Research Guides
Several national and international bodies are opening up groups of standards to aid in COVID-19 research, mitigation, and prevention. These are standards that the UW Libraries doesn’t have (or they may be in our print standard collection and inaccessible at this time).
Some of these sources require some minimal registration to access. Some sites provide read-only access, many provide downloadable pdfs.
Please also see this guide for finding Specs and Prototypes for PPE from CSU LB Libraries.
Send us a message @AskUs with any additions to this list or questions about finding a standard.
AAMI (Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation):
In response to the growing Coronavirus (COVID-19) public health crisis, AAMI—dedicated to leading global collaboration in the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology—is releasing three standards and technical information reports (TIRs) at no cost. These resources address the production, selection, and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and surgical drapes for the healthcare environment and the effective disinfection of medical devices, patient-care equipment, and sterile processing environmental surfaces.
The following AAMI documents are now available for free download:
To support rapid response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is providing access to key international standards supporting biological evaluation of medical devices; protective clothing used in health care settings; and business continuity management, security, and resilience.
Through the ANSI portal, Freely Available ISO Standards to Help Address COVID-19 Crisis, selected ISO standards are accessible in read-only format at no cost during the crisis; additional standards may be added in the near future.
ANSI requires free registration and account set up to access: Portal for freely available ISO standards .
ANSI has also launched a COVID-19 Resource Webpage highlighting activities of the U.S. standardization community in the fight against the pandemic. Available at : ansi.org/COVID-19, the resource page spotlights ANSI members’ activities supporting public health, safety, and infrastructure, and includes important ANSI announcements, distance learning opportunities, and other resources.
ASTM International is providing no-cost public access to important ASTM standards used in the production and testing of personal protective equipment - including face masks, medical gowns, gloves, and hand sanitizers - to support manufacturers, test labs, health care professionals, and the general public as they respond to the global COVID-19 public health emergency.
Click “Access”, register if you are a new user to the reading room and then you may access and download a PDF of the standards relevant to the global health pandemic. You will be asked to login at no cost to you.
OR: Connect to the ASTM Digital Standards Library via the UW Libraries and search for the standard number to access in full text, save & download without additional registration.
The UW Libraries maintains a current subscription to the ASTM Digital Library and has access to all these standards, and more.
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, and CENELEC, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, agreed, in collaboration with all their Members and after the urgent request from the European Commission, to make freely available a series of European standards (ENs) for medical devices and personal protective equipment used in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 11 standards developed by CEN and potentially 3 additional ones developed jointly with ISO made available cover common filtering masks, medical gloves and protective clothing. They are the fruit of a collective European effort. These European standards were developed and adopted by different Technical Bodies, taking into account the contributions of hundreds of experts and stakeholders in the personal protective equipment and medical field all around Europe.
The standards are available for free download from the websites of the standards offices of the CEN national members:
CEN's National Members are the National Standardization Bodies (NSBs) of the 27 European Union countries, United Kingdom, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey plus three countries of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland). There is one member per country.
Access to key standards for critical care ventilators:
In support of the fight against Covid-19, IEC and ISO have decided to exceptionally offer the standards and most relevant normative references for critical care ventilators free of charge to industries who are developing products or converting their existing assembly lines to ventilator production.
A request via email to IEC is required for IEC to provide a copy of the standard.
COVID-19 Related Research Now Free to Access in IEEE Xplore.
OR: Connect to the IEEE Xplore via the UW Libraries and search for the standard number to access in full text, save & download without additional registration.
The UW Libraries maintains a current subscription to the IEEE Xplore and has access to all these standards, and more.
ISO COVID-19 Response: Read-only format to freely available ISO standards. The list has been compiled to support global efforts in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Access is via the ISO Online Browsing Platform (OBP).
SAE International is providing access at no cost to standards that aid industry in supplying medical support during COVID-19. These standards include specifications and recommended practices for transportation of cargo on the main deck of passenger planes to provide medical flights and to transport urgently needed medical supplies between countries.
UW Libraries Guide to recommended resources for researching, visualizing, and evaluating scientific, clinical, & public health information on COVID-19