Update on WPA Operational Committee on Scientific Publications

Electronic communication is paramount in today’s world, its importance rising day by day. The WPA website (www.wpanet.org) has now been thoroughly re-designed with state-of-the-art features and with useful, attractive and up-to-date content, utilizing the latest technology. The website currently has a responsive design, which means that the size and dimensions of its pages now get automatically modified so as to make them properly fit the screens of various devices like smart phones and tablets. The website is also integrated with Google Translate, which can automatically translate its content to 103 different languages. The site is also integrated with popular social media sites. The home page prominently displays the latest news from WPA Member Societies, Scientific Sections, Zonal Representatives, and Affiliated Associations. WPA position papers on various issues can be downloaded from the site. Their translations in several languages are also available. Past issues of the WPA Newsletter, from way back in 1997, are available for download. The E-Learning section features more than 30 educational videos of clinically relevant presentations by some of the leaders in psychiatry today. The Public Education Gallery has articles on the most common mental disorders. The Education section features downloadable materials such as the WPA Template for Undergraduate and Graduate Psychiatric Education and the Essentials of the WPA International Guidelines for Diagnostic Assessment. One of the most popular sections of the website is that including World Psychiatry, the WPA official journal. The new impact factor of the journal is 20.205. It ranks now no. 1 among psychiatry journals worldwide! Issues of the journal, from way back in 2002, are provided for free download, along with translations in Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Romanian, French, Polish, Chinese, Turkish and Arabic. Recent additions to the website include the WPA Position Statements on Spirituality and Religion in Psychiatry, on Gender Identity and Same-Sex Orientation, Attraction and Behaviours, on Europe Migrant and Refugee Crisis, and on Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence Against Women; as well as the WPA Curriculum on Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence Against Women, and updates on WPA Scientific Sections and publications. The relevance and attractiveness of the site’s contents are proven by the fact that it now has a Google Page Rank of 6, a measure of how many other important websites have provided links to its pages. The usage data from January 1 to October 24, 2016 reveal that the site has been visited from 199 countries and 7023 cities across the world. The total number of visitors has been 67,947, and the total number of page views has been 263,742. In tune with the changing times, more exposure will be given in the future to the site’s content, for both the professional and lay audiences, in the social media. Provision will be developed for live streaming of various WPA programs, so that our activities can reach a much larger audience without delay, and with minimal additional expenses. The WPA Secretary General as the Editor of the website, with the collaboration and help of the WPA Executive Committee and with the assistance of the WPA Secretariat, remain committed to this goal. The future may also involve conducting WPA sponsored self-paced (on-demand) or timed classes on the website. Webinars might also be one area for the WPA to tap into. A low bandwidth live streaming webinar could provide an array of discussions on a topic of relevance from experts in that area. Of potential interest is also the development of a WPA app, which would definitely add to the ease of accessing the contents on the website and also keep the user up to date with the events and news from the world of psychiatry. These are some of our plans for the future!