Each National Committee of the IEC handles the participation of experts from its country. If you would like to participate in the work of an IEC technical committee, please contact your National Committee. If you are in a country where the IEC does not have a National Committee, please contact IEC Central Office.

Some 179 technical committees (TCs) and subcommittees (SCs), and about 700 project teams / maintenance teams carry out the standards work of the IEC. These working groups are composed of people from all around the world who are experts in electrotechnology. The great majority of them come from industry, while others from commerce, government, test laboratories, research laboratories, academia and consumer groups also contribute to the work.

The technical committees prepare technical documents on specific subjects within their respective scopes, which are then submitted to the full member National Committees (IEC's members) for voting with a view to their approval as international standards. In all, some 10 000 experts worldwide participate in the technical work of the IEC. Distribution of documents for standards production is 100% electronic, thus improving efficiency and reducing costs.

All information on IEC publications can be found on the IEC Web site. IEC publications can be identified by their IEC number, through the International Classification for Standards (ICS) system, or by the respective TC/SC responsible for that publication.

All IEC publications are subject to a maintenance cycle appropriate to the technology in the publication. In the IEC Catalogue of publications the next date for evaluation is given in the field MRD. When the publication is evaluated a decision is taken as to whether the publication will be:

• confirmed for a further period
• the subject of a complete revision
• the subject of an amendment
• withdrawn, as the publication is obsolete and of no further value