Womenshealth.gov is recognized as a leader in women's health information. Our content is structured around publications and organizations that provide information on women's health and other health-related topics. By adding your organization to our database, we can refer our visitors to the information you provide.
We're always looking for new resources to link to from trustworthy organizations. We have selection criteria in place to make sure the organizations we link to and the resources they provide are credible and reliable. If you think your organization meets our standards, we invite you to fill out our resource suggestion form. Please review our selection criteria before you submit your organization for consideration.
Credible organizations and publications
We review each organization and publication to establish its general reliability and credibility. Organizations are also reviewed to establish their ability to respond to inquiries from the public. Once an organization is approved, its contact information, mission statement, and a description of its information and referral services are entered into the womenshealth.gov database.
Selected publications
One or more of an organization's web-accessible resources (publications) may be abstracted separately to simplify consumer access. Publications include individual documents and other information resources such as brochures, fact sheets, reports, journals, directories, bibliographies, databases, and health risk assessments. The organization sponsoring an individual web resource is identified so the user has the option of reviewing the source of the information. Womenshealth.gov monitors the URLs in our database, but given the frequent changes and crosslinking that are common on the Internet, we cannot verify the accuracy of specific publications.
Nomination
Womenshealth.gov offers users an opportunity to recommend an organization or resource for consideration. Requestors seeking addition of a resource to womenshealth.gov should read the selection criteria and then submit the resource suggestion form to womenshealth.gov.
Breadth of the collection
Womenshealth.gov includes both consumer- and professionally-oriented information.
Organizations need not have an Internet presence to be included in womenshealth.gov; those with traditional information and referral activities will also be included.
Note on marketing and advertising: Generally, websites that feature the sale of commercial products or services will not be selected. However, the presence of advertising will not automatically disqualify an organization or web resource. For example, a nonprofit might link to a corporate sponsor's website, or a commercial site might feature advertising on its site, but not in the resource specifically selected. Some commercial sites may have licensed significant content from nonprofit or educational institutions (for example, Mayo Clinic, National Health Council, and Johns Hopkins University all have licensing arrangements). Also, any organization or web resource will be excluded from womenshealth.gov if its website's presentation or content would lead a reasonable consumer to infer endorsement of products or services by the U.S. government. All final decisions on selection are made at the discretion of the Office on Women's Health.
Balance of the collection
Womenshealth.gov will include organizations regardless of whether their information is online or in print only. However, because womenshealth.gov itself contains web-based information and many of our consumers' expect that our information resources should be web-accessible, it is preferred that all selected publications are available both on the Internet and through ordering.
Support and self-help group issues
Womenshealth.gov's selection policy treats support and self-help groups as organizations subject to the same credibility evaluation as other organizations nominated for inclusion in womenshealth.gov. Patient-run organizations should meet all criteria for inclusion. Special attention will be given to the presence of an appropriate advisory board, moderation of online discussion activity by a trained professional, and use of disclaimers concerning medical advice and consultation with health professionals.
'Sunset clause'
Publications are periodically reviewed for currency. Usually when a publication is three to five years old, it is tagged to be deselected from the collection unless it has been revised or updated. Tagged items are reviewed by womenshealth.gov staff before they are deactivated. Exceptions to this automatic de-selection may be items that are unique or of exceptional merit due to format or content. Recommended additions and deletions resulting from this activity will be handled through the same review process as new acquisitions.
De-selection
All organizations and web resources in the womenshealth.gov collection may be recommended for deletion at any time if they do not continue to meet the general selection guidelines.
Recommendations for de-selection
Recommendations regarding deletion of organizations or web resources will be accepted through the same mechanisms as nominations for additions.
When OWH reaches a decision regarding the inclusion of the organization or publication, womenshealth.gov will send a notification email or letter to the interviewing party. This notification letter will include information about womenshealth.gov, its selection policies, HHS’s non-endorsement policy, and any specific factors that led us to our final decision regarding inclusion of the organization in our database.
Womenshealth.gov provides information to help advance women's health research, services, and public and health professional education. The materials contained on this site and in its resources are not intended to be used for the diagnosis or treatment of a health problem or as a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional. References to any non-government entity, product, service, or source of information that may be contained in this site should not be considered an endorsement, either direct or implied, by the Office on Women's Health (OWH) or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Neither OWH nor the Department is responsible for the content of any non-federal Web pages referenced in this website.
If you think your organization meets our standards, we invite you to fill out our resource suggestion form. Please review our selection criteria before you submit your organization for consideration.
Content last updated October 27, 2010.