Online content guidelines

Nodes tend to be actively online in at least one of three ways:

  1. Page on elixir-europe.org
  2. Node website
  3. Website of lead institute

Whichever format is most convenient and suitable for the Node should facilitate access to Node services. Each format should also use the correct capitalisation of ELIXIR terms.

ELIXIR-specific terms

Follow the capitalisation rules for ELIXIR words as seen here:

  • ELIXIR — Always capitalised, with the exception of the ELIXIR logo
  • ELIXIR-CONVERGE — The “CONVERGE” part is always capitalised and never stands alone (without “ELIXIR”)
  • ELIXIR Node, ELIXIR Hub, Data Platform
  • ELIXIR Members (or ELIXIR Member States), ELIXIR Observer
  • ELIXIR Board
  • Technical Coordinators’ Group, Training Coordinators’ Group
  • Head of Node — If there is more than one Head for a Node, say “Heads of Node”. If referring to multiple Heads (each Head presiding over a different Node), say “Heads of Nodes”.
  • Implementation Study — both words have first letter capitalised
  • research infrastructure — all lowercase, even though the acronym is “RI”
  • life sciences — all lowercase and plural

Node page on elixir-europe.org

Write a concise summary (approximately 300 words) of how the Node connects, provides and develops services. This summary should also briefly mention what the lead institute does on a national scale without listing a mission statement, as mission statements tend to already be stated within the overall objectives of ELIXIR.

It is also preferred that a Node not list future activities (unless the Node has just been established and hasn’t started any activities yet). Each page should explain activities specific to the Node as concretely as possible.

The Node page template automatically drops in the following for each Node:

  • Lead/participating institutes, their locations and websites
  • Names, pictures and affiliations for the Head(s) of Node, Technical Coordinator and Training Coordinator as they have listed them in the Intranet
  • Contact information of the Node: main email address, website and Twitter links
  • Links to services, if the Node has signed a Service Delivery Plan
  • Related news and events that have been posted on elixir-europe.org to promote the Node

The summary should therefore provide information aside from what a user could already access via the template. The Node should, however, check that information provided through the template is correct.

Node website

Principles to be applied

  1. ELIXIR Nodes that do not have a separate brand or identity should use the ELIXIR Node website template.
    • A Drupal installation is available and used already by several ELIXIR Nodes
    • Alternatively, an HTML template exists for Nodes that do not use the Drupal Content Management System.
    • Both templates have been developed for English language version. All websites of ELIXIR Nodes should be fully localised in English. For ELIXIR Node website templates, please contact martin.cook [at] elixir-europe.org. 
  2. All Node websites that have a separate brand and identity should acknowledge membership of ELIXIR visibly. This can be done through displaying:
    • ELIXIR logo; and/or
    • Text and acknowledgement of ELIXIR. The standard boilerplate text for ELIXIR may be published:

ELIXIR unites Europe’s leading life-science organisations in managing and safeguarding the massive amounts of data being generated in publicly funded research. It coordinates, integrates and sustains bioinformatics resources across its Member States and enables users in academia and industry to access vital data, tools, standards, computational and training services for their research.


For ELIXIR Node logo requests, please contact premysl.velek [at] elixir-europe.org.

News releases

News releases should feature Node activities and services in a brief article format. They can also provide more context to updates that are promoted through social media (such as the announcement of a new paper published, new project launched, new video uploaded, etc.).

As you write news releases, keep the following in mind:

  • A news release is an article — who, what, when, where, why, how. Job vacancies and event pages should be elsewhere on the site.
  • Feel free to copy and paste elixir-europe.org news releases or link to them within Node news releases
  • Write with the assumption that visitors to the site are unfamiliar with ELIXIR. Clarify ELIXIR-specific jargon where possible.

Website of lead institute

It is ideal that a lead institute have a page or section of its site dedicated to information on activities as an ELIXIR Node, being especially clear about:

  • What ELIXIR is
  • Specific areas of the lead institute that are involved in ELIXIR
  • What the lead institute is contributing to ELIXIR as a Node

For examples of how lead institutes have created dedicated landing pages for Node activities, check out ELIXIR Spain's page at http://www.inab.org/about/inb-in-elixir/ and ELIXIR Netherlands' section at https://www.dtls.nl/elixir-nl/about-elixir-nl/.

Evaluating online presence

Any website with a connected domain can use Google Analytics for free. Remember, however, that Google Analytics must be enabled to a site (unlike Twitter Analytics, which automatically collects data on activity as soon as a Twitter account is created). Follow Google Analytics instructions for how to give it permission to gather data from a Node site.

For Node sites, it is most useful to know:

  • How often the site is used: Home > How are your active users trending over time?
  • The most popular (i.e. most visited) page, and how high the Node “services” page ranks: Home > What pages do your users visit?
  • Site referrals, particularly those from social media:
    • Acquisition > Overview (to see percentages of site referrals from organic searches, referrals, direct clicks and social media)
    • Acquisition > Channels > Click on “Social” in the “Default Channel Grouping” column of the table (to see breakdown of referrals from multiple social media channels)
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Communications