Linking

Linking one article or case to other articles is an integral part of building a cohesive resource. 

Blue links and grey links

Links on Radiopaedia are of two colours: blue and grey. 

Blue links are links to existing articles on Radiopaedia. 

Grey links are links to yet-to-be-written articles. As soon as that article is created it will automatically turn blue. Sometimes grey links are grey because they point to the alternative spelling of an existing article. In such cases editing and recreating the link to the correct existing article is necessary. 

Link style

Bold, italics, and headings

Links should only ever be created on normal text. In other words under no circumstance should a link also be bold, italics or a heading. This may require rewording of the sentence or even paragraph.  

Multiple links

Separate links should also not be adjacent to each other. In other words, liver metastases should be one link to one target article, not separate links to the article liver and to another article on metastases. 

Acronyms in links

If a condition is accompanied by its acronym and it is a link, then both the name and the acronym should be included in the one link. 

• correct: dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumour (DNET)
• incorrect: dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumour (DNET) 
• incorrect: dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumour (DNET) 

How to create a link

To create a link:

1. enter edit mode, by clicking 'edit'
2. highlight text
3. click the link button in the toolbar (note only formatted text areas can contain links)
4. a dialogue box will open 
   1. if an article exists with the same exact title as the highlighted text it will appear in the drop-down list
   2. If it does not you may need to alter the text in the text field of the dialogue box until a match is found
   3. if no article exists by creating a link you will enable users to follow that link to create new content
5. click on the desired article to link to in the drop-down list
6. click submit

If everything has gone well the link will be blue (once you are no longer in edit mode). If you have created a link to a not-yet-existing article it will be grey. Don't worry, as soon as that article is created, your link will turn blue.  

Grammarly.com issue

If you use grammarly.com to help pick up typos etc... (which you should as it is excellent) then make sure you "ignore" or "add to dictionary" any term you are seeking to link as otherwise the link will be split around the underlined word. 

Video

We have a fairly old video tutorialon how to create links, however, the functionality of the current site is very similar: click here. 

Links to other online resources

Linking to other websites is against our terms of use since it has unfortunately previously been used maliciously. Furthermore, it is not possible to distinguish an internal from an external link. 

There are two exceptions to this rule:

1. The 'References' section at the bottom of articles can contain links to resources (see: references).
2. Any external link directly sanctioned by our editorial board, examples include:
   • links to original files of reproduced images of pathology specimens
   • links to original files of reproduced images used to illustrate signs
   • links to acknowledge original sources for adapted content

To quote our terms of use:

"Links to other Web sites should not be posted by users, except when in the form of a link to a reference textbook or journal in the reference field of articles. This site reserves the right to remove any and all links from any part of the site and posted by any user without consultation."

If you have any concerns about a link please write to [email protected]