD classification detail and the Rev. 5 publication document, both published by the UN Statistics Division. That short list is deliberate. A classification lives or dies by its authoritative text, and for ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, the authoritative text is the UNSD material. The classification detail gives the structure, category by category, with the notes that define scope. The publication document gathers the revision into a citable form, with the introductory and explanatory material that helps a reader understand why the structure looks as it does. Together they answer both questions a careful reader asks: what is the category, and where is it officially stated?

Citing both sources, rather than one, is good practice because they serve different moments. The detail page is the working reference for checking a specific category. The publication is the reference for describing the revision as a whole and for quoting its general principles. A methods note that cites the detail page for a category claim, and the publication for a revision claim, shows its reader precisely where each statement can be verified.

Why do secondary sites not settle a dispute?

Secondary sites are useful finding aids. They index, summarise, mirror, and sometimes translate classification material into friendlier formats, and a reader may well discover a category through one of them. Discovery, however, is not authority. A secondary site can lag behind a correction, simplify a note until its meaning shifts, or carry over a Rev. 4 heading under a Rev. 5 label. When such a site disagrees with UNSD, the opening paragraph gives the rule plainly: the UNSD version prevails for any code statement.

This rule has a practical corollary, which is to check the UNSD text before publishing, not after a dispute arises. A writer who quotes a secondary summary and later finds it differs from UNSD must correct the quotation, and corrections cost credibility even when made promptly. A writer who checks UNSD first avoids the correction entirely. The extra minutes spent opening the official pages are the cheapest accuracy measure in Rev. 5 work, and the one most often skipped under deadline pressure.

How can a reader tell whether a source is current?

Currency is harder to judge than it looks, because web pages rarely announce their own staleness. Three checks help. First, look for a version label and a date on the source itself, and compare them with the UNSD pages. Second, look for signs of summarising, such as shortened notes, missing excludes lists, or headings without definitions, which suggest a secondary treatment rather than the official text. Third, cross-check any surprising category against the UNSD detail before relying on it, especially if the category will be quoted, coded, or used to build a series.

A source that fails any of these checks is not necessarily wrong, but it is not yet a basis for a published claim. Treat it as a lead, follow it back to UNSD, and cite UNSD for the claim itself. That chain, lead to official text to citation, keeps the published record clean even when the discovery path ran through informal channels.

What does publication status mean for older material?

Publication of Rev. 5 does not erase Rev. 4 material, and it does not retroactively convert it. Older UNSD pages, older publications, and older datasets remain valid records of the revision under which they were produced. Publication status therefore needs a date and a version attached to every citation: which revision, which document, and, for a dataset, which national implementation. A bare citation to UNSD, without saying Rev. 5, leaves the reader guessing which revision’s text is meant, and guessing is the opposite of what a classification citation is for.

This point also matters for libraries and bookmarks. A reader who saved a UNSD link years ago may find it now points to Rev. 5 material, or to a landing page that lists several revisions. Updating bookmarks, re-checking saved quotations against the current official pages, and adding version labels to old notes are small maintenance tasks with large payoffs. They prevent the quiet drift by which a Rev. 4 quotation acquires a Rev. 5 appearance.

This guide is general information about where official classification material sits. It does not decide a code, a principal activity, or a registration question for any reader, and any such question for a specific record should be put to the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record.