Note: This style guide is specific for this purpose and supplements the main Cochrane Style Guide, which should be followed for all topics not covered here.

Web page content is served within a template which defines the text markup (font styles, etc.), so you only need to worry about is the basics that follow:

For major editing, please follow this scheme:

• Web pages are SHORT, they are not paper; pages have all main sections visible or listed "above the fold" (in the first screen)
• Please add no paragraph formatting except h3 and h4 (heading levels) or other sytles I've defined for you, and unordered (bulleted) lists.
• Please add no font size, colour, or other font formatting, with the exception of bold and italics for emphasis. Other formatting will interfere with the consistencey of the site-wide styles.
• Avoid tables where not needed, and if possible, define their width in % terms, not in absolute pixels. If you use background colours for some table cells, #cccccc is standard throughout the site.
• You may use horrizontal rules between major sections

Most pages have this format (browse the site to get the 'feeling' of this):

1. Title (no font markup - it's automatic)
2. See also: (if you want to suggest one or two related pages)
3. Intro paragraph (limit to 1 sentence describing the material)
4. Bulleted links to page sections (if long page) or pages in this "group"
5. Horrizonal rule (optional)
6. Section title (h3, lowercase except for first word)
7. Paragraphs...
8. Horrizonal rule at base of content
9. Copyright block and editor's email link.

More standards:

• Spelling should be standard British English
• Date formats in text should be day month, year (e.g., 23 April, 2003), and for lists, yyyy.mm.dd (e.g., 2003.04.23) when possible.
• Page titles and section headers are all lowercase after the first word, except for proper names and products (e.g., "Resources for administrators in Cochrane entities"). The words "Cochrane Collaboration" are not needed in titles, as the template provides this.
• Unless there is good reason otherwise, use "Evidence Based Healthcare" instead of " Evidence Based Medicine"
• The publisher is Wiley InterScience, not Update Software
• People who write reveiws are now called "review authors" or "authors", but not "reviewers".
• Be sure to capitalize the "T" in The Cochrane Library and The Cochrane Collaboration.
• Individual authors of pages or resources are generally not listed in link info, but rather the Entity in which they work, unless a) their names do not appear on the resource itself, or b) the individual is a public figure within the EBM field.

If you are maintaining a seperate entity website, please consider these basic guidelines:

• Show the "last updated" date on pages, so users know what's new - this will put some pressure on you to keep content up-to-date!
• If you need to show copyright permissions, do so. Make your policies explicit.
• Be sure to use an appropriate disclaimer statement regarding medical liability.
• If you collect any personal information from site visitors, you must present a link to your privacy policy on the pages where you collect athe information.
• Finally, it is Cochrane Collaboration policy that you must have an official Collaboration logo on the main page of your public materials. This logo should link to www.cochrane.org. Logos can be found at www.cochrane.org/logo for your use.

Useful links:

• Writing Style for Print Versus Web - This piece focuses on the differences between writing for the web and for more traditional media outlets. The author sums up the differences as follows; in each instance the appropriate web style is the second choice:
  - linear vs. non-linear;
  - author-driven vs. reader-driven;
  - storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content;
  - anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data;
  - sentences vs. fragments.
  

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Comments for improvement or correction are welcome.
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