Faculty of Law Subsite Policy

1. The research microsite is a core feature of the Faculty website that allows each academic to promote their research in any way they choose. It is a template that can easily be adapted in various ways to promote people, news, events, publications, etc. It is also the template that is used for the five Centres/Institutes.

2. There must be a Faculty member (i.e. a postholder, the PI of a grant, or other member of the Faculty – i.e. emeritus, college-only, etc.) who is identified as the 'owner' of each site.

3. All externally-funded research projects led by a PI in the Law Faculty must have a microsite, and this will be discussed with the PI or lead academic at the start of the project. (See section 13 below about using ‘Oxford Mosaic’ for microsites for collaborative projects, or projects not led by Oxford.)

4. It is a key part of our policy that postdocs, and indeed anyone with their own research project, are strongly encouraged to set up a microsite to promote their work. The microsite has been designed specifically with this in mind, and it is very straight forward to connect a profile page to a project microsite. (Assistance on setting one up is available online or from the research support staff).

5. In advance of the creation of a microsite, there will need to be a discussion with the owner/PI that will cover the likely resource implications for setting up a microsite. The Faculty can provide technical support and give advice about improvements and developments, but cannot provide administrative support for managing the microsite and keeping the content up to date.

6. The owner or relevant administrator will be shown how to authorise delegated editing access to others, who may be students, or people employed in the Faculty or otherwise employed on their grant or project. In exceptional circumstances an entirely external person may be granted editing rights to a microsite.

7. There are certain elements of the microsite template that are fixed, in keeping with the overall branding of the website. This largely refers to the Oxford and Law Faculty branding at the top of each page, which cannot be changed. (See information about ‘Oxford Mosaic’ below as a possible alternative when a Faculty-branded microsite might not be suitable).

8. The design and the structure of the website are not managed within the Faculty - the site is managed externally by a company called Versantus). Therefore, as a rule the microsite template cannot be changed, unless there is a clear benefit for the whole Faculty in the further development of the template.

9. The microsite template is also very suited to programmes, hubs, centres, institutes, or other larger pieces of research work, with different streams, involving multiple people and overlapping activities. The formal establishment of an on-going programme / hub – as opposed to a fixed-term externally-funded project or group of projects – is subject to the approval of the Law Board.  This is to ensure that any overheads and other on-going resource issues for the Faculty are adequately addressed.

10. The Faculty will take the decision on whether to unpublish a microsite if the site is out of date, or if there is no longer a formal connection between the microsite owner and the Faculty. This does not delete the content, it simply removes it from the public site, and the owner will be notified.

11. Initial enquiries about microsites for research purposes may be addressed to the Research Facilitator, Karen Eveleigh.

12. There is provision within the microsite template to set up a blog. These are set up through a different process. If you are interested in creating a blog, please contact the Communications Manager in the first instance. You will be invited to write a proposal for the new blog which will then require the approval of the Communications and Web Advisory Group.  There are guidance notes on how to prepare your proposal.

13. Oxford Mosaic can provide a more neutral template for collaborative projects. Links can be made from the Faculty site to a Mosaic site, but it is not possible to integrate a Mosaic site into the Faculty site, and the Faculty is unable to provide administrative, IT or financial support for these external sites.

14. The Faculty places a great deal of emphasis on the need for a united and integrated website reflecting our wide range of activities. Indeed, this was the overarching objective of the new site, and colleagues are strongly discouraged from setting up external sites to promote their research, unless it can be demonstrated that the output is of a type that cannot be accommodated on the Faculty website. As a result of the single website approach, the Faculty has now consolidated its web support, and cannot provide support to colleagues or students wishing to set up an external site.

15. A Web/Comms team has been set up to review all matters relating to the website. This team comprises the Head of Administration and Finance (Charlotte Vinnicombe), the Communications Manager (Clare Oxenbury-Palmer), and the Web Development and Support Officer (Steve Allen). Any requests that cannot be dealt with by this group will be forwarded to the Communications and Web Advisory Group for formal consideration. This includes requests for Mosaic sites, other external sites (even those with external funding), and requests for amendments to the underlying templates of the Faculty website. The Research Facilitator will refer research grant proposals to the Web/Comms Team when the proposal includes the creation of an external or Mosaic site, and the onus will be on the PI to make the case for not using a microsite.

CLV/EW/COP December 2018

Updated 6 July 2021 CLV