Clearance at the planning stage
10 All proposals for publications to be issued by WHO should be cleared before development begins through the clearance and approval procedures in force in the office concerned.
20 Details that are required at the planning stage include the provisional title, product type and category, publisher (in the case of external and joint publications), journal (in the case of external journal articles and supplements), subjects covered, proposed dissemination formats, language (of the original and any proposed translations), relevant outputs, purpose and justification, target audience, needs assessment (see section VIII.1.5, paragraphs 10 to 20) and attribution of authorship (see section VIII.2.1, paragraphs 10 to 30). Information on ethics and copyright is also required.
30 In the case of products involving external collaborators, the type of collaboration (e.g. financial or technical) and category of partner (e.g. other United Nations agency, nongovernmental organization in official relations with WHO or intergovernmental organization) should also be specified. If the entity is a non-State actor, the proposed collaboration should be approved by the Department of Compliance and Risk Management and Ethics (CRE) in line with the Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors (FENSA; see section XVIII.1.1) before planning clearance is requested.
40 In the case of guidelines (see section VIII.2.3), the type of guideline and proposed subsidiary guideline products should be specified. Supporting documentation should be provided where appropriate.
50 Approval at this stage confirms that the planned publication responds to a legitimate need or contributes directly to achieving the mission and objectives of WHO, that there is no obvious duplication with similar publications under development elsewhere in the Organization, that it will be appropriate in terms of its content and format, and that the necessary resources are available for its development.
Clearance at the content development stage
60 All publications that are to be published by WHO should be cleared before the final edited text is laid out through the clearance and approval procedures in force in the office concerned. Details required at this stage are similar to those at the planning stage, updated as necessary. All publications that are to be published by external publishers should be cleared before the final edited text is submitted to the external publisher (see section VIII.6.3).
70 If a publication to be issued by WHO headquarters includes WHO global, regional or country data, it should be cleared by the Department of Data and Analytics (DNA) and/or the Department of Health Systems Governance and Financing (HGF) at this stage (see section VIII.2.8 and Information Note 11/2017). In regional offices, such publications should be cleared by the relevant unit. If a publication includes any potentially politically sensitive material, it should be cleared by the Office of the Legal Counsel (LEG), as well as the Office of the Director-General (DGO), if appropriate (see section VIII.2.6). Clearance by LEG is also applicable in the case of legally sensitive material (such as maps) or commercial names, or if there are doubts about terminology (see sections VIII.2.7 and VIII.2.9).
80 Approval at this stage confirms that the publication is technically accurate, appropriate, relevant and consistent with WHO’s policies and strategies. The assistant director-general, executive director or regional director concerned decides which publications should be published by WHO or submitted for external publication, and which should bear the WHO logo and/or the logo(s) of any collaborating agency/agencies (see section VIII.8.1).
85 If the publications meet the appropriate criteria, an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and/or International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) should be assigned at this stage (see section VIII.2.13, paragraphs 20 to 70). If the publications do not meet these criteria, an appropriate WHO reference number should be assigned (see section VIII.2.13, paragraphs 80 to 90).
Clearance at the production stage
100 Publications that are to be published by WHO should be cleared after the final edited text has been laid out and before submission of the final electronic file to the WHO Institutional Repository for Information Sharing (IRIS) through the clearance and approval procedures in force in the office concerned (see section 5.1, paragraph 20).
