WHO-supported data mobilisation at scale, delivered on River Valley’s end-to-end publishing platform

 

London, UK – 21 April 2026 – A WHO-supported collaboration with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and GigaByte has expanded the open sharing of datasets that support public health surveillance and response.

 

GBIF is a global, government-funded data infrastructure that provides open access to biodiversity data used in public health research. GBIF datasets are arguably the most important for understanding the planet, helping prevent diseases, and modelling global warming

 

To create global impact, public health datasets have to be discoverable, citable, and easy to reuse. In practice, valuable datasets remain under-utilised because publication and data-sharing steps can be expensive, slow, and operationally complex. This is especially true for contributors in regions disproportionately affected by public health challenges, where resources and publishing infrastructure can be limited.

 

The programme tackled this directly. WHO supported publication costs; GBIF provided a health data help desk; and the GigaByte and GBIF teams provided hands-on support for data curation and audits, helping contributors share data more efficiently and improving quality for reuse.

 

GigaByte was recognised for innovation in Open Science publishing in 2022 (ALPSP award for Innovation in Publishing). The programme was delivered on River Valley’s end-to-end publishing platform, which played a key role in minimising publishing costs and supporting repeatable workflows across multiple mobilisation rounds. Cost efficiency mattered because it meant the WHO sponsorship budget could fund more publications.

 

“Sponsorship removed one barrier. Scalability came from making the process easier for contributors, through help desk support, data audits, and a workflow we could run repeatedly.” Scott Edmunds, Founding Editor and Former Editor-in-Chief, GigaScience Press (GigaByte)

 

What the programme delivered

1. Three data mobilisation rounds since 2022
2. 32 data papers published
3. Over 750,000 observations and 1.14 million specimens shared
4. Multilingual publishing, including Portuguese, Spanish and French
5. Interactive, data-rich outputs with embedded maps and protocols
6. Data audits and close contributor support to improve dataset quality and reuse

Why metadata matters

Metadata quality is central to discoverability and reuse. It supports linking, indexing, machine readability, and long-term value. GigaScience Press received the Crossref Metadata Award for publishing metadata standards for GigaByte, reinforcing the focus on making outputs easier to find, connect, and reuse across scholarly infrastructure.

 

Examples of public health relevance

The programme mobilised datasets relevant to disease surveillance and response, including:

1. Potential Oropouche virus vectors during the first outbreak in Cuba
2. Chagas disease vector data beyond its typical geographic range
3. Rodent vector datasets relevant to Mpox in West Africa
4. Citizen science contributions, including detection of the invasive Asian bush mosquito in Western Europe
5. Digitisation of historic records to support climate-driven analysis of vector distribution changes

River Valley supported this work through its end-to-end publishing platform, helping keep costs down while enabling multilingual, machine-readable outputs and interactive content.

 

Links:

Embedded maps - https://gigabytejournal.com/articles/90

32 data papers - https://gigabytejournal.com/articles/series/GIGABYTE_SERIES_0002

See also video - How to Publish Vectors of Human Disease Data with GigaByte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvewWYS95Sg

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About River Valley Technologies

For over 35 years, River Valley has been dedicated to enhancing research communication through innovative technology, including the world’s first fully XML-based end-to-end publishing system and ReView, our award-winning submission and peer review system. Our mission is to transform the journey from research to publication into an efficient, transparent, and accessible process.

River Valley’s solutions are designed to empower publishers and societies to reduce the time and cost of publishing, and to streamline every stage of the publishing process. With head office in London and offices in India, River Valley supports clients across EMEA, the USA, and Asia. Clients include The IET, American Institute of Physics, Emerald Publishing, American Physical Society, The British Academy and GigaScience.

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Media contact: info@rivervalley.io