This dataset contains ISBNs and below described metadata of 5199 books which Lithuanian universities and research institutions submitted as their best research outputs to get state funding after annual research evaluations from 2008 to 2020. The thorough explanation how this dataset was created provided in a preprint: Dagiene, Eleonora. 2023. "The Challenge of Assessing Academic Books: The UK and Lithuanian Cases Through the ISBN Lens." SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/qpwxn This dataset contains ISBNs and their metadata, gathered from the Global Register of Publishers https://grp.isbn-international.org/ Description of data columns and remarks: ISBNs – unique identifiers – at least one author of the book identified by the ISBNs is affiliated with Lithuanian institution; output_types – ['edited volumes', 'authored books'] – types of books eligible for research assessment; years – 2008-2020 – book publishing years as reported by submitting institutions; unified_title – titles of publishers – parent publishers (e.g. Springer Nature, Informa (Taylor & Francis)). Lithuanian institutions kept in Lithuanian; primary_occupations_main – 'academic publishers', 'universities', 'intermediaries', 'other publishers', 'not publishers' – main types of institutions/companies which registered particular ISBNs; primary_occupations_detailed – 'academic publishers', 'university presses', 'university departments', 'self-publishing', 'publishing services', 'specialised publishers', 'general publishers', 'societies', 'not publishing', 'research institutions', 'governmental institutions', 'libraries', 'museums', 'non-governmental organisations' – just more types of institutions/companies; country – country name – countries where ISBNs were assigned, e.g. books authored or co-authored by Lithuanian researchers issued in 53 countries worldwide; sciences – 'natural sciences', 'social sciences', 'agricultural sciences', 'technological sciences', 'medical and health sciences', 'humanities' – as brunches of sciences categorised by the Research Council of Lithuania.