Rules for publishing on uib.no

Main goal

Uib.no is UiB’s most important communication channel. Uib.no shall have a standard that underpins the University’s academic level of ambition for research, education, dissemination and innovation. Uib.no shall appear uniform in design and structure, and with content and services that are adapted to the various target groups.

Subsidiary goals:

• Uib.no shall strengthen UiB’s reputation as an international research university and a desirable educationalinstitution.
• Uib.no shall be used actively in the recruitment of new students and employees.
• Uib.no shall be used actively in dissemination and dialogue with the outside world.
• Uib.no shall contribute to increased cooperation with national, Nordic, European and international research environments.
• Uib.no shall contribute to a well functioning organisation of the internal work related to research, education, dissemination and innovation.

Norwegian

• Students: potential and existing
• Stakeholders and decision makers within business, culture and public administration
• Stakeholders within research and education
• Employees: potential and existing
• Media
• Alumni

English

• International students: potential and existing
• International employees: potential and existing
• International stakeholders and decision makers within academia, and research administration.
• International journalists looking for research news.

Web editor At UiB, the Director General of the Communication Division is responsible for this role. The responsibility for online work will otherwise follow the line of responsibility in all units.

System owner: The Communication Division is the system owner and manages the further development of uib.no. The IT Department is responsible for operations.

Unit manager: This is the person who has the formal responsibility for the unit's web pages. They do not need to be tied to any operations.

Local web editor: The person(s) with operational responsibility in a unit. These are people who have defined tasks and rights in the system and are responsible for the pages being updated.

Content producer: Someone that produces content on uib.no

Authority

The responsibility for ensuring compliance with the rules for uib.no follows the line responsibility, but as the system owner, the Communication Division has overall responsibility for the quality of content on uib.no. The Communication Division therefore has the authority to make changes that are necessary for uib.no to appear in the best possible way.

This means that the Communication Division can:

• Ensure that the local web editor follows the rules and enforces them for local content producers.
• Follow up on the above unit manager if rules and standards are not followed in spite of orders for this.
• Make changes to web pages without consulting the local information owner when an acute situation makes it essential or when ordered to by someone with overall authority.

Everyone who produces content at UiB must have completed a course on publishing online on uib.no. It is also a requirement that everyone has familiarised themselves with the rules for publication on uib.no. In addition, the local web editor must have completed the course on how to write for the web and part 2 of the online publishing course. It is the manager of the unit who is responsible for ensuring that content producers and local web editors have the time and sufficient competence to perform the required web work.

Local web editors must have versatile and solid web skills, which means:

• Being good with words, able to write for the web and be target group oriented
• Being able to create visually good pages
• Being conscious of what is good website structure
• Having a good knowledge of technical tools (such as Google Analytics and Fotoweb)

UiB is the sender of the content on uib.no. Content is mainly text, images, graphics, film and sound.

The purpose of the content on uib.no is:

1. The user must understand and be able to use the content
2. The content must be communicated correctly and clearly
3. The content must be relevant and up to date
4. The content must support UiB’s strategic goals

Production of content

When producing content, it is important to prioritise: It is essential to define what is most important and what must be highlighted on the page. Headlines, introductions and link texts are among the most important texts on the site. They will give the reader an overview and assist them with navigation (see also how to write well for the web).

When new content is created, you must always check whether that content already exists. Often there is already a web page at a level above/below or centrally. It is advisable to refer to the information that already exists.

Content maintenance

All content on a unit's web pages must be maintained once per semester. Outdated content must be reviewed and updated or deleted. If you have content that is only relevant at a particular time of the year, you should consider unpublishing the content when it is irrelevant. Such actions allow search results to return information that is better and more relevant.

It is advisable to make strategic use of Google Analytics when working on the maintenance of content. This allows you to see what content is popular/not popular and which links are no longer working.

