Website policy

The purpose of this document is to define responsibilities regarding the content and maintenance of the departmental website.  

Overall Responsibility

The Project Delivery Coordinator will have ultimate responsibility for the content of the official Department of Chemistry website.

Website Working Group

A Website Working Group (the “Working Group”) consisting of the Project Delivery Coordinator and at least one representative from IT and from the Senior Management Team will meet no less than six times a year to consider issues regarding the departmental website including: 

• Website policies.
• Requests for new microsites.
• Development of the website as needed to conform with the department’s communication strategy and further its objectives.
• Prioritisation of website development taks.
• Review of content
• Complaints related to the website, its policies and its contents.

The Working Group will solicit and consider views of other members of the department where appropriate.  The Head of Department will be advised of the Working Group’s discussions and will review its decisions. 

Maintenance and editing of pages

• The Communications and Web team will give training and support to all who have editing rights to microsites or individual pages.  
• All staff members shall have access to their own entries for editing.
• Requests for access shall be directed to the Communications and Web team.
• The PDC has the right to remove any pages which are not maintained regularly.
• All linked pages must have a named editor who is responsible for maintenance of the page content, and who will be given training and support by the Communications and Web team. 

General Content Guidelines

• Content may not bring the University of Cambridge or Department of Chemistry into disrepute.
• Content must be truthful, accurate and relevant.
• Content should roughly follow the format and elements of similar University web pages and conform with the departmental Communication Strategy, technology and layout. 
• It is preferable to host blogs in-house where functional specifications can be met; all blogs should avoid displaying commercial adverts.
• The PDC may remove any content that is felt to break these guidelines, with the advice and consent of the Working Group.
• Any web page using (or appearing to use) the Department of Chemistry template must be submitted to the Communications and Web team for review, and must include a link to the official department website.
• All content must be located in the departmental content management system, with the exception of research group pages. 

Process for requesting new pages

Any member of the department may request that a new page be linked to the departmental website, by contacting the Communications and Web team and providing the following information:

• The location of the page and all links.
• The purpose of the page and its target audience.
• The proposed contents and structure of the page.
• The name and job title of the named editor and how often the page will be updated. 
• The named editor will be responsible for keeping the content of microsites or individual pages updated.
• If any page or microsite becomes out-dated, the PDC has the right to remove the page.

Imagery

• All images must be properly credited. If in doubt please contact the Photography Department for advice.
• Nathan Pitt from the Chemistry Photography Department (or his deputy) will have final responsibility for all images that appear on the departmental website. 
• Nathan Pitt (or his deputy) will work with the Working Group on the creation of new images for the website and with Named Editors of pages linked to the website to create and maintain images. 

See also Cambridge University web guidelines.

Responsibility for different website sections

1. News

• The HoD welcomes newsworthy items and encourages their submission (submit to news@ch.cam.ac.uk).
• The Communications and Web team will post news items on the home page or consider alternative positions for such items.
• The following elements should be considered in determining whether an item is news (these are guidelines only and discretion may be used in reaching a decision):
  • The importance of the event and its relevance to the Department, i.e. whether it concerns either a current member(s), or work that has been done at the Department.
  • Prizes should generally be internationally recognised.
• Any member of the department can inform the HOD or Communications and Web team of relevant news and events. 
• The RIG chairs are ultimately responsible for notifying the HOD or Communications and Web team  of relevant news emanating from their RIGs. This will be an agenda item at RIG meetings.

2. ​Video/Media links

• Audio or video links to films, seminars, talks or other items related to the department may be submitted to the Communications and Web team for placement on the “Videos and Media Links” pages.  

