Publishing checklist

Step 1: Register with IATI

All organisations that want to publish IATI data need to set up user and publisher accounts on the IATI Registry. This contains information about all organisations publishing IATI data, as well as links to each dataset. Each organisation is responsible for their data and for keeping the information about their organisation and its activities up to date. Registering with IATI is free.

If you haven’t yet set up your accounts, see How to register with IATI.

Step 2: Create your IATI files

IATI datafiles are written in XML, an open source markup language that makes it easy to store, transmit and share data. IATI XML is a computer-readable language that provides a standardised approach to reporting information.

There are several options for converting your data into IATI XML to produce your datafiles.

Most organisations use a publishing tool or service to create their data, either entering it manually or by CSV upload. Another option is to create your own bespoke publishing system that takes the data directly from your internal systems and converts it into IATI XML. This option is usually taken by organisations with several hundreds or thousands of activities to publish.

To learn how to create your files and to see IATI XML examples, go to Creating files.

Once you’ve created your files you should check they comply with the IATI Standard. Publishing tools should have an inbuilt check. You can also use the IATI Validator.

Step 3: Publish your files

When you’ve created your files, store them in an accessible online location so that you can link them directly to the IATI Registry. The registry is an index that contains links to your datafiles and describes what’s in them. It does not hold the data itself.

Either log in to your IATI publisher account and input details of your files manually or, depending on the publishing system you’re using, feed the data into your account automatically through an API.

For guidance on how to publish your files, see How to publish your data on the IATI Registry.

Step 4: Improve and visualise your data

Once you’ve published your data, you should work towards increasing its quality over time, adding in more elements to better describe your work.

One tool to use is the IATI Dashboard. For guidance please see How to improve your data quality with the IATI Dashboard.

There are various visualisation tools you can use to present your IATI data in a user-friendly way and share it directly with users of your data. You can also use a visualisation tool to check which further improvements you can make to your data.

See Ways of visualising IATI data for more information on different ways of visualising your data.

See how Oxfam Novib have used IATI data in their own visualisation portal.

For more information on how you can use IATI data, please see Using IATI data.