Free Publications

In today's financially-stressed environment we're all looking to minimise expenditure and yet, as metrologists, we also need to have ready-access to standards that are relevant to our work. While some standards-setting bodies make their documents freely available, this is seldom the case for ISO publications.

Two principal standards of interest to the measurement professional are ISO/IEC Guide 98 which is also colloquially known as "the GUM" -- Guide to the expression of Uncertainty in Measurement -- and ISO/IEC Guide 99 which is also termed "the VIM" -- International Vocabulary of Metrology. Together, these documents would set you back several hundred dollars if purchased in the USA.

However, the good news is that the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) is one of the standards bodies that offers its publications for free and they have the latest editions of above Guides, although published under an OIML standard identity.

Here's where to locate them for downloading. Click the link below to open the OIML website's Publications section.

• OIML Publications

Then, above the table, click the box entitled "Guides". Then click the link for:
"G 1-100 - en" (as alternatively published as ISO/IEC Guide 98-3:2008).
You will probably also want to get:
"G 1-101 - en" (as alternatively published as ISO/IEC Guide 98-1:2008).

To find the OIML version of the VIM, click the "Vocabularies" box above the table and then the link for:
"V 2-200 - en" (as alternatively published as ISO/IEC Guide 99:2007).

And while you're visiting OIML, be sure to browse around the rest of their website and their joint website with the Internatioanl Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) -- you're sure to find more great stuff of interest.

• International Organization of Legal Metrology
• BIPM - OIML