Serial publications represent a diverse content space ranging from popular magazines to scholarly journals, from content that is image-based to content that is text-based, from publications that have new content daily (even hourly) to those that might have new content only every few years. The manner in which the content creator packages the content for any particular serial publication may not match the needs of the recipient of that content and, given the proliferation of serial content, this creates a highly chaotic environment with different partners delivering significantly different looking content packages and making it difficult for all parties in the environment to work with content deliveries in a cost-efficient and effective way.

The recommendations in this document offer guidance to members of the scholarly communication community on preferred practices for the packaging and exchange of serial content that will enable the automation of processes to receive and manage serial content at scale. By following these practices, organizations can make it clear what content has been transmitted, how it is organized, and what processing is required when a new package is received.