Working with Researchers

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This page describes how to work with researchers in Esploro. For configuring researcher details see here. For information on managing users in Esploro see here.

For a video showing how to work with Researchers in Esploro see here.
For a video showing how to customize researcher profiles see here.
For a video showing how to enable a researcher to make their profile public see here.
For a video showing how to manage researcher proxies see here.

You must have the following role to manage researchers:

Researcher Manager

Your institution's affiliated researchers must first be registered as platform users. See Managing Users for more information.

Affiliated researcher information is stored as an extension to the user record.

Ex Libris helps you upload your first set of affiliated researchers, and helps you to configure Esploro to keep your users up to date using the Users integration profile. For more information about this profile, see Student Information System. You can also manage researchers manually, as described below. For information on the author matching report see here.

You can add non-affiliated researchers when you are adding or editing an asset. Esploro also adds non-affiliated researchers when uploading assets to your institution during migration.

Searching for Researchers

To find researchers and researcher proxies using the persistent search, see Searching in Esploro.

You can filter the list of researchers according to the following:

Account:
- Internal – A user managed entirely within Esploro.
- External – Users imported from and managed by an external system. The core user details are managed in the external system but can be viewed in Esploro.
- Internal with external authentication users – Users created and managed in Esploro (as internal) but have external authentication such as LDAP.
Status:
- All
- Active and not expired
- Not active or expired

Find and Manage Researchers

Use the persistent search, as well as the Affiliated/Non-affiliated tabs, Previously Affiliated checkbox, filters, and Affiliation secondary search to filter the list of researchers.

Adding Researchers

Ex Libris can assist you in uploading your initial researchers as part of the implementation project.

To manually add a single affiliated researcher:

Ensure that the researcher already has a user.
On the Find and Manage Researchers page (Researchers > Researchers > Manage Researchers), select Add Researcher and enter or select the user associated with the researcher in the dialog box. Note that you cannot add a non-affiliated researcher on this page. That can only be done when adding or editing an asset.
In the Select user box you can type a name in the Look-up field or select from the list of users.
Clicking Select from a list takes you to the Find and Manage Users page where you can select the user from the list.
After adding a user, select Add Researcher.
The Researcher Details page appears. The Researcher Profile tab on this page is pre-filled with information. Most of the user information is copied from the user record.

Enter the following additional information:

Many of the fields on the Researcher details page contain the Managed Externally checkbox. When selected, the researcher loader updates the fields and the checkbox indicates that the field is updated by the loader. When cleared, the loader is prevented from updating the fields and overwriting the changes is performed by staff. See Running Manual Jobs.

Researcher Profile Fields
Field	Description	Values
Researcher Name
First name	The researcher's first name.
Last name	The researcher's last name.
Title	The researcher's title.
Middle Name	The researcher's middle name.
Name Suffix	The user's name suffix, if any.
Researcher Details
Display Title	The researcher's title for display purposes. When data is entered into this field, the value is used for the title on the Researcher page, instead of the researcher's position and first affiliation. The title is also displayed when choosing the View Public Profile row action.
Position	Researcher position at the institution. To configure this list, see Configuring Researcher Positions.	Select a value from the drop-down list.
Researcher Type	Whether this user is affiliated or nonaffiliated, or a proxy for another user.	When adding an affiliated researcher, this is Affiliated Researcher.
Send message	Select a mail type and click Compose to open a dialog box where you can send a message to the researcher.
Default Publication Language	This value is used to pre-fill the Language field when the researcher submits a deposit or when an administrator submits a deposit on the researcher's behalf. Your administrator can set the default value for this field for all new researchers (Configuration > Researchers > Default Researcher Settings). If a global default is not set, the default is taken from the Preferred language field.
Previously Affiliated	Select to indicate that the researcher was previously affiliated with the institution (but not currently). This researcher type is indicated on the Find and Manage Researchers page. The public profile of the researcher is displayed on the Researcher Portal.
Researcher Notifications	Select this button to opt in/out of the researcher notifications. Select or clear the check boxes next to each notification that you want to enable or disable for the researcher. Your administrator can set the default values for these fields for all new researchers; see Configuring Defaults for Researcher Opt-In Letters.	These include notifications such as Mediated Deposit Approved, Send Asset to ORCID, etc.
Researcher Settings
Has an Active Public Profile	Whether this researcher appears in the Researcher Portal. See Profile Activation Status. For a video showing how to enable a researcher to make their profile public see here.	Yes (default) No
Include in Smart Harvesting	For future use. Whether to include this researcher when performing automatic capture.	Yes (default) No
Skip automatic approvals in Smart Harvesting		Yes No (default)
Last Smart Harvesting Date	The value of this field determines the point in time from which assets will be brought in. For the first (retrospective) run, this field is empty. For ongoing runs this is updated automatically.
Has Access to the Researcher Profile	Whether this researcher can use (log into) the Researcher Profile.	Yes (default) No
Update ORCID Profile	Whether to update the ORCID profile for this researcher, when pushing assets to ORCID. See also the Update Set of Researchers job in the Manual Jobs table. You can configure the system to ignore this flag - see ORCID Integration.	Yes (default) No
Current/Previous Internal and External Organization Affiliations – Select one or more current or previous, internal or external research organizations with which the researcher is affiliated, the date started, the relevant position, and title. To configure these, see Configuring External Research Organizations.
Research Topics and Keywords
Research topics	Select one or more predefined research topics to associate with the researcher.
Keywords	If any of your topics is not predefined (Research topics), enter a comma-separated list of topics here.
Area of Interest – Enter one or more areas of interest.
Name variants – Name variants are used by Smart Harvesting and the Author matching algorithm. It is important to only add variants that differ from the researcher's main name that he or she is known to use in publications. For example, if the researcher's name is Frederick G. Smith: Add the nickname Fred Smith only if he publishes as Fred Smith. Do not add Frederick Smith even if he publishes without the initial because this does not add any new information. Esploro already checks for the name without the middle initial. For more detailed information see Researcher Name and Name Variants.
Public and Academic Engagement – Select up to five engagement types and set an (optional) expiration date. For more information about configuring researcher engagement types, see Configuring Researcher Engagement Types.
Researcher Website URLs – Enter one or more websites associated with the researcher. For each website, select the type: CV, Home Page, Lab, Profile, Publication page, Unknown. You can also add an optional title and description. The website order can be rearranged by dragging the URL rows in the Researcher Website URLs list to reorder them as you want them to appear on the Researcher Profile page.
Education – Enter one or more rows related to the researcher's education, including studies title (field of study), institution, certificate (degree), from and to dates of study, and any additional details.
Associations – Enter one or more rows indicating other associations with external research organizations.
Honors – Enter one or more rows related to the researcher's honors, including title, external research organization, and time period.
Languages
Language	Enter a comma-separated list of the researcher's languages.
Public Profile
URL Identifier	Click Regenerate to regenerate the researcher's URL identifier based on the researcher's new name. When you change any part of the researcher's name in the Researcher Name section, and move the focus away from the changed field, a message will appear notifying you that you must regenerate the URL identifier if you want it to reflect the name change.
File	Select a picture to appear on the research profile of the researcher.

