Welcome to the Guidelines and Statutes Section
This chapter will provide you with information on the basic guidelines and tips for the digital communication at Paderborn University. With your support, we can create an overall uniform presentation and strengthen the identity of our University. If you have any editorial questions, please do not hesitate to contact the team of the Press, Communications and Marketing Office: pkm@zv.uni-paderborn.de. For any questions regarding English translations, our Translation Office will be happy to help you: translations@uni-paderborn.de.
Editorial Guide for Web Content
In order to achieve a consistent presentation of Paderborn University on its own websites, we have developed guidelines for the creation and publication of both texts and images covering the following three fields:
Language
- Paderborn University is committed to the implementation of non-discriminatory and gender-inclusive language. When writing texts, please make sure to use gender-neutral expressions:
e.g., the suffix "man" can be replaced with "person", such as "chairperson" or "head" versus "chairman". "Men" or "mankind" can be replaced with "people", "individuals", "humanity", "human beings", or "we". - In case of pronouns, we recommend the use of the plural form "they" and "their" instead of "he", "she" or "he or she" and "his", "her", or "his or her":
e.g., "The student must submit their assignment by Friday." instead of "The student must submit his assignment by Friday."
- Please try to avoid convoluted sentences. Give the text structure and form paragraphs. Subheadings make it easier to quickly understand the text.
- Avoid using words that only consist of capitals (upper case letters). They impair readability. Exceptions: acronyms, highlighting changes in events/news/info pages.
- Occasionally, use "we" to write from a university-internal point of view:
e.g., "We are sustainable" instead of "Paderborn University is sustainable". - Only address the reader directly in selected places and consider your respective target group:
e.g., "Are you interested in studying at Paderborn University?" or "Find out more about career opportunities in academia." - If possible, use a so-called "call to action" when placing links:
e.g., "Learn more about our research" instead of "More information here"; "Download registration form here" instead of "Download".
-
Paderborn University has decided to use British English (BE) in their English texts. Some examples of BE spelling are: course catalogue, degree programme, centre, e-mail, enrolment. Furthermore, there are some instances when the vocabulary differs from British English to American English. In such cases, please make sure to use British English vocabulary. If proper nouns of institutes or centres at Paderborn University are written according to American English spelling, please stick to it:
e.g., "Center for Optoelectronics and Photonics", "Center of Gender Studies"
- Texts should only be as long as necessary and as short as possible. Cover what the target group would deem to be the most important aspects of the respective topic.
- Write for your target audience and consider which keywords your audience would use. Make sure to use keywords that are relevant to what people might search for — in other words, keywords refer to what users type into the search bar of search engines:
e.g., prospective students tend to search for "enrolment" rather than "Student Registrar's Office".- Keywords should occur several times, even in the headlines.
- The page title has to be clear and unique within the domain or subdomain. It should summarise the content of the page.
- Include keywords in the text as naturally and specifically as possible; the readability of the text is more important than the keyword density.
- Search engines read the title and the first paragraph of a page first. Therefore, it is particularly important to mention the keywords in these sections of the text.
- The link text, i.e., the visible text of the link on the website, should be as informative as possible and appropriate to the content, both in terms of user-friendliness and with regard to search engines. Use links with keywords relevant to the topic of the page being linked to. This helps the search engine to better understand the structure of your website:
e.g., "For more information, visit the University Sports Website" instead of "For more information, visit: www.uni-paderborn.de/en/university/hochschulsport" or "For more information, click here";
"Learn more about transfer" instead of "Learn more". - If there are several links, a link list with subheadings is possible:
e.g., "More on the topic of internationalisation:
International Profile
International Campus
International Office"
- All web content must be bilingual (German and English). The Translation Office is currently working on a university-wide glossary, which will be made available to all members of the University. Standardised terminology is the primary means of ensuring consistency. At present, the Translation Office is working on developing and integrating terminology relevant to the University in DeepL’s glossary. In future, the correct terminology will generally be applied to all texts translated with DeepL in TYPO-3 automatically, provided that the respective terms are part of the DeepL glossary. Through the glossary integrated in DeepL, it will be possible to determine how specific terms should be translated in order to ensure a uniform representation of the University.
Formal Rules
- The first time a term is mentioned, always write it out and follow it with the abbreviation in parantheses:
e.g., "Paderborn University (UPB)". - In all subsequent mentions, you can then use the abbreviation introduced earlier:
e.g., "UPB" - Although it is required to use spacing in abbreviations in German, please refrain from adding spaces in English. In common English lower-case abbreviations, where each letter represents a word, use full stops between letters without putting a space in between:
"e.g.", "i.e."
- Always write out the month in the body of text and omit adding "the" before the date:
e.g., "Wednesday, 10 November 2019", not: "Wednesday, the 10.11.2019" or "Wednesday, November 10th 2019". - Use years for static information:
e.g., "The groundbreaking ceremony took place on 20 September 2020." - For current dates, such as event announcements, omit the year and add the day of the week.
e.g., "The lecture series will begin on Wednesday, 10 November." - When enumerating days of the week, for example for office hours, abbreviations for days of the week should be avoided if possible:
e.g., "Monday, Wednesday: 7.30 am - 3.30 pm".
