Building a website for a scientific society or research network

Scientific societies and research networks have the same problem as labs — the website is run by busy volunteers who change every few years — with more moving parts: membership, conferences, committees, awards and a newsletter. Many society sites are a decade old and hard to update.

What a society website needs

• Home — the society's purpose in one sentence, the next event, and a call to join.
• About — history, mission, constitution or bylaws.
• Committee / Executive council — names, roles and photos, with terms of office. Past office-bearers make a nice archive.
• Membership — categories, fees, benefits and how to join or renew.
• Events and conferences — upcoming meetings with dates, venues, deadlines and registration; past meetings with programmes and photos. A calendar helps.
• Awards and fellowships — criteria, deadlines, past winners.
• News and newsletter — announcements, members' achievements, obituaries.
• Resources — journals, guidelines, teaching materials, job postings.
• Contact — the secretariat's address and email.

Design for volunteers

The biggest risk to a society site is that only one person can update it. Choose a setup where:

• Several committee members can edit, each looking after their own section (events, news, membership).
• Content lives in structured lists (events, committee members, award winners) rather than hand-formatted pages, so updates are quick.
• Handover is easy when the committee changes.

Forms and registrations

Societies collect a lot: membership applications, abstract submissions, award nominations, workshop registrations. Online forms with an inbox, rather than emailed attachments, save the secretary hours.

Moving an old site

Many societies have years of history on an old site. Don't lose it: past conferences, award winners and newsletters are part of the society's record. Import the old site to bring content across, then reorganise.

On Labsite

Labsite was designed for labs, but its building blocks fit societies well: tables for committee members, events (with a calendar), awards and news; custom pages and tables for anything else; forms with their own inboxes; section permissions so each committee member edits their part; and version history so mistakes are easy to undo. The Indian Peptide Society's site, for example, runs on Labsite.

Browse the templates — the Signature collection suits societies particularly well — or start free. Related: what the best research group websites have in common.