Talk:Oslo Metropolitan University

Abbreviation

We do not include abbreviations in front of names here on the English Wikipedia, regardless of how the institution concerned prefers to brand itself. For example on the website of the University of Oslo, the name is consistently written as "UiO University of Oslo", but that's not how we write it here. We treat UiO as an abbreviation, only to be mentioned after the name that it is an abbreviation for (another similar example is the London Metropolitan University, which is usually known and which usually refers to itself as London Met).

This is pretty much the same thing here. The institution's only legal name, that is recorded into public registers for Norway, is the Norwegian version[1] (actually even incorrectly written with a hyphen rather than a dash, which is ignored in the institution's branding); the English name is by definition a translation, that is subject to conventions in the English language, conventions on the English Wikipedia and the manual of style here, and that we may or may not write exactly as the institution itself prefers. Having a "branding document" published on its own website (not a reliable third party source anyway) is not a get-out-of-jail-free card to disregard English Wikipedia conventions and general English language conventions, especially the well-established English Wikipedia conventions regarding the treatment of abbreviations in articles. A somewhat similar debate concerned Karolinska Institute where we ignored the institution's branding document and wish to be referred to in a particular way and followed well-established conventions in English instead. Oslo Metropolitan University itself actually quickly accepted that it will usually be known in English as "Oslo Metropolitan University" and not as "OsloMet—Oslo Metropolitan University" (with an m-dash) and uses this version of the name in numerous publications in English (e.g. "... at the Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet)..."[2]). And virtually no third party reliable sources, which are the kind of sources we mainly rely upon, have accepted the institution's wish in its branding document to be referred to as "OsloMet—Oslo Metropolitan University with an m-dash." Because that's a really contrarian, silly and non-reader friendly way to write the name that is at odds not only with English Wikipedia conventions, but probably with the manuals of style or conventions of numerous other publications in English, in journalism, the academic publishing world and so forth.

It should also be noted that the abbreviation is still subject to dispute in Norway, with differing views on how it should be written, with the country's main news agency NTB insisting on Oslo Met with a space, and the Language Council on Oslomet.[3] --Bjerrebæk (talk) 04:42, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Note that the university's preferred English-language name is not "OsloMet—Oslo Metropolitan University", with an m-dash, but "OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University", with an n-dash.

English Wikipedia should use the best source available on the university's full English-language name, which is the source given. Note that the situations with the University of Oslo and London Metropolitan University are not equivalent:

London Met's full name is "London Metropolitan University", while OsloMet's full name is "OsloMet − Oslo Metropolitan University". The institutions' names are therefore not parallel, which means we can't treat them as parallel.

The University of Oslo does not call itself "UiO University of Oslo" on its website. It simply mentions both the abbreviation "UiO" and the full name "University of Oslo". Hence, neither of your examples is equivalent to OsloMet − Oslo Metropolitan University, and their value as an argument in this discussion is therefore zero.

At Karolinska Institute, the institute's preferred name is given next to the Wikipedia name. As an absolute minimum, something similar is necessary here; we do not get to hide from the reader that the university considers it full name to be "OsloMet − Oslo Metropolitan University". 85.165.21.107 (talk) 15:48, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia is primarily based on reliable third party sources. A branding document published on the institution's own website is not a reliable third party source. On Wikipedia we write about people and institutions, based on our own guidelines and conventions, including on how we use abbreviations in articles. Oslo Met is without doubt an abbreviation for Oslo Metropolitan University. An institution's branding document has no value or authority here (unless it describes a widely accepted practice as reflected by reliable third party sources). The university of Oslo does indeed call itself "UiO University of Oslo" on its website (one of the "innovations" of the PR people there a couple of years ago). The Karolinska Institute article only mentions the institution's "preferred" (Swedish) name as the Swedish official name, not as an alternative name in English; this article also mentions the institution's Norwegian name in a similar way. It seems doubtful whether the institution actually insists on always being referred to as "OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University", but in any case it doesn't matter for us. --Bjerrebæk (talk) 16:57, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

A Google search on the phrase "UiO University of Oslo" on the site uio.no renders no relevant results.

Whether the university "insists on always being referred to" by its full name is beside the point. What you call the "branding document" shows that the university considers its full name to be "OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University" and is a reliable source for that fact per English Wikipedia's standards. That may not mean we have to use the name "OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University", but mentioning it is something else altogether. It should be unnecessary to point out that Wikipedia's policies on names concern which names we use when writing in the voice of Wikipedia; all other relevant names can and should be mentioned.

This article should of course provide the reader with all the important facts about the university. One of the important facts about the university, which is reliably sourced, is that it considers it full name to be "OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University", so that fact needs to be mentioned in the article.

As for where in the article it should be mentioned, the best place for it is in the lede, as that is where the rest of the information about how the university is referred to in English is located. 85.165.21.107 (talk) 21:48, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

That is simply not true. The University of Oslo has consistently branded itself using both the abbreviation and the name (with the abbreviation in front of the name) for several years now, as is evident from its website. Many other organisations do the same thing, but they don't get to dictate how we treat their abbreviations here (they can do what they like like on their own websites instead). If the institution insists on always being referred to as "OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University" in English, it could be mentioned in the section that discusses its name and the farce surrounding it, but there is no reason to include this in the lead at this point, considering that the lead already includes both the name and the abbreviation. This is a fairly minor point, the internal branding document on tilsatt.hioa.no that is aimed at employees at the institution is not a high-quality source by Wikipedia standards, and the Language Council, the statutory regulator of the Norwegian language, has even explicitly rejected the most significant claims in that document as contrary to Norwegian law, casting further doubt on the document in its entirety! (in fact, employees at the institution are bound by law to disregard the document, at least its views on the spelling of the Norwegian name, as the Language Council has explained). --Bjerrebæk (talk) 11:01, 5 April 2018 (UTC)