- Please use the proper name "Paderborn University" rather than abbreviations, e.g., "Uni Paderborn", "UPB", which should only be used occasionally. Paderborn University should always be written in capital letters. If "the university" is used in the body of text and refers to Paderborn University, "the University" should always be capitalised. When referring to any other university, or universities in general, "the university" remains lower case.
- "College"/"higher education institution" must not be used as a synonym for "Paderborn University".
- Please avoid using the expression "junior researchers" or "junior academics" as it is considered by some to have negative connotations. Alternatively, you can use: "early-career researcher/academic", "postdoc", "researchers/academics in the early career stages".
- Please make sure to place e-mail addresses in the body of text in such a way that they can be clearly identified and make sense in terms of content:
e.g., “You can register by sending an e-mail to: mint@uni-paderborn.de.” - The domain affix, i.e., everything that follows the @-sign, should be written out in full and in lower case:
e.g., “@uni-paderborn.de”; “@zv.uni-paderborn.de”.
- Linked text is highlighted automatically. Therefore, it need not be written in bold, underlined, or in italics.
- Citations should be placed in inverted commas and should not be formatted.
- Standard text should not be formatted.
Exceptions:- Acronyms and the corresponding letters should be highlighted in bold:
e.g., "KET = Kompetenzzentrum für Nachhaltige Energietechnik (Competence Centre for Sustainable Energy Technology)". - In order to highlight central information, such as deadlines, contact options, requirements, etc. in the body of text, they can be highlighted in bold:
e.g., "Registrations are still possible until Wednesday, 5 April." - References may be italicised if the citation style requires it:
e.g., "Doe, John. 2023. Sample title. Paderborn: Sample-Publisher." - Some web modules are custom-programmed and you cannot modify the text formatting (e.g., quotes in testimonials).
- Acronyms and the corresponding letters should be highlighted in bold:
- Always write out names in full with first names and surnames and refrain from using "Mr"/"Mrs":
e.g., "John Doe" instead of "Mr John Doe". - Academic titles are always given in abbreviated form:
e.g., "Jun.-Prof. Kim Brown" or "Prof. Dr. John Smith" - Add function descriptions to provide context:
e.g., "Dr.-Ing. Jane Doe, Head of Expert Group xyz".
- "&" should only be used if it is part of a proper name, in other cases "and" is used.
- Instead of "<" and ">", "greater than" and "less than" should be used.
- "%" or "per cent" is both possible.
- In the case of legally relevant texts, please use “section” instead of "§", in order to differentiate between the legally binding German text and the English version, which solely serves as a convenience to non-German readers as a courtesy translation.
- "€", "euro", and "euros" are all possible.
- "20m²" or "20 square metres" are both possible.
- Please note the difference between a hyphen (-) and a dash (–).
- Please note the difference between German inverted commas („xyz“) and English inverted commas ("xyz").
- Times should be written in the format "HH.MM a/pm":
e.g., "10.30 am". Please note that you do not need to use full stops in "am" and "pm". - For a full hour, the full stop and the double zero should be omitted:
e.g., "10 am". - The "a/pm" must always be placed after the (last) number:
e.g., "10 to 10.30 pm".
Images
- Please only use images for which you possess the usage rights and whose photographers you know, or images which have been approved for use free of charge and for your own purposes. Images found in Google Images Search are also subject to copyright/usage rights.
- The following information must always be available for the photographic material: Who is the photographer? Did they grant our University the rights to the image for use on the University's website? Is it necessary to give picture credit? You may need to acquire further rights of use (for example, for re-use if the photo was originally taken in the context of reporting on an event or the like).
- Further information on image rights can be found on the website of the Press, Communications and Marketing Office.
- Each caption should begin with the word "Photo", the photo credit (i.e. the name of the photographer or copyright holder) in brackets, followed by a colon:
e.g., "Photo (TecUP): Sample caption here." - Phrase captions as complete sentences and always end them with a full stop.
- Always name (up to twelve) individuals pictured from left to right, including their academic degree, first name, and surname:
e.g., "(left to right) Prof. Dr. Jane Doe, Dr. John Doe, and Prof. Dr. Dr. Ian Cognito invite you to the conference." - In order to reduce obstacles for search engines, please provide each image with an alternative text, describing what is depicted in short, clear words. Keywords should only be used when appropriate:
e.g.,
Caption: Photo (Paderborn University, Mazhiqi): More than 800 students will begin their studies at Paderborn University in the summer semester of 2023. They were welcomed in Lecture Hall G during the induction week.
- The file names should not contain any special characters or spaces and should always be structured in a consistent manner. We recommend the following structure: UPB_FirstName-SurnamePersonPictured_SurnamePictureAuthor
Alternatively, it is also possible to specify an occasion for FirstName-SurnamePicturedPerson:
e.g., UPB_Jane-Doe_SamplePhotographer.jpg or UPB_SampleOccasion_SamplePhotographer.jpg
Download Checklist