Policy
10 Copyright in publications published externally (e.g. books, journal articles, book chapters) must remain with the Organization and should not be assigned to the external publisher (see section VIII.6.1). WHO has standing arrangements with a number of journal publishers, which give those publishers the rights they need to publish the contribution, but retain copyright for WHO. For publishers with which WHO has no standing agreement, a standard licence for publication should be used (see Information Note 13/2007). Staff should consult with WHO Press or the office of publications concerned to ensure that the appropriate licence is used. The licence should be signed by the director concerned, or if the director is the author, by the relevant assistant director-general or regional director.
15 All publications published externally should be scientifically sound and published in accordance with the policy on open access (see section VIII.6.10) and the publisher's quality assurance policies, including peer review and disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.
20 In exceptional cases, it may be appropriate for WHO to authorize an external publisher to publish a manuscript on behalf of the Organization, subject to clearance by the assistant director-general or regional director concerned and DGO (see section VIII.1.4). A justification should be provided during the clearance process. Copyright in such manuscripts must remain with the Organization and should not be assigned to the external publisher (see section VIII.6.1). If authorized, a licence for publication of a WHO manuscript should be used. Staff should consult with WHO Press or the office of publications concerned to ensure that the appropriate licence is used.
Contributions to external publications
Definition
30 A contribution to an external publication is defined as:
- a text prepared in the normal course of duty and attributed to a WHO staff member and published externally; or
- a text prepared outside the normal course of duty but related to the work of WHO and attributed to a WHO staff member and published externally.
40 Such contributions include journal articles, book chapters, letters, commentaries, journal editorials, prefaces, reviews or forewords that relate to the work of WHO staff members and identify those people as employees of WHO. For theses and dissertations that relate to the work of WHO staff members or that reflect the Organization's work, see section VIII.6.11.
50 Contributions to external publications should be unique and should not have been published before – in part or in whole, in any media (including on the WHO internet site). If a contribution to an external publication has already been published previously by WHO or an external publisher, the publisher should be informed accordingly at the time of submission.
Clearance and use of the WHO affiliation
60 According to Staff Rule 110.5, journal articles whose contents reflect work performed for the Organization or information obtained arising out of such work should be cleared by the Director-General. In practice, the responsibility for clearing all contributions to an external publication is delegated to the relevant assistant director-general or regional director (see section VIII.1.4), depending on whether the staff member is at headquarters or in a regional (or country) office. If a contribution is jointly authored with another staff member from headquarters or a region, it should be cleared by all the assistant directors-general and/or regional directors concerned.
70 Contributions authored by staff members before their employment by WHO should not refer to the authors as WHO employees. In such cases, clearance would not be applicable as the manuscripts were not authored by WHO staff members. The authors should use their affiliation at the time when the contributions were prepared, with a note indicating their current address at WHO.
80 For contributions prepared by staff members during their employment by WHO, but published after their departure from the Organization, or initiated by staff members during their employment by WHO and completed by them after their departure from the Organization, WHO clearance is applicable prior to publication and the WHO affiliation should be used.
90 Texts written by staff members in a personal capacity and in their spare time on subjects having no direct relationship to the work of the Organization are not subject to clearance and are the personal responsibility of the author. In exercising this responsibility, staff members should give full weight to the implications of Staff Regulation 1.5 and refer to the Ethical principles and conduct of staff: compilation of WHO policies and practices. Such texts should bear no indication that the author is or was a staff member of the World Health Organization.
Honoraria
100 The rules relating to honoraria for WHO staff members who are invited to contribute to external publications are set forth in Staff Regulation 1.7 and Information Note 21/2004.
110 Owing to the high costs of processing cheques and payments, staff may wish to negotiate for the publisher to send a small number of printed copies to WHO in lieu of an honorarium, or to ask WHO Press at headquarters (or regional office publishing staff) to negotiate this on their behalf. In such cases, a copy should be sent to the WHO Library for inclusion in its collection.
Supplements
120 Supplements organized and/or funded by WHO are subject to the same criteria as other external publications. A supplement agreement should also be drawn up, which sets forth the commercial terms that apply to the supplement and the responsibilities of WHO and the publisher. Supplement agreements should be reviewed and cleared by WHO Press in consultation with the Office of the Legal Counsel, prior to signature by the director of the department concerned.
130 Supplements organized and/or funded by WHO should be cleared in accordance with the clearance procedures in force in the office concerned (see section VIII.1.4) as complete products. Articles authored by non-WHO authors should not be reviewed or cleared by the assistant director-general or regional director, but by the guest editors appointed by WHO or the organizer of the supplement. In addition, each WHO-authored article should be cleared as an external journal article. The clearance request should include a reference to the clearance request for the supplement.
