CampusPress: Guidelines and Recommendations

JMU Libraries supports the hosting of CampusPress websites for JMU faculty and staff. This document outlines guidelines, requirements, and recommended best practices for using the CampusPress platform. For more information about platform eligibility, site owner responsibilities, and requirements, see the CampusPress Hosting Policy.

Your Website’s URL

Please be aware that URLs (the web address of your site) do not generally have an indefinite lifetime. The URL of your site is not likely to change frequently, and we always try our best to provide at least a semester’s notice of any URL change, but the URL could change at any time.

If your website or its posts might need a more durable web address solution, please contact DSDC-wordpress@jmu.edu or submit a consultation request through our consultation request form.

Website Lifespan, Stewardship, and Sustainability

Website Lifespan and Review

Before creating a CampusPress website, consider how long it will need to remain available and who will be responsible for maintaining it over time. Some websites are intended to support a single semester, while others may remain active for many years.

For information about site lifespan requirements, periodic site reviews, and ownership responsibilities, see the CampusPress Hosting Policy.

Platform Changes and Content Preservation

Although every effort will be made to communicate major platform changes in advance, site owners are responsible for maintaining copies of their website content. Unless preservation or migration arrangements have been made with JMU Libraries, website content is not guaranteed to be preserved or migrated to another platform. WordPress provides limited export capabilities, and websites may not be transferable to other systems with full fidelity.

For works of digital scholarship requiring long-term preservation, JMU Libraries offers a variety of publishing options. You can find more information on the Publishing and Sharing Scholarship at JMU page or submit a Consultation Request Form to discuss the best platform for your project.

Course Websites and Reuse Across Semesters

Some faculty opt for a single website that will accumulate content over time, while others opt for a series of websites tied to academic terms. In either case, faculty may want the site(s) to serve as examples for future students doing similar work, or, they may not want students’ work available past the semester – for example, if the learning activities should begin from a blank slate each semester.

If the faculty member wishes to be able to access old versions of sites, but not to provide access to future students, permissions can be set to allow only that faculty member access.

Public Website Visibility and Risk

Websites showcasing student work publicly can provide a great learning experience for students and share student-created work with the world. However, students should clearly understand the opportunities, risks, and responsibilities associated with publishing work on the open web.

Before publishing content, ensure you have the necessary rights or permissions to do so. Please review our Copyright Guide and contact our Copyright Librarian with any questions. For information about intellectual property ownership, see JMU Policy 1107. For requirements related to publishing content on CampusPress, including contributor responsibilities and acceptable content, see the User-Contributed Content in JMU Libraries Systems policy.

Public websites can be linked by bad actors (e.g., spam sites and paper-writing mills), and we cannot control this behavior. It is good practice to keep a site hidden until it is ready for publication. Works in progress can reflect poorly on you and/or the university.

Content Containing Human Subjects

Publishing interviews, oral histories, podcasts, or other recorded content online requires careful planning. Site owners must plan accordingly to ensure participants fully understand how their contributions will be used, who will have access to them, and whether the content may be discoverable through search engines.

Projects involving human subjects must comply with the requirements outlined in the CampusPress Hosting Policy, including using appropriate informed consent forms. See JMU’s Human Research Protection Program for institutional requirements.

Website Comments and Visitor Interaction

If you are interested in visitor interaction through comments, we recommend publishing content on your CampusPress website and sharing links to it through Facebook or another major third-party social media platform rather than enabling comments directly on your website. These platforms invest significant resources in protecting users in ways we cannot match and offer much wider dissemination potential.

If you choose to enable comments on your CampusPress website, be aware that, as outlined in the CampusPress Hosting Policy, anonymous comments are not permitted. Depending on the needs of your project, you may also choose to further restrict commenting to registered members of your site.