International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

(Image source: https://www.iaea.org/resources/databases/inis)

The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) hosts one of the world's largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. INIS is a unique and valuable information resource, offering global coverage of nuclear literature.

INIS was established in 1970 in line with the IAEA's mandate "to foster the exchange of scientific and technical information on peaceful uses of atomic energy". It is operated by the IAEA in collaboration with over 130 countries.

It covers all areas of IAEA’s activities, including nuclear engineering and technology, nuclear safety and radiation protection, safeguards and non-proliferation, applications of nuclear and isotope techniques, nuclear and high energy physics, nuclear and radiation chemistry, nuclear applications in life sciences, legal aspects, and environmental and economic aspects of nuclear and non-nuclear energy sources. 

INIS assists its Member States in building their nuclear information capacities through its eLearning courses and training events. INIS training seminars are generally held every other year in Vienna, covering all aspects of INIS operations, including selection criteria, abstracting, descriptive cataloguing, indexing, retrieval, marketing and promotion. The courses provide comprehensive instructions about input preparation and use of the INIS repository.

Through the IAEA’s Technical Cooperation Programme, INIS helps countries build and expand their nuclear information capacities, such as providing technical assistance in organizing their institutional digital repositories.

INIS Membership:

Membership in the International Nuclear Information System (INIS) is open to IAEA Member States, United Nations organizations, and international or intergovernmental organizations with which the IAEA has relations. Currently, INIS has a membership of 132 countries.

INIS members have free and open access to one of the most comprehensive knowledge organization systems in all areas related to peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, including relevant information provided by other INIS Member States and organizations.

INIS members’ national scientific research output in nuclear science and technology is exposed to a broad international community worldwide.

INIS assists its members in building and improving national information management capacities through the transfer of modern technology and know-how.

INIS Thesaurus

INIS maintains a multilingual thesaurus in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish, providing translations of thousands of technical terms that help with navigating and searching the collection.

The INIS Thesaurus serves as the Knowledge Organization System for the International Nuclear Information System (INIS) and contains the controlled terminology for indexing all information within the subject scope of INIS. The terminology is intended for use in subject descriptions for input or retrieval of information in INIS, as well as in other information management systems.

The structure of the INIS Thesaurus is the result of a systematic study performed by the INIS Secretariat and several Member States.

It covers all aspects of IAEA activities in the area of peaceful uses of nuclear energy throughout the world and is a dynamic document that is continuously updated to reflect developments in nuclear science and technology through an international collaborative effort by a team of experts.

Available in all official languages of the IAEA and representing a unique multilingual thesaurus in the nuclear field, the INIS Thesaurus serves as a major tool for indexing and describing nuclear information and knowledge in a structured form.

INIS Repository

The INIS Repository contains bibliographic references and full-text documents of conventional and non-conventional literature, including scientific and technical reports, conference proceedings, patents and theses.

Source: https://www.iaea.org/resources/databases/inis