UT Southwestern Medical Center Website Link Policy

Links to UT Southwestern

Advance permission to link to UT Southwestern’s website(s) is not necessary. However, be aware that UT Southwestern subpages may change at any time without notice. Entities and individuals linking to UT Southwestern must continuously verify links to our subpages.

Entities and individuals linking to UT Southwestern shall not capture UT Southwestern pages within frames, present UT Southwestern content as its own, or otherwise misrepresent UT Southwestern content. Furthermore, they shall not misinform users about the origin or ownership of UT Southwestern content. Certain information on UT Southwestern may be trademarked, service-marked, or otherwise protected as intellectual property. Protected intellectual property must be used in accordance with state and federal laws and must reflect the proper ownership of the intellectual property.

Any link to the UT Southwestern site should be a full forward link that passes the client browser to UT Southwestern unencumbered. The "Back" button should return the visitor to original site if the visitor wishes to back out.

Links from UT Southwestern

This section outlines the criteria and requirements that external websites must meet to have a link on the UT Southwestern website. It also details how links are accepted and removed from the UT Southwestern website.

UT Southwestern reserves the right to link to external websites that it feels would provide a service or otherwise be of value to constituents.

Acceptance Criteria

UT Southwestern links to federal, state, and local governments that provide information and services that benefit Texas citizens, Texas local government, and Texas state agencies. At its discretion, UT Southwestern will consider link requests to non-governmental websites that contain information and/or services that further the purpose of UT Southwestern, including sites of UT Southwestern-contracted vendors, relevant technology-related associations and timely and relevant information technology publications.

The UT Southwestern website is not a forum for public communication and debate. The criteria outlined in this section have been established to ensure that the UT Southwestern website remains a non-public forum.

Every link request must undergo review to determine its relevance and appropriateness to the purpose of UT Southwestern. Links are approved for UT Southwestern based on the following criteria:

1. The external website corresponds with the purpose of UT Southwestern
2. The site's content is appropriate with respect to the purpose of UT Southwestern and the site is not a:
   • Site that exhibits hate, bias, discrimination, pornography, libelous or otherwise defamatory content;
   • Site that advocates or promotes the use of alcohol or tobacco;
   • Site belonging to or supporting a political affiliation; or
   • Site that furthers the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office.

UT Southwestern reserves the right to deny links if it determines that a website contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the purpose of UT Southwestern, or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth above in numbered sections or set out below in the section on Conditions for Link Maintenance on UT Southwestern.

Review Process

1. Email link requests to Webmaster-org@UTSouthwestern.edu, indicating “Link Request” in the subject line. Each link request should address how the site meets the two acceptance criteria outlined above.
2. The link request will be reviewed against the acceptance criteria set forth above. The decision of the UT Southwestern General Counsel is final as to whether the requesting site may have a link from UT Southwestern.
3. Approved sites must comply with the following conditions for link maintenance and may be required to enter into a written linking agreement with UT Southwestern.

Conditions for Link Maintenance on UT Southwestern

To give superior customer service to citizens and businesses accessing governmental information and services through UT Southwestern, we require that external websites linked from UT Southwestern meet the following conditions in order to maintain a link on UT Southwestern:

1. The linked site must provide the user with access to an email address and/or a customer service telephone number so that users may contact the site if there are problems with format, accuracy, timeliness, or payment processing.
2. Linked sites should not excessively burden the UT Southwestern customer support system. If the site excessively burdens the UT Southwestern customer support system, UT Southwestern has discretion to take linked site off of the UT Southwestern website.
3. When the user clicks on the external website link, he/she must have easy access back to UT Southwestern. One of two options can accomplish this:
   • A link to UT Southwestern can be established on the external website's main page; or
   • The "Back" button returns the user to UT Southwestern.
4. Linked sites must have a privacy and security policy accessible from their home page informing the user of what information is collected, how it is collected, and how it is used. UT Southwestern encourages linked sites to comply with industry-accepted accessibility standards to ensure that persons with disabilities may access these sites.
5. Linked sites must notify UT Southwestern at the email address provided below if the site to which UT Southwestern links become inaccurate or inactive.

Removal Process

UT Southwestern reserves the right to remove links if it determines that a website contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the purpose of UT Southwestern, or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth above in the Acceptance Criteria section or set out above in the Conditions for Link Maintenance on UT Southwestern section.

Links from UT Southwestern will be reviewed regularly and may be removed for the following reasons:

• The link no longer points to the original information or resource to which it was intended to point;
• The website pointed to by the link contains inaccurate or misleading information or has changed such that it is no longer in compliance with the acceptance criteria;
• The website pointed to by the link violates the conditions for link maintenance;
• Access to the information has become difficult due to non-standard formatting, lengthy download times, or intrusive advertising;
• The link is permanently unreachable or remains unavailable for a lengthy period; and
• The external website fails to comply with the written linking agreement, if any.

The decision of the UT Southwestern General Counsel is final as to whether a link is to be removed from the website.

Contact Information

For questions and concerns regarding the linking policy, email us at Webmaster-org@UTSouthwestern.edu.