[Ip-health] WHO Executive Board: WHO publications

[thiru@keionline.org]

"5. New WHO publishing policy guidelines have been drafted, which take
into account the comments of the Committee. They combine elements of
existing policies with innovative approaches aimed at strengthening
quality control and reducing WHO's spending on publishing. The objectives
are:....

=95 to protect the intellectual property, image and reputation of the
Organization, and enhance the branding of its publications.

6. As far as possible, the policy follows a "life-cycle" approach to
publishing. The cycle includes planning, content development, executive
clearance, production processes, dissemination, archiving and evaluation.

9. Any article, book chapter or invited commentary relating to WHO's work
that is to be submitted by a staff member for external publication will be
subject to the same clearance procedures as articles, books and
commentaries published by WHO.....

13. The final text of all publications will be cleared by the relevant
Assistant Director-General or Regional Director before publication.
Publications that describe the workings of a particular government or
national health service or that have policy implications for the
Organization or address controversial health-related issues will require
additional clearance by the Director-General's Office....

24. All WHO information materials will bear the WHO logo and an
appropriate disclaimer, indicating whether the views presented are those
of the Organization, a group of individuals or an expert group.

25. WHO copyright will, as a matter of principle, remain with the
Organization and will not be assigned to an outside institution."



-----------------------------------------------

EXECUTIVE BOARD EB122/20
122nd Session 6 December 2007
Provisional agenda item 6.4

WHO publications

Report by the Secretariat

1. At its 121st session, the Executive Board accepted the
Director-General's proposal to the Programme, Budget and Administration
Committee at its sixth meeting to submit a new WHO publication policy to
the Board in 2008, once that policy had undergone a further, fuller
review. (Footnote 1) Members of the Committee had stressed the need for
WHO to have a robust publishing policy and emphasized that WHO's
publications (Footnote 2) should be firmly grounded in evidence. Further,
they had emphasized the importance of WHO's publications being in line not
only with the Organization's corporate policies but also with its
international commitments.

2. The Committee had also noted that the Director-General, in her role as
editor-in-chief of the Organization, needed editorial independence. On the
issue of dissemination, members of the Committee had considered that WHO
was distributing too much in print and, while the needs of readerships
with no access to electronic communication should be taken into account,
the Organization should make greater use of distribution through the
Internet and other new technologies.

3. One of WHO's constitutional responsibilities is to provide objective
and reliable information and advice in the field of human health. It
fulfils this responsibility in part by producing and disseminating
information in the form of publications, technical documents, newsletters,
press releases, fact sheets, articles in external publications and
journals, CD-ROMs, computer diskettes and through its web sites.

4. WHO issues some 350=96400 publications a year. Of these titles, around
75% are published by headquarters and the rest by regional offices.
Currently, between 1.2 million and 1.6 million copies of WHO publications
are distributed annually, 90% of which are distributed free of charge. In
the
biennium 1998=961999, the total cost of publications to the Organization wa=
s
estimated at US$ 117 million (14.4% of the total budget). In the biennium
2004=962005, the total cost of publications was estimated to be US$ 347.6
million (12.7% of the total budget), 71.7% of which was attributed to the
cost of writing and preparing the initial text. Editing, printing,
translation and electronic products each accounted for 22.7%; the
remaining 5.6% was accounted for by illustration, design, layout,
clearance, storage, distribution, mailing, and marketing and sales
activities.

(Footnote 1- Document EB121/2007/REC/1, summary record of the first
meeting, section 4.)

(Footnote 2-The term "publication" refers to "information products", i.e.
materials that are issued by WHO to the public in whatever format and
through whatever channel. It excludes materials internal to WHO.)





5. New WHO publishing policy guidelines have been drafted, which take into
account the comments of the Committee. They combine elements of existing
policies with innovative approaches aimed at strengthening quality control
and reducing WHO's spending on publishing. The objectives are:

=95 to ensure the relevance of the Organization's publications and to
maintain its reputation for excellence

=95 to ensure that WHO publications are based on sound evidence and that al=
l
material that is made available to external audiences is authoritative,
credible, reliable and impartial

=95 to ensure that WHO publications are in line with the Organization's
corporate policies and its international commitments

=95 to increase the cost-efficiency of production and distribution of WHO
publications

=95 to ensure that WHO publications are accessible and available

=95 to enhance the multilingualism of its publications

=95 to protect the intellectual property, image and reputation of the
Organization, and enhance the branding of its publications.

