HMS branded assets are only available to individuals holding academic or staff appointments that are acting within the scope of their job responsibilities and/or academic role. Reserving access to and use of the HMS logo for those holding such appointments ensures that HMS’s trademarks are used to represent the work of its employees and members of the Faculty of Medicine and the units in which they reside (e.g., a faculty member with an appointment in an academic department, or a staff member within a given office).
In light of the fundamental difference in the relationship students have with the University, HMS students and student organizations generally may not represent themselves, their classroom, or their academic work using University trademarks. Notwithstanding this statement, doctoral students' academic work funded by or through the school and employment roles in service of the school are both appropriate grounds upon which to permit graduate students to represent themselves using the appropriate HMS logo in certain contexts. Doctoral students conducting research funded through HMS, for example, may represent themselves using the appropriate departmental mark when accompanied by an accurate statement of their role in a faculty member's lab. Similarly, if a doctoral student is planning to use letterhead within the scope of an employment role with the department (e.g., as a research or teaching assistant), inclusion of the HMS logo may be appropriate if approved in advance by the student’s supervisor for their employment/student worker role. Doctoral students must request letterheads or logos directly through HMS's design@hms.harvard.edu email account rather than receiving the materials from peers, administrators, or faculty members to ensure the proper file and guidance is provided.
Medical education, master's, and doctoral students may only use the HMS name to identify themselves in authorship affiliation listings when the publication has been completed through the use of funds, facilities or other resources provided by or through Harvard or the Harvard-affiliated medical centers and the course of work under the direction of, and supervised by, an HMS faculty member who has provided prior approval for the appropriateness of the use of the affiliation in connection with the published work under Harvard policies. In those instances, the affiliation listing must clearly and accurately identify the individual's status as a "student" in the relevant program. Examples include: "MD Student at Harvard Medical School", "Master of Medical Sciences in Biomedical Informatics Student at Harvard Medical School", and "Doctoral Student in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School". These titles cannot be shortened to just the program, department, or institution; if the "student' component cannot be listed, the HMS name cannot be used.