Sharing scientific and technical information

To support its missions of ensuring transparency, collecting and disseminating scientific information, and encouraging international solidarity, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly OIE) is continuing to strengthen its tools for sharing animal health information. Following the launch of the redesigned WAHIS interface and the WOAH’s new website, the documentary portal has, in turn, been overhauled to offer users content and navigation tools adapted to their needs.

The WOAH Documentary Portal is now an open-access archive of the WOAH’s official texts and organisational records, including publications, communications of the Organisation and its experts, and documents relating to its activities. The portal indexes these documents, archives them permanently, makes them freely available and facilitates their re-use, thereby extending the reach of the scientific and technical expertise of WOAH and its network.

More than 10,000 scientific and technical resources are available for consultation, 90% of which come directly from WOAH. They include documents from the General Sessions, international standards, guidelines, reports, conference proceedings, books, and flagship publications such as the Scientific and Technical Review.

A more user-friendly interface and additional features

The new application is based on a document management system that handles the entire document processing chain, from data entry to data distribution. All the data is stored in interlinked tables, making it possible to move from one piece of information to another. In addition, the system’s search function allows users to carry out searches at different levels of detail.

• The home page now includes recommended content for target audiences, topical information, and links to the most recently added documents, with users having the option to subscribe to RSS feeds. It will simplify access to resources, for example, the main collections are now accessible via the menu bar. In addition, the search box allows users to search for documents using words from the title or summary.
• The search results page has been improved, and users can now directly download the full text of the record in the three languages of WOAH and refine results using different filters (date, country, type of document) to increase their relevance. In addition, metadata can be exported, in either RIS or txt format.
• Each record includes a detailed description and includes features that allow users to cite the document, export metadata or share it on social media.

Open data

With the new Documentary Portal, WOAH is committing to the principles of:

• FAIR data: data that is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable
• cOAlition S: an international initiative that promotes open science.

Under the WOAH’s open-access policy, and in accordance with Plan S, WOAH international standards, reviews, reports and guidelines will be available under a Creative Commons licence from 2022 onwards, unless restrictions apply, in which case this will be clearly indicated.

It is expected that the content of the Documentary Portal will be fully indexed by the main search engines, and that its OAI–PMH repository will be completed in 2022. Its re-use, citation and bibliometric features will be improved over time.

https://doi.org/10.20506/bull.2022.1.3297