The Electronic Publishing Style Guide has been written to provide guidelines and policies for any material published electronically including the following:

Web pages residing on the official Marshall University web server

Pages located within the top three levels of the official Marshall University web site (i.e., any page which may be accessed in two or less links from the official Marshall University web page).

Pages associated with the Marshall University Information Provider Agreements.

COMPUTER USE AND ABUSE POLICY

Web pages residing on the official Marshall University web site or using University equipment must conform to the guidelines set by the Computer Use and Abuse Policy. This policy may be obtained from the main desk of University Computing Services or through the UCS web site. Web pages must also conform to the West Virginia Statewide Internet Acceptable Use Policy

RESPONSIBILITIES FOR CONTENT PUBLISHED ELECTRONICALLY

Campus units and other entities join the official Marshall University web server by completing the Marshall University Information Providers Agreement. The person entering into the agreement, the overseer, may at anytime grant other individuals or organizations the ability to add content to the entity’s web page. However, the overseer assumes full responsibility for the content of the page. The overseer must therefore insure that the page is in compliance with copyright, local, state and federal laws as well as University policies. Since these pages are an electronic representation of the entity and Marshall University, page content should be accurate and maintain high editorial standards (i.e., spelling and grammar). Links to pages that do not meet the conditions of this guide should be explicitly labeled as such, e.g. ("By following this link you will leave the official Marshall University web server").

FEEDBACK/RESPONSE TIME

All web pages will contain the E-mail address of the unit or entity responsible for the page's creation and maintenance. E-mail will be answered by the unit or entity in no more than three business days.

COMMERCIAL USE

Web pages on the Marshall University network are not to be used for commercial purposes of any kind including the generation of revenue. (i.e., selling products via the web page or the use of banner ads).

PAGE DESIGN AND APPEARANCE

When designing a web page, consideration must be made to the audience the page will reach. Marshall University faculty and staff have access to network bandwidth and computer systems that are beyond the capabilities of the home user. Web page designers are urged to take the following guidelines into consideration when designing a page:

System Capabilities

Test the page on a minimum 17" monitor at 800x600 resolution. The main points of interest on the page should be visible at this resolution without the need to scroll through the page.

The top level page for any group of pages shall be equal to or less than 100k (100,000 bytes) in size. This size is defined as the sum total of all content appearing on the page including but not limited to text, graphics, video, sound, and plug-in specific content. The download time of the page should be suitable for a 33.6k modem.

Links to Pages which exceed 150k (150,000 bytes) in size should be labeled as such (e.g., "This graphic is 208k").

Accessibility

Pages should be designed so that different browsers (i.e., Netscape Navigator / Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera) will have equal access to the page’s content. For example, any image map would need to include a text alternative. Furthermore, pages should meet accessibility standards as set forth in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. For detailed information on Section 508 standards, visit http://www.section508.gov.

It is strongly recommended that pages that make use of frames should include non-frames versions in such a manner that users will not dead end at the frames-enabled version of the page.

Pages will be constructed and maintained so that the content will be equally accessible to all browsers with or without specific add-on modules (i.e., Shockwave Flash, RealAudio).

Marshall University Logo/Seal/Masthead

The Marshall University Logo, Seal, and Masthead are to be used in accordance with the rules governing its usage as set forth by Marshall University.

Official University Template

An Official University Template is available for use by marshall domain users on sites residing on the Marshall University Web Server (www.marshall.edu) at http://www.marshall.edu/www/webdevel/template. Users accessing the template will be prompted to authenticate:

Username - marshall\"username" or "username"@marshall.edu
Password - "password"

Use of the Official Template is strongly suggested for Colleges/Departments that reside in a root level folder (ex. http://www.marshall.edu/it/), and those who choose to implement the template must agree to follow guidelines detailed in the Template Instructions.

Color Scheme

It is recommended that a neutral color, such as white, be used for the background color of web pages. A high level of contrast should be maintained between the background and foreground colors (i.e., a light background color would be used with a dark foreground color). Level of contrast is defined as the readability of text on the page.