The second, third and fourth editions of the Frascati Manual, the OECD standard for measuring resources devoted to research and experimental development (R&D), published in 1970, 1976 and 1981, reflected on the accumulated experience of conducting national surveys and compiling international statistics comparing R&D efforts across countries. Successive editions improved, inter alia, the guidance’s alignment with other international statistical standards (2nd edition) and took into account how the data were being used. The scope of the manual was expanded to cover research in the social sciences and humanities (3rd edition). Greater stress was placed on “functional” classifications of R&D, such as socioeconomic objectives (3rd edition), and the specificities of higher education R&D (4th edition).