These Guidelines on digital publishing were prepared by Simon Wilkinson (Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific) and Jean Collins (Librarian, Fisheries and Aquaculture Branch Library, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department) with the support of the FAO FishCode Programme, through the FishCode Trust (MTF/GLO/125/MUL) and through the FishCode SIDS Project (GCP/INT/823/JPN – “Responsible Fisheries for Small Islands Developing States”). The Guidelines are targeted primarily at small organizations with limited resources in developing countries, in order to facilitate decisionmaking on how to publish and disseminate their information.

The FishCode Review series publishes results of studies, missions, consultations, workshops, meetings and other project activities undertaken through the Programme, in furtherance of the objective of facilitating implementation of the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and related international fisheries instruments and plans of action. Individual issues in the series are distributed to appropriate governments, regional bodies, meeting participants and Programme partners. For further information on Programme background, publications and activities, please consult the Web site at http://www.fao.org/fi/fishcode.htm

The importance of research in fisheries and aquaculture is referred to throughout the Code of Conduct, as is the need to disseminate and share the results of research. Stakeholders in developing countries generally are still waiting for reliable, high speed and cost-effective Internet access that is widely available in the industrialized world. Once connected, users must grapple with, and make decisions about, myriad technological solutions that exist. These Guidelines on digital publishing are targeted primarily at small organizations with limited resources in developing countries, in order to facilitate decision-making on how to publish and disseminate their information. The Guidelines are based on the years of experience of the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and its partners. The approach is practical in orientation, covering topics including: (a) planning, building and maintaining a sustainable digital publishing system, focusing on a common scenario of setting up a Web site as a digital publishing platform; (b) producing user-friendly digital publications and making them accessible; (c) some recent international developments in digital publishing; and (d) recommended software tools and technical resources for further reading.