Our website is built out of different types of content building blocks. Building blocks of a given type are all made in a uniform way. By developing simple rules for each type, we ensure that our system for design and communication remains interoperable, scalable and adaptable.
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News feed
On our landing page we show our newsfeed: a reverse chronological summary of all of our major items, such as papers and events. Occasionally we show other news too, such as improvements to our website. ❧ A newsfeed entry is called a brief: it consists of a fly title, headline, rubric, pic and date. The fly title gives the overall content type. The headline involves a bit of wordplay and is short, at most 26 asterisks wide. The rubric summarises the item in a sentence that is one unit long (135–141 characters). Most newsfeed items link to a child page.
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Blackboards
Blackboards play a central role at the London Institute. For some of our best papers, we illustrate the main idea on a blackboard and photograph it. These blackboard pictures are shown at the top of our home page. Each time the page is loaded a random picture is chosen, but the other pictures can be accessed through a carousel. ❧ A blackboard contains an image with a 2:1 aspect ratio and the headline of the paper it describes. The blackboard image links to the paper. ❧ We wrote an article about the art of blackboards in the science magazine Nautilus.
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Values
Our values are the fundamental organising principles of the London Institute. They are a simplified version of our obsolete principles, which have since been divvied up into values, rituals and design rules. ❧ A value contains a short title and a description that is one unit long (135–141 characters). The description is a statement about our actions, written in the present tense. ❧ Values are ordered partly by importance and partly by subject. Some of our values link to longer opinion pieces that we have written on our website or for the press.
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Opinions
Opinions are essays or letters to the editor that express our point of view on an important topic, written by members of the Institute. ❧ An opinion contains a brief (fly title, headline, rubric, pic and date) and the essay or letter itself. If the piece has been published, we include the name of the publication, which links to the published version. If the piece has been edited for brevity by the publisher, we sometimes show our original version on our site. Opinions tend to be a few hundred to 1,000 words long, but there is no length limit.
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Building
In the building section of our website, we describe each of our main spaces in the Royal Institution. A space may be a single large room or a group of related smaller rooms. ❧ A space consists of a brief (fly title, headline, rubric, pic and date) and a description. The description is eight units long (1110-1120 characters) and outlines the history of the space since the Royal Institution was founded, as well its current use by the London Institute. ❧ The pic is either an historical painting of the space or a recent photograph of it after we moved in.
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Rituals
Our rituals page is a codification of our organisational routines and customs. A ritual item contains a short title, a description that is four units long (550–560 characters), and a ritual type, such as daily rituals, tools of the trade, and food and drink. Rituals are grouped together according to their type. ❧ At the end of the Rituals page, we show our commonwealth jobs. These are tasks that different members of the Institute take on for the commonwealth of all the members, such as stocking the fridge or maintaining our Hagoromo chalk supply.
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Design rules
Our design rules page is a collection of guidelines for how we organise and maintain our website. It complements our design philosophy page, which summarises our high-level principles. Whereas our content types page focuses on specific web pages, such as events, opinions or jobs, design rules tend to apply to our whole website. Rules relating to the same topic, such as titles and images, are grouped into subsections. ❧ A design rule contains a short rule name followed by the rule itself. There is no length limit for rules but we strive for concision.
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Content types
Our website can be thought of as a collection of lists of different types of content items. Our content types page describes these different types. They fall into two classes. Major types, which have child pages, are listed in archive pages. Minor types, which don’t have child pages, are listed in collection pages. ❧ A content type contains a type class (major or minor), a short title and a description that is four units long (550–560 characters). The description sets out the information we need for each type and gives guidelines for how we present it.
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Writing rules
Our writing rules page is a collection of rules for how we write and lay out the text in our website, printed material and research papers. ❧ The rules are grouped into five kinds: style, phrases, words, symbols and typesetting. The guide is not exhaustive—it only contains rules of thumb that we have found useful in practice. There is no length limit for rules but we make them as concise as possible. Within each kind of rule, the rules are ordered by length. ❧ Instead of putting quote marks around examples of words and phrases, we italicise them.
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Papers
As well as the brief, a research paper contains the title and authors, a pdf and the Arxiv link, an ABT summary that is three units long (410–420 characters), and the research subject, which acts as a fly title within papers. On publication, we add the bibliographic information (journal name, volume, page and year) and a link to the paper on the journal’s website. ❧ We add a paper and its pdf to our website when it is submitted to a journal or to Arxiv. The pdf is the most recent version; on publication, this becomes the pdf generated by the journal.
