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Web Development

Site Guidelines

  1. Introduction
    Web pages hosted by Mount Sinai School of Medicine must meet certain standards. Pages must represent Mount Sinai and its affiliates in a coherent and appropriate manner. Information must be accurate, valid, and up-to-date; support institutional missions, goals, and purposes; be organized with easy-to-understand titles and efficient use of space; and present information on the World Wide Web in a manner befitting the image of the institutions. All departments, divisions, and centers using institutional resources to publish on the WWW agree to respect privacy and confidentiality and to be ethical and professional. These Guidelines apply to externally and internally accessible Web pages.
  2. Groups to whom the Guidelines apply
    All departments, divisions, and centers who publish Web pages that represent some component of the institution or its professional activity shall adhere to these Guidelines.
  3. Specific information that shall be present on every page
    Each page should have the following information on each departmental/divisional site:
    • Department, division, center, or other institutional body publishing the page
    • Overview of the department, division, center
    • Directory of all faculty and other personnel as appropriate
    • Residency program information (if applicable) and other educational initiatives
    • Current research activities
    • Link to the Mount Sinai Medical Center and/or Mount Sinai School of Medicine home page
    • If recruiting, link to the appropriate institutional EEO/AA statement or IRB or other regulating body approval
    • Link to departmental or divisional home page, which, in turn, links to the institutional home page
    • The following copyright statement shall be placed on all official Mount Sinai documents: "Copyright © [year] Mount Sinai School of Medicine" or "Copyright © [year] The Mount Sinai Medical Center."
  4. Authorization
    All links from the official Web pages of Mount Sinai must be approved by the corresponding department or center Vice-President, Chair or Program Chair. A form authorizing departmental and divisional developers will be maintained on file by the Web Director.
  5. A statement on personal or individual Web pages, including lab pages
    Any person using institutional resources to distribute a personal Web page shall include the following standard disclaimer statement: "This personal Web page is not an official publication of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The opinions expressed and the information presented on this page are not necessarily those of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Comments on the page should be directed to the page authors."
  6. Access
    Each department, division, and center Vice-President or Chair appoints a Web Developer to serve as the Website contact and to be responsible for the content on the Website. Departmental designees must provide their contact information to the Web Office for recordkeeping purposes.
  7. Other general guidelines for all institutional and personal Websites
      Compliance
    • Authors must comply with all local, state, and federal laws, especially copyright and trademark laws.
    • Pages are for educational, informational, or intellectual presentation without direct advertising or solicitation (for financial gain) other than for institutional purposes. Endorsements or acknowledgment of financial assistance from an outside source provided in the development or maintenance of Web pages is allowed.
    • Web pages must comply with all institutional rules and regulations, policies, and procedures, including those on computer use, harassment, use of institutional property, personal conduct, etc.
    • Mozilla 1.6, Firefox 1.0, IE 6, Netscape 7.01 or greater are the standard browsers for which all institutional Web pages are to be designed. As much as reasonably possible, units are to make files accessible to text-based browsers.

      Content
    • Information must be accurate and not in conflict with that provided by another part of the institution. Efforts should be made to avoid duplication of material found elsewhere. Examples: Mount Sinai History; Directions & Map.
    • If a unit wants to display an official institutional logo, an obvious indication of origin of the page and reflection on the institution, such use must be proper and appropriate as described in Public Affairs policies.
    • Per the charter, official institutional names are to be used as follows on all institutional and personal Web pages:
      • Mount Sinai School of Medicine
      • The Mount Sinai Hospital
      • The Mount Sinai Medical Center
    • If there is medical content on the page, consideration should be given to providing a link to the Health On the Net Code of Conduct (HONcode) for Medical and Health Websites.
    • Grammar and usage should conform to a recognized standard from a style manual (e.g., the Chicago Manual of Style, the American Medical Association Manual of Style, and so on) and be free of spelling errors. Please refer to the house style sheet for specific treatment of words and/or usage.
    • It is highly recommended that each unit maintain a record of all files, documents, and images on their Website and develop a plan for maintenance and updating. A quarterly review to identify needs for updated information and a monthly check of all links to assure accuracy is recommended.
    • All content updates for Websites should be submitted via e-mail following the instructions in the Overview in the Create and Edit Sites section. Updated material may be reviewed to ensure consistency and accuracy following institutional and Web guidelines.
  8. Enforcement
    These Guidelines have been constructed as a general framework to guide the development of WWW pages. Significant flexibility exists within the framework of these Guidelines to allow for individual creativity while assuring consistency of institutional identification and policy. If you are unclear as to the intent of any of the Guidelines or for clarification of a particular design or content you are developing, please contact the Web Development Office. Failure to follow these Guidelines and/or Web pages that violate them will be referred to the appropriate institutional authority and/or may result in loss of privileges.

Created February 1997 by Lynn Kasner Morgan, lynn.morgan@mssm.edu. Adapted with permission from NYH-CMC Guidelines. Adapted 2003 by the Web Development Office; revised 2006, 2008.
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