​Filing Emails and Determining Responsibility

Email messages which are records should be moved out of the email system into a shared network area like
SharePoint or the S: Drive where they are kept in one place with all related records and accessible to all staff working in the same business area as appropriate.  This can be done by saving the email/s to folders within the departmental Sharepoint site/S: Drive, but can also be achieved (less desirably) by printing to paper and filing in paper based filing systems.   

When determining who has responsibility for capturing and keeping the “official” copy of an email record, the following conventions should be observed.   Please note:  This is a general rule to which there may be exceptions.    

Internal emails – sent or received:

• >The sender or initiator of the dialogue forming a message string is responsible for keeping/filing it, as there is one sender and possibly multiple recipients.
• >If action is required by recipients, or the recipient is responsible for keeping the record on the matter communicated, they should also keep a copy

External mails – sent (including to students):

               >The sender is responsible for keeping

External emails - received (including from students):

• >By one person – the recipient is responsible for saving the email with related records in SharePoint/S: Drive
  >By multiple recipients – the person responsible for the area of work relating to the message is responsible for keeping e.g. an email from Universities Scotland containing information about a Freedom of Information issue received by the Principal, Director of Information Services and Governance Services.  As Governance Services is responsible for FoI compliance, they keep the record copy.

Please note that the following guidance applies to generic departmental email accounts as well as individual ones. Generic departmental email accounts must be assigned an active supervisor whose responsibility it is to ensure the email account is managed in accordance with this guidance.

Responsibility

When determining who has responsibility for capturing and keeping the “official” copy of an email record, the following conventions should be observed.   Please note: this is a general rule to which there may be exceptions.  

For internal (e.g. staff to staff) email records sent or received:

1. The sender or initiator of the dialogue forming a message string is responsible for keeping/filing it, as there is one sender and possibly multiple recipients.

2. If action is required by recipients, or the recipient is responsible for keeping the record on the matter communicated,  they should also keep a copy

 For email records sent externally (including from staff to student):

1. The sender is responsible for keeping 

For external email records received (including from students):

1. By one person – the recipient is responsible for saving the email with related records in SharePoint/S: Drive

2. By multiple recipients – the person responsible for the area of work relating to the message is responsible for keeping e.g. an email from Universities Scotland containing information about a Freedom of Information issue received by the Principal, Director of Information Services and Governance Services.  As Governance Services is responsible for FOI compliance, they keep the record copy.

Filing

Email messages which are records should be moved out of the email system into a shared network area like SharePoint or the S: Drive where they are kept in one place with all related records and accessible to all staff working in the same business area as appropriate.  They must retain their original context, content and structure and adequate metadata to ensure that they are legally admissible and can be used as evidence in court in the event of a dispute. See this page for information on retention periods.should be moved out of the email system into a shared network area like SharePoint or the S: Drive where they are kept in one place with all related records and accessible to all staff working in the same business area as appropriate.  They must retain their original context, content and structure and adequate metadata to ensure that they are legally admissible and can be used as evidence in court in the event of a dispute. See this page for information on retention periods.

Departments should have filing structures in place which relate to the activities they undertake in the course of business. Information on filing structures is available here

Once saved to Sharepoint/S: Drive you should delete the original message from the Outlook mailbox.  

If you are saving an encrypted email ensure it has been unencrypted before it is saved to the shared network area/folder. 

Emails with attachments which are University records must be saved and filed in their entirety (including links, graphics, etc.), in order for them to maintain their content, context and structure and therefore be full and accurate records.

Titling/Naming Conventions

To facilitate the easy identification and retrieval of saved email records, the following conventions should be observed:

1. If the default title of the saved email does not accurately reflect the content of the message then the .msg file title should be changed.  For example, titles such as “RE: FoI Request” provide no information on content or purpose that would help identify relevant records relating to a particular case.

2. The file title should provide sufficient information to identify its content.

3. The file title should use natural language and spell words in full.

4. The prefixes ‘RE’ and ‘FW’ should be omitted from titles as they provide no information on the message content.

Further information on naming conventions can be found here. 

                                                                                                                      Page last update 28 March 2019