What is Ask IFAS?

Rebranded as “Ask IFAS” in April 2021, UF/IFAS’ Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS) is evolving to meet the needs of our audiences, as well as the faculty who provide research-based, timely information about agriculture, natural resources, family & consumer sciences and youth development.

New name, same content

The new, more user-focused website is ready to move to the next level of engaging and empowering our Extension audiences.

• Same trusted and relevant publications and content
• Easy to use on any device
• Improved ability to connect with UF/IFAS experts

Ask IFAS carries on EDIS’ role as a comprehensive, single-source repository of all current UF/IFAS numbered peer-reviewed publications. Each year, visitors to the EDIS website access one of over 6,500 publication titles more than 17.5 million times.

One component of the EDIS system

The EDIS publication system is comprised of two other components in addition to Ask IFAS: the peer-reviewed journal,EDIS(ISSN 2576-0009), and an administrative dashboard.

Authors of the articles made available on Ask IFAS submit them first to the journal EDIS (ISSN 2576-0009), where they undergo peer review and administrative approval prior to acceptance for publication on Ask IFAS, and where the articles will continue to be available as a permanent academic record of the authors’ work.

The EDIS dashboard is where the accepted manuscripts get turned into web articles and PDFs for Ask IFAS, where the topics and expert lists are managed, and where UF/IFAS experts can manage their articles to ensure that the most relevant and accurate information is always available to Ask IFAS users.

Celebrating 25 years of EDIS

UF/IFAS has had a long history of providing electronic access to publications, beginning in the early 1990s when it began producing handbooks of documents on CD-ROMS. In 2021, we recognize that it’s been 25 years since the Florida Agricultural Information Retrieval System (FAIRS) website first went online. In 1998, the name was changed to Extension Data Information Source (EDIS) to reflect changes in its scope and function. EDIS became the single source for all Extension publications and was also adapted to permit Extension units to print documents on an as-needed basis. More recently in 2006, the UF/IFASSolutions for Your Lifeweb initiative has brought EDIS publications together with other valuable web resources within the framework in a single web-user friendly theme and framework. Now that Ask IFAS is carrying on this tradition, who knows where we’ll be at the end of the next 25 years?