3. Research

• Research Interest groups
  • The RIG chairs are ultimately responsible for ensuring the accuracy and relevancy of the RIG websites.
  • The Working Group will review the RIG websites once a year and notify RIG chairs when a page needs updating.
• Publications
  
  • IT is responsible for maintaining an automatic feed of RIG publications from the Symplectic database to academic and research staff pages, and research group websites.  
• Analytical Services
  
  • The head of each team will be responsible for the content of their links to the Analytical Services page, and shall review them annually for accuracy. 
• Research Group microsites:
  • The Communications and Web Team with IT will provide a standard template for group pages and support for pages which use this template.  It is strongly recommended that development work is not conducted on publicly accessible web pages, and pages with a security vulnerability will be taken off line.  Group web pages are the responsibility of the research group leaders, and will not fall within the remit of the PDC.  Further instructions and policies on web-hosting for research groups and collaborations, are listed at www-co.ch.cam.ac.uk/facilities/www/.

4. People 

The staff pages will list all academic staff, emeritus staff and postdoctoral researchers (unless they have opted out).  All staff pages are automatically generated from the Chemistry admin database, which contains a staff list with basic information such as name, telephone number, email and a photograph. The accuracy of staff entries in the admin database is the responsibility of HR. 

IT is responsible for maintaining a direct Symplectic feed to each academic staff and postdoctoral researcher entry, filtered to include only articles, chapters and books.

• Academic Staff
  
  • Each Academic staff member is responsible for updating their profile and ensuring it is current.
  • The Academic Secretary (or their deputy) shall monitor the accuracy of the academic staff database, and compare it in October and March each year with the academic staff list, removing or adding entries as required, and contacting those whose entries or photos need updating.  
  • Academic staff pages will be deleted after the staff member has left the department.  The PDC has discretion to retain staff pages for limited periods where the page clearly states the person is no longer with the Department, and where all links are functional. 
  • Academic staff may include links to their research group websites which comply with computer security procedures and relate to the activities of the group only.

• Emeritus Staff
  
  • Each Emeritus staff member is responsible for updating their profile and ensuring it is current.
  • The Academic Secretary (or their deputy) shall be responsible for the accuracy of the list and will compare the database with the list in October each year.
  •  
• Postdoctoral researchers
  • All postdoctoral researchers will be listed on the postdoc staff page and have a staff entry unless they have chosen to opt out. They will be informed of this opportunity when they join the Department and will be given a reasonable grace period to opt out before their name is listed. 
  • Postdoctoral researchers may add information to their staff entries in keeping with general content guidelines (above).
  • The Welfare, Training and Development advisor (or their deputy) will monitor the accuracy of the database and compare it with the postdoc staff pages in October and March each year, at which time they will remove or add entries as required, and contact postdoc staff whose entries or photos need updating.

5. Study

• Graduate admissions
  
  • The Graduate Students Advisor will be responsible for the content of the Graduate Applications page, which will be reviewed each year before admissions open for that academic year.
• Undergraduate admissions
  
  • The Working Group will review the link to the undergraduate admissions page once a year.
• Teaching (current undergraduates) and Outreach
  
  • The Director of Teaching (or a deputy) will be responsible for the content of the Teaching and Outreach microsites, which will be reviewed once a year before the start of the academic term or when new information becomes relevant.
• Current graduates
  • The Graduate Students director will be responsible for the content of the Current Graduates microsite.

6. Library

• The librarian (or a deputy) is responsible for the contents of the library microsite. 
• The librarian will review and update the contents of the library microsite as necessary. 

7. Talks

IT is responsible for maintaining the direct feed of talks from the talks@cam website.  All organisers of seminars or talks, and chairs of committees/RIGs/colloquia are responsible for adding and updating talks to talks.cam and identifying them as Chemistry talks on one of the approved lists in the talks utility (and all talks should be organised pursuant to the departmental seminar booking policy).

8.  Jobs

• IT is responsible for maintaining the direct feed of jobs from the Department system.
• All jobs which are posted on the Department system should reference “Chemistry”.
• Ad hoc jobs may be sent to the Communications and Web team for posting.

9.  Internal pages

The named editors of the various subpages will be responsible for maintaining content.