Illinois Research Connections Researcher Information System Project

Chief Communications Officers7 April 2015

Rebecca Bryant, PhD

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Project goals

Showcase Illinois research to external stakeholders, industry partners, and collaborators at other academic institutionsConnect researchers with potential collaborators, and encourage interdisciplinary researchAutomate publication data collection from reliable source(s)

Enable units and individuals to make timely updates to profiles

Goal 1 of the University of Illinois Strategic Plan proposes the development of a faculty profile-sharing database in order to scholarship, discovery & innovation. This system will:

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Project scope at a glance

Collaborative OVCR/Library initiative

Interdisciplinary• Illinois Research Connections will

include all disciplines, academic colleges and departments at Illinois. It will also include research-oriented centers and institutes.Comprehensive

• It will include up to 2500 individual researchers on the Illinois campus.

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Project scope at a glance

Data sources• Elsevier Pure platform pre-populates profiles with publication

information available in Scopus• Automatic weekly updates from Scopus data• Faculty can elect to regularly import citations from additional

data sources like OCLC WorldCat• Individuals and proxies will be able to maintain their own

records

Campus outreach & training• Steering & governance committees are providing input• Training and ongoing support provided for colleges,

departments, individual researchers• We will partner with departments, libraries,

communication officers, and many others to engage internal and external audiences.

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Phase I Priorities (spring 2015): launch with publications data

• Pilot with representative units, define policies, and define administrative workflows.

• Launch a working system with Elsevier-delivered publications data for current tenure-line faculty, available to campus only

• Define communications strategy & begin preparing training and support materials for units & faculty

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Spring 2015 Pilot– Elsevier created pilot database with

~300 faculty profiles from 4 campus units:

– Bioengineering– Materials Research Lab– Art + Design– College of Education

– Steering team evaluated functionality and content

DEMO OF PILOT INSTANCE

Sample faculty profileDepartmental views

Organizational hierarchies

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Allocating profiles among Illinois researchers

• Profiles for up to 2,500 researchers, cost supported by OVCR

• All tenure-line faculty included (~1,950)• College-level units will be allocated a number

of seats in order to select others:• Emeritus, clinical, & research faculty• Academic Professionals

• Each college-level unit will have a pre-defined number of profiles available

• Colleges can purchase additional seats as needed

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All tenure-line faculty will be includedPhase 1: Summer 2015   1950

College-level units will have the opportunity to identify other researchers for inclusion, in the following numbers (note: these will be based upon AY2016 HR numbers and may evolve slightly)

Phase 2: Fall 2015

College Estimated allocation by campus-level unit

LAS 106Engineering 65FAA 31ACES 31Business 17Education 13AHS 11Vet Med 9Law 7Media 5GSLIS 4Social Work 3Medicine 3LER 3Library 13OVCR 200

Subtotal, college allocations 521TOTAL, all profiles 2471

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Updating profiles

• Automatic updates from Scopus weekly• Elsevier Pure Experts supports automatic

updates from additional data sources, which profile holders control:

• BibTeX import (still testing)• Manual entry

• OCLC WorldCat• Web of Science• arXiv• CrossRef• PubMed• Embase

• SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System

• CAB Abstracts• Mendeley

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Proposed Timeline for Launch

• April/ May• Finalize security review• Illinois data delivered to Elsevier• Testing & configuration• Begin identification of unit personnel to support allocations &

maintenance• Development of communications & training resources

• Summer• BETA launch: UIUC-only go-live• Communications & training

• Fall 2015• PUBLIC launch • Widespread publicity effort• Late October: annual update process begins, including college

nominations

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Phase II Priorities (later 2015): improve scope & quality of system

• Training resources for faculty & units (summer-fall 2015)

• Implement communications plan (fall 2015)• Update system with AY2016 information,

including inclusion of emeritus, clinical, research faculty and academic professionals identified by units (winter 2015-16)

• Test data export from Pure to campus systems

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Seeking Training Partners

• Help us inform the campus community!• Training, print, and presentation

materials will be provided• Example activities:

• Give a talk at a departmental faculty meeting• Make an announcement at a committee

meeting• Highlight in a newsletter item• Include a link from your unit’s web site

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Questions?

Rebecca Bryant, PhDVisiting Project Manager, Researcher Information SystemsUniversity Libraryrabryant@illinois.edu(217) 265-0308http://publish.illinois.edu/researchconnections/