Email Address Publishing Policy

Publication of Institutional Email Addresses on Public Websites

Purpose

To reduce spam, phishing attempts, and automated harvesting of institutional email addresses, Health Sciences does not publish WVU, WVU Health Sciences, or WVU Medicine employee email addresses on public-facing websites or within publicly available documents.

This standard is specific to Health Sciences and reflects long-standing guidance established in consultation with WVU Legal due to the unique security considerations associated with healthcare, research, education, and administrative operations.

Policy

Individual institutional email addresses must not be published within public-facing Health Sciences digital content, including:

  • Website pages

  • News stories

  • Event pages

  • PDFs and downloadable documents

  • Marketing and informational materials

  • Images or graphics containing visible email addresses

This applies to all institutional email domains, including but not limited to:

Why This Standard Exists

Health Sciences faculty, staff, clinicians, researchers, and administrative offices are frequent targets of spam, phishing, and other malicious communications. Publishing institutional email addresses on publicly accessible websites increases their exposure to automated harvesting tools, unsolicited email, and phishing campaigns.

Restricting public access to individual email addresses helps reduce unnecessary exposure while encouraging visitors to use approved communication channels.

Approved Contact Methods

When providing contact information on a public website, use one of the following whenever appropriate:

  • Contact forms

  • Department or office phone numbers

  • Department contact pages

  • Approved vanity email accounts intended for public communication (for example, admissions@, communications@, or other shared departmental inboxes)

  • Other shared departmental communication channels

Vanity email accounts are role-based or departmental email addresses that are managed by one or more individuals and are specifically intended for public communication. These accounts provide a secure, maintainable alternative to publishing individual employee email addresses.

Health Sciences directory profiles are configured to limit public visibility of individual email addresses and should not be used to publish institutional email addresses.

Background

This has been the Health Sciences web publishing standard for more than a decade and was established with guidance from WVU Legal. While other WVU websites may have different publishing practices, all Health Sciences web properties are expected to adhere to this standard.