How to Cite in ČSN ISO 690:2022: The Czech Citation Standard

This guide explains how to cite sources in ČSN ISO 690:2022, the Czech national citation standard used at most universities in the Czech Republic. It's the Czech adoption of the international ISO 690:2021 standard and, since 1 December 2022, replaces the older 2011 edition. If you're studying at a Czech university, this is very likely the standard your thesis must follow. For the international version, see our ISO 690 guide.

Where these rules come from. The standard's text is sold, so we do not reproduce it. The rules and element orders below follow Výklad normy ČSN ISO 690: účinné od 1. 12. 2022 ("Interpretation of the ČSN ISO 690 standard, effective 1 December 2022"), Brno: Citace.com, 2023 — a free PDF we link under Sources. Each example says whether it is that guide's own example or a source whose details we verified ourselves, and where.

What Is ČSN ISO 690:2022?

ČSN ISO 690 is the Czech technical standard for bibliographic references and citations. The 2022 edition (effective 1 December 2022) is the Czech version of the international ISO 690:2021 and replaces the 2011 edition. It covers more document types than before and is considerably more detailed — though, as the Citace.com interpretation notes, it also contains inconsistencies you will meet in practice.

What Changed from 2011

• Element order: the date of citation now comes after the availability statement — "Available from: URL. [cit. YYYY-MM-DD]."
• Format designator: written as a word — "Online", "Online, PDF" — and without square brackets (2011 used "[online]").
• Author names and identifiers (ISBN, ISSN, DOI)
• New name-mark referencing method alongside the existing methods
• New source types: social media, art objects, archival materials, manuscripts

Referencing Methods

Choose one method and apply it consistently:

• Author–date (Harvard): surname and year in the text, e.g. (PROKOP, 2019)
• Numeric: a number pointing to the reference list, e.g. [1]
• Running notes: the reference sits in a footnote
• Name marks: new in the 2022 edition

Formatting Creators

Give the creator (author) as prominently as possible — in capitals:

• Primary creators appear before the title, inverted: SURNAME, Forename.
• Secondary creators (translator, illustrator, editor) appear after the title in natural order, with their role.
• Separate multiple creators with semicolons; join the last with "a" (and).
• Up to five creators of equal standing: list them all. Six or more: list the first five and replace the rest with "et al."
• Give names in the form the source uses, and do not expand initials you have not seen spelled out.

Books (Monographs)

Schema: SURNAME, Forename. Title: subtitle. Edition. Place: Publisher, year. Extent. ISBN.

We confirmed the ISBN, extent and year on the publisher's own page for this title, and the author, title and publisher in Open Library.

A work with a secondary creator, from the interpretation's own examples (p. 33):

"(překladatelka)" is the role — translator — given after the name, as the schema requires.

E-books

Schema: SURNAME, Forename. Title. Format. Edition. Place: Publisher, year. Licence. ISBN. Available from: URL. [cit. YYYY-MM-DD].

We verified this record on MUNI Space: author, 2018, the "1st electronic" edition statement, the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence, and the electronic ISBN 978-80-210-8926-6 (the print ISBN is 978-80-210-8925-9). The catalogue page itself carries a typo in the title ("psycholologické"); our citation gives the word correctly, which is a useful reminder to check a catalogue record against the title page.

Journal Articles

Print schema: SURNAME, Forename. Article title. Journal title. Year, volume, issue, pages. ISSN.

Online schema adds the format and the availability statement:

We read the authors, title, volume and page range off the article PDF itself ("Chem. Listy 111, 673−680 (2017)" — chemicke-listy.cz refuses scripted requests, so we opened the PDF through an Internet Archive snapshot) and confirmed both ISSNs in the ISSN Portal: 0009-2770 for print, 1213-7103 for the online version. Note that the online reference takes the online ISSN.

Where the availability is a DOI — the interpretation's own example (p. 37), whose details we then confirmed in Crossref:

The interpretation's numbering rule is that each level keeps the label the source uses, largest unit first — roč., then č., then s. (in an English-language text, vol., no., p.). The compressed form 111(10) does not fit that schema.

Websites

Schema: CREATOR. Page title. Online. Site name. Place: publisher, date. Available from: URL. [cit. YYYY-MM-DD].

We confirmed the headline, the ČTK byline, the date and the figure of 124,000 theses on the live page.

Theses

Schema: SURNAME, Forename. Title. Type of work. Place: Institution, faculty, date.

A print thesis, from the interpretation's own examples (p. 46):

An online thesis adds availability and the date of citation (interpretation, p. 46):

The interpretation prints this example with the direct link to the thesis PDF; we have given the repository's stable handle instead, and confirmed that it resolves. The interpretation's schema has no field for the supervisor's name — if your department wants one, that is its own requirement on top of the standard.

Chapters and Conference Contributions

For a part of a publication (an article, a paper, a chapter), the italics go on the source document's title — the proceedings or the book — not on the contribution's own title.

Schema: SURNAME, Forename. Contribution title. In: EDITOR (ed.). Source title. Place: Publisher, year, pages. ISBN.

Every element of this one was checked in Crossref (10.1093/med/9780199907922.003.0026 for the chapter, 10.1093/med/9780199907922.001.0001 for the book): the book was published in 2014 under ISBN 9780199907922, and the chapter runs from page 434 to 438. It is a good illustration of how a citation drifts — a real work by real authors, but a wrong year, wrong pages and wrong ISBN would send a reader nowhere.

Reference List

• Under the author–date method, order sources alphabetically by creator surname.
• Under the numeric method, order them by first citation.
• Use a conventional heading (Seznam použité literatury, Použité zdroje, Bibliografie) and keep one format throughout.

Common Mistakes

• Brackets on the format: 2022 writes "Online" without brackets, not "[online]"
• Wrong order: the date of citation goes after "Available from", not before
• Abbreviated numbering: the interpretation wants each level labelled — roč., č., s. — so 111(10) does not fit its schema
• Lowercase surnames: creators are given in CAPITALS
• A print ISSN on an online article: use the online ISSN for the online version
• Trusting the generator: managers were slow to add the 2022 style — check the citation against the source, not against another example

Sources

• Úřad pro technickou normalizaci, metrologii a státní zkušebnictví. ČSN ISO 690:2022 (01 0197) Informace a dokumentace — Pravidla pro bibliografické odkazy a citace informačních zdrojů. Praha: ÚNMZ, 2022. We did not have access to the standard's text.
• FARKAŠOVÁ, Blanka; GARAMSZEGI, Tereza; JANSOVÁ, Linda; KONEČNÝ, Lukáš; KRČÁL, Martin et al. Výklad normy ČSN ISO 690: účinné od 1. 12. 2022. Online, PDF. Brno: Citace.com, 2023. Available from: https://www.citace.com/Vyklad-CSN-ISO-690-2022.pdf — the source of the schemas, creator rules and the examples marked as its own. Citace.com also maintains a guide page at https://www.citace.com/CSN-ISO-690.
• Nakladatelství Host, title page for Slepé skvrny: https://www.hostbrno.cz/slepe-skvrny/
• Masaryk University, MUNI Space catalogue record for Michal Černý's e-book: https://munispace.muni.cz/library/catalog/book/1552
• ISSN Portal records 0009-2770 (Chemické listy, print) and 1213-7103 (Chemické listy, online).
• Crossref records 10.29364/epsy.454, 10.1093/med/9780199907922.003.0026, 10.1093/med/9780199907922.001.0001.
• The Aktuálně.cz article of 3 February 2020 (headline, byline and figure confirmed on the live page); the ČVUT repository handle confirmed to resolve.