GUIDELINES for Editors

Relevance

Sites selected for inclusion in bmesource must first show a relevance to the field of Biomedical Engineering. In addition, the link should provide useful information to students, engineers, or others in BME working on medical devices. The following questions should be asked with respect to the resource:

Is the resource comprehensive for the given area? We are looking for sites that give good coverage about the specific area targeted. Too broad an approach is not useful, too narrow an approach is also not as useful. In the first case, one should look for links further down into the site. In the second case, look for links that are further up the tree of that site.

What is the range of subjects covered? Too broad a range is not as useful as a narrow range. Because bmesource has provided the hierarchical ontology, it's important to understand that links need to reflect the smallest component of bmesource (link group) and not simply be a larger site with lots of material about related topics. Thus, we almost never link to top-level sites.

What is the level of detail provided? This needs to be judged against the audience. Most users of the site will have a college education, thus sites geared toward the public are not as useful as sites geared toward the professionals in a field. That being said, many public sites are very detailed and can provide extensive material for the BME student.

Is there something about the source which makes it stand above other similar sites? Things to look for include particularly insightful or deep content, good quality, useful graphics, videos of procedures or devices, additional links to other resources that are of similar quality.

Do additional links add value? If the resource also provides additional links, are those links active and are they of the same quality as the first site?