Use of images

Images must not be used without the consent of the copyright holder. Such consent may come directly from the copyright holder or from an already issued license, such as Creative Commons. UiB also has a license for image libraries such as Colourbox, which give permission for certain forms of use within the university. The image must be relevant and illustrate the story.

Accessibility

As a public website, uib.no must follow the requirements for accessibility and the DIFI requirements for websites. Below we list all the requirements that content producers at uib.no must consider.

• All images must have alt text. Alternative text must describe the appearance and function of the image
• Images of text should as far as possible be avoided
• Never publish only a video - a text describing the content of the video must always be included.
• Never publish only a sound clip - a text describing the content of the sound clip must always be included.
• Texts must be written in clear, appropriate, and correct language.
• Links must be meaningful and describe the target of the link – avoid “click here” links.
• Links referring to documents must be marked with the fact that they link to a document, e.g. “Link name (pdf)”.
• Pages must have a defined structure, subtitles should be marked as titles, and not just be formatted in bold.
• PDF documents that are uploaded must have a defined structure. This means, for example, the headings must be marked as headings in the document itself.
• Tables should be used as far as possible to present data.

UiB’s language policy  states that Norwegian is UiB's primary language for teaching, administration and daily work. UiB is also an international research university, so it is emphasised that some activities take place in English.

In addition, UiB must comply with the Regulations regarding the use of Bokmål and Nynorsk in public service when using Bokmål and Nynorsk online, on paper and in social media. This states that neither of the two Norwegian language variants must have a representation of less than 25%. It is the responsibility of the unit manager to ensure that the regulation regarding the use of Bokmål and Nynorsk is followed. 

Uib.no must have clear, good, accurate and user friendly language in its online texts, both in Bokmål, Nynorsk and English (ref. How to write well for the web)

Minimum information required in English and Norwegian
For research projects, groups, and units that want web content in English only, the general rule is that we as a Norwegian university need to have a minimum amount of information on Norwegian pages as well.

An example of a minimum amount of information can be a short text describing the project/group or unit and a clear link to the English pages as well as contact information. Similar minimum information should exist in English for web pages that have Norwegian as their main language. For other content, the title and introduction should be translated into the correct language, while the body of the body should contain a clear link to the original content.

Norwegian texts are published on the Norwegian pages. English texts are published on the English pages. Norwegian and English content on the same page or in the same area should not occur.

The UiB name policy regulates the use of the University's official domain name, uib.no. The objective of the name policy is to have a unified and consistent use of the domain name and URL addresses on uib.no.

The overall principle of UiB’s name policy is that URLs must have a unique and logical connection to the department or environment that the name points to. At the same time, the name should be as short as possible and with the least possible words, without prejudicing the self-documenting properties of the name. The default address form must be uib.no/unit. That is, web pages with the form unit.uib.no must not be used. 

All official UiB activities that are to be presented online must have official pages under uib.no. An application must be made for the creation of web domains and web areas for official units. The Communication Division is the highest authority in allocation cases.

As a public institution, UiB is required to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and the Personal Data Act. In addition, the following principles apply:

• Content on uib.no must not be insulting or offensive.
• Uib.no must not contain pages with political, racist or religious propaganda
• Uib.no must not be used to disseminate content that may violate the Copyright Act.

All content which has UiB as the sole and official sender must adhere to UiB’s graphical profile and be published on uib.no. Content on uib.no must be official information from UiB and not of a private nature. For collaborative projects across organisations, one of UiB's external website services may be relevant.

Uib.no

Everything published on uib.no must follow the rules for publication. These set requirements for the quality of content, language, and content maintenance. When using uib.no you will also have access to technical support and editorial advice.

External website services

In addition to uib.no, there are two different platforms for pages that do not belong on uib.no. These will typically be pages that have external partners and which do not have UiB as the official sender. The external website services have no integration with uib.no.

• WordPress can be created by anyone who has an account connected to UiB. Wordpress is hosted by the IT department which also offers technical support. The Communication Division has as a rule, no tasks related to the follow-up of websites on Wordpress.