6. As far as possible, the policy follows a "life-cycle" approach to
publishing. The cycle includes planning, content development, executive
clearance, production processes, dissemination, archiving and evaluation.

Planning

7. With the introduction of the global management system, scheduled for
early 2008, publications will be planned within the results-based
performance management framework of the Organization in the same way as
other programmatic activities.

8. A master list of planned publications will be prepared for executive
approval at the beginning of each biennium.

9. Any article, book chapter or invited commentary relating to WHO's work
that is to be submitted by a staff member for external publication will be
subject to the same clearance procedures as articles, books and
commentaries published by WHO.

Content development

10. The steps taken in developing content will be clearly documented for
each publication by the technical unit concerned.

11. Specific procedures will be followed for different categories of
publications, including peer review for scientific publications and
clearance by the WHO Guidelines Review Committee of any publications
proposing recommendations for guidelines or best practice and of similar
normative documents.


12. The responsibility for the technical quality of all publications
prepared by a particular department will rest with the director concerned.

Executive clearance

13. The final text of all publications will be cleared by the relevant
Assistant Director-General or Regional Director before publication.
Publications that describe the workings of a particular government or
national health service or that have policy implications for the
Organization or address controversial health-related issues will require
additional clearance by the Director-General's Office.

Production processes

14. Industry standards will be adopted for file formats and standardized
designs and templates will be used for certain publication categories
(which have yet to be defined).

15. Use of digital printing and print-on-demand technology will be
increased both to print WHO publications at or closer to the location of
their intended target audiences, and to maintain a greater number of
titles in print.

16. Training in publishing will be strengthened, to ensure that those
responsible for managing the publishing process acquire the necessary
skills, knowledge, and competencies. The training will be complemented by
the development of a publishing policy e-guide that includes all
publishing-related procedures and policies. This guide will be made
available on WHO's Intranet.

Dissemination

17. Electronic distribution will be the preferred means for disseminating
WHO publications. Where the intended target readership of a product does
not have access to the Internet, or if a product has sales potential, such
products will also be made available in print.

18. An integrated collection of WHO publications in electronic format (an
e-library) will be developed and made accessible to Member States to
reduce the need for dissemination of printed products.

19. Publications developed specifically for the World Wide Web or posted
there will be subject to the same quality-control procedures and
clearances as printed publications.

Archiving

20. Electronic files of the final versions of WHO publications will be
deposited in the WHO institutional repository, as envisaged in the WHO
plan of action on multilingualism. (Footnote 1)

Evaluation

21. An evaluation of WHO's publishing activities will be carried out at
the end of each biennium, both to monitor the policy's effects on the
technical quality and quantity of WHO publications.

(Footnote 1- Document EB121/6)

(including the number of copies disseminated) and to make recommendations
for further improvements.


WHO identity and copyright

22. WHO publications are a part of the Organization's corporate identity
and must reflect the values that it promotes.

23. WHO publications must be produced to a high editorial standard and
must be easily recognizable as originating in the Organization. Branding
of WHO publications will be strengthened by the use of standardized
templates for some categories of publications.

24. All WHO information materials will bear the WHO logo and an
appropriate disclaimer, indicating whether the views presented are those
of the Organization, a group of individuals or an expert group.

25. WHO copyright will, as a matter of principle, remain with the
Organization and will not be assigned to an outside institution.

Multilingualism

26. The languages in which an information product will be published will
be reviewed at the planning clearance stage. If translation is deemed
necessary at this stage, the product will be approved only if translation
can be assured.

27. The volume of multilingual content on WHO web sites will be increased,
style guides and glossaries will be produced in all official languages,
technical guidelines for multilingual publications will be established or
reinforced, publication workflows will be rationalized to minimize the
cost of producing different language versions of the same document, and a
multilingual institutional repository will be established, as envisaged in
the WHO plan of action on multilingualism.1

ACTION BY THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

28. The Board is invited to note the report.


=3D     =3D     =3D

(Footnote 1: Document EB121/6.)