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Papers (cont.): descriptions
We describe our papers in two ways: a short rubric and a longer ABT summary. Both are aimed for an audience at the level of a graduate student. ❧ The rubric is one unit long (135–141 characters) and a single sentence. It is in the present tense and does not use a grammatical person. ❧ The ABT summary is three units long (410–420 characters), in the present tense and uses the first person plural. “ABT” is Randy Olsen’s mnemonic for incorporating the fundamental building blocks of story: momentum (and), conflict (but) and resolution (therefore).
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Papers (cont.): newsfeed
A paper is shown in the newsfeed three times. The first is when it is added to our website. This news item shows the fly title, headline, rubric, pic and date. ❧ The second time is when it is accepted. This shows the fly, headline, pic and acceptance date; instead of the rubric, we use text similar to: Journal accepts “Paper title,” by Author Name and coauthors. This is also one unit long. There are no name prefixes or suffixes. ❧ The third time is when it is published. This news item shows the fly, headline, rubric, journal logotype and publication date.
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Themes
Our research themes describe the four main branches of research that we do. ❧ A theme contains a brief (fly title, headline, rubric, pic and date), a summary and the papers associated with the theme. The summary gives a high level overview of the theme, touching on some of the relevant research that has been done at the London Institute. ❧ Our four themes are: Mathematics that unifies; The elegant universe; Life, learning and emergence; and Theory of human enterprise. ❧ The pics for our themes are from NASA’s Visions of the Future space tourism posters.
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Journals
Our journals page gives an overview of the relevant journals in our fields. ❧ Starting in 2024, we classify journals into three groups: those we would like to publish in and have done so; those we would like to publish in but haven’t; and those we try to avoid. ❧ A journal contains the title, ISO name and a short title; a description; the publisher, SNIP points and twitter handle; and the number of papers published per year and the odds of acceptance, if known. The description is 4/3 units long (180–187 characters) and the pic is the journal’s logotype.
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Members
A member consists of a brief (fly title, headline, rubric, pic and date), a subject and one or two biographies. The headline is the person’s name and includes prefixes, such as Dr or Sir, and suffixes, such as FRS. The bio is five units long (690–700 characters) and gives the person’s position and chronologically highlights their career, optionally ending with outside interests. The optional short bio is two units long and is used in Events when needed as a speaker bio. Researchers have an additional one-unit description of their research interests.
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Former members
As well as current members, we show our past members, too. Our former members page lists former employees, trustees and official visitors. ❧ A former member contains the member’s name, position and a portrait. Former members do not contain rubrics or bios, though their original synopses and short bios remain in the newsfeed and any events they spoke at. Their names on papers link to their original bios. ❧ On request, a former member can link to their current independent web page. Former members are ordered according to the same rules as members.
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Funders
Our funders page gives an overview of our funding sources. Starting in 2024, funders are grouped into three categories: research grants, philanthropy and corporate investment. Each funder consists of a brief (fly title, headline, rubric, pic and date). The rubric describes the funder, not what the funding is for, and the pic is the funder’s logo or logotype. The exception is if the gift is anonymous, in which case the rubric describes the purpose of the funding. Small investments are not shown on the funders page, especially if they are not recent.
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Partners
Despite its size, the London Institute has a global reach. Our partners are the universities and research institutes with which we have had joint research grants. ❧ A partner consists of the official name of the organisation, a short name, a pic and the country in which it is located. The pic is the organisation’s logo or logotype. ❧ Partners are ordered first by country, in which countries with more partners take precedent (but the UK comes first regardless), then alphabetically within a country. The text and pic for each partner link to its website.
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Events
An event contains a brief, title, summary and information. It also contains the names, portraits and short bios of any speakers. ❧ The summary is seven units long (970–980 characters). The first paragraph gives background and the second explains what the speaker will talk about, typically starting In this talk or At this event. ❧ Information is two units long and gives advice on the location and timings, any food and drink, and how to attend. ❧ All of the text is written in the present tense, so that it makes sense before and after the event.
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Jobs
Our jobs page lists our current and recently filled job opportunities. A job contains a brief, title and description. The pic is of a postage stamp relevant to the job. ❧ The description has six sections: Background, Job, Candidate, Activities, London Institute (which uses fixed text) and Apply. All are four units long (550–560 characters) except for Apply, which is shorter. ❧ We use a label to indicate whether a job is open or filled. For filled jobs, we grey out the text and replace the rubric with a sentence announcing the successful candidate.