Most IUPAC projects results in a publication, printed or electronic. A part of the project planning should be the consideration of the form this publication should take. The most common form is as a technical report or recommendation published in the IUPAC journal, Pure and Applied Chemistry. The procedure for publication is described in Appendix III of the IUPAC Handbook. Appendix IV of the Handbook contains advice for drafting technical reports and recommendations. IUPAC policy with regard to copyright is described in Appendix V. Some IUPAC projects are best presented as books while others are best published as electronic documents, especially as online databases or CD-ROMs. Considerations that determine which form of publication is most appropriate for the results of a particular project are outlined below.

In planning a project, the first consideration is whether this project will result in a technical report or recommendation. Appendix III of the Handbook describes the differences between the two and should be consulted during the planning stages. Online publication or CD-ROMs are usually considered forms of technical reports. Books are a special case and should in general not be considered before consulting the Secretariat about the intended audience and possible publishers.

If the result of a project is to be a recommendation, the project plan should take into account the need for review of the document by outside experts and the requirement for a public comment period.

Technical reports do not have the same requirements for review as do recommendations. However, they must be reviewed by the Interdivisional Committee on Terminology, Nomenclature, and Symbols (ICTNS). ICTNS review is required to ensure that IUPAC recommendations regarding the use of nomenclature, terminology, and symbols have been followed. Before ICTNS review can take place, the Division Committee responsible for management of the project must approve the report. The Division Committee can require a review by outside experts if it feels that this is necessary.

All technical reports and recommendations published in PAC are available online as part of the PAC archive on the IUPAC web site.

Publication of a technical report solely in a journal other than PAC requires special permission and should be discussed with the Division Committee and with the Secretariat when the project proposal is being reviewed and before the project is approved. Publication elsewhere after publication in PAC can be part of a dissemination plan and is often an excellent way to make the results of a project known to the relevant community.

Special Issues of PAC can be the preferred way to disseminate the results of an IUPAC-sponsored workshop on a topic of special interest. Before planning to publish the results of a project as a Special Issue, the Special Topics Editor of PAC should be consulted. Not all projects or workshops meet the requirements for publication as a Special Issue. These include appropriate peer review, a topic that is both timely and of interest to an audience beyond specialists in the field, and authors that are of the highest quality. For all of these reasons the Task Group Chair should discuss plans for publication of a Special Issue with the Special Topics Editor well before discussing the possibility of a Special Issue with potential contributors.

Databases and glossaries are usually best published electronically, either online or as a CD-ROM. The construction of an online database should be done directly on the IUPAC web site rather than on another computer system. The reason for this is that transfer of a completed database from one web site to another can often involve as much work as its development in the first place. The Secretariat can provide access to a portion of the IUPAC web site for database developers. It is important that IUPAC developed databases be hosted on the IUPAC web site to avoid the possibility of material hosted on another computer system becoming unavailable due to changes in policy by Universities or other institutions or changes in the interests or institutional affiliation of the original developers. The ownership of the database should have been clarified before embarking on the project.

A major consideration when planning an online database is maintenance. This includes both the revision of existing data and the incorporation of new data. The Secretariat does not have the expertise to do this. The project plan for a database project should include ongoing maintenance as part of the plan.

The creation of a CD-ROM can be as simple as burning a set of existing files on a disk for distribution or can involve a major programming effort to develop an interactive disk. Small numbers of copies of a CD-ROM can be made by the Secretariat. If distribution of a large number of disks is planned, the Secretariat can arrange for this to be done by an outside service but the costs of doing this should be included in the project budget.

Revisions of the IUPAC books on nomenclature, terminology, and symbols - the color books - are special situations and are managed by the appropriate Division Committees. The decision to produce a book is one that needs careful study before the project is submitted. In many cases books are no longer the best way to present the results of an IUPAC project. Glossaries, for instance, are now better published online or on CD-ROM, or both. Publication of a glossary in electronic form allows searching and also enables a new glossary to be integrated with other IUPAC glossaries, such as the Gold Book.

In general, IUPAC does not support financially the publication of textbooks or standard scientific monographs. If a book is judged to be the best vehicle for publication by the group proposing a project and the Division Committee, a prospectus should be developed so that the Secretariat can approach publishers and negotiate a contract with the most appropriate and interested publisher. It is important that this be done before work is actually begun on the book to avoid disappointment after the book is almost completed. IUPAC does not subsidize the publication of books, and only books judged by a publisher to be commercially viable can be published.

If a decision is made to prepare a book for publication, the manuscript must be submitted to ICTNS for review of conformity to IUPAC standards for  nomenclature, terminology, symbols, and units. Details of this procedure are described in the section "Procedure for Publication of IUPAC Technical Reports and Recommendations, and IUPAC-Sponsored Books".