On the Contact Information tab, enter addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses for the researcher. Initial information on this tab is copied from the user record.
On the Identifiers tab, enter additional identifiers for the researcher. Initial information on this tab is copied from the user record. For each identifier, select the type, enter a value, and add an optional note. Ex Libris creates and configures the types when setting up your institution. To configure user identifiers in Esploro, see Managing User Identifiers in the Alma documentation. User identifiers that are highly relevant for researchers include ORCID, ISNI, Scopus ID, ResearchID, arXiv ID, eRA ID, Pubmed author ID, and Pivot ID.
Any type of identifier can be included in the Researchers load except Primary ID. To mark an identifier you are adding manually to the researcher as managed by Esploro, select the Add as a researcher ID flag on the Researcher Identifiers list. This selection will cause it to be updated when the Researcher loader is run with the Researchers Only option. When configuring your Researchers loader in Researchers Only mode, be sure to select the Identifiers you will be managing from the list of Identifiers that is displayed. Identifiers that are selected will be updated by the loader when it is set to update the researcher data and not the user data.
On the Attachments tab, you can add attachments related to the researcher or see emails related to Esploro that were sent to this researcher. See Attachments Tab.
On the Researcher Proxies tab:
- In the Add Proxy section, enter other researchers that can submit assets on behalf of this user.
- In the Add As Proxy for section, enter other researchers for which this user can submit assets on their behalf.
On the Audit tab, you can view a record of changes made to this researcher's information.
When you are done, select Save to save your changes.

To manually add a single researcher proxy:

Ensure that the proxy already has a user.
On the Find and Manage Researchers page, select Add Researcher Proxy and enter or select the user associated with the researcher in the dialog box.
Select Add Researcher Proxy. The Researcher Details page appears. The Researcher Profile tab on this page is pre-selected. Most of the user information in the User Information area is copied from the user record.

Proxy Details

Enter the following additional information:

Researcher Proxy Profile Fields
Field	Description	Values
User Information
Name Suffix	The user's name suffix, if any.
Position	Researcher position at the institution. To configure this list, see Configuring Researcher Positions.	Select a value from the drop-down list.
Researcher Type	Whether this user is affiliated or nonaffiliated, or a proxy for another user.	When adding a researcher proxy this is Research Proxy.
Default Publication Language	This value is used to pre-fill the Language field when the researcher submits a deposit or when an administrator submits a despot on the researcher's behalf. Your administrator can set the default value for this field for all new users; see Configuring Default Researcher Settings. If a global default is not set, the default is taken from the Preferred language field.

See the procedure for adding a researcher (above) regarding the other tabs.
When you are done, select Save to save your changes.

Researcher Names and Name Variants

Researcher names are a critical element in author-researcher matching.

The researcher’s name that is loaded to Esploro (from the more general Platform Users loader or API) is often the researcher’s legal name. He or she may publish under a somewhat different name – for example without the middle name or with an initial. Some researchers publish using different versions of their name or may change their name over time.

Below are guidelines for optimally adding researcher names for the Author Matching algorithm.

Include as much of the researcher’s name as possible. It is preferred to use the various parts of the name (First, Middle, Last, Suffix). For example, "Jerome David Salinger" should have "Jerome" under first name, "David" under middle name, and "Salinger" under last name.
Add variant names only if is different from the main researcher’s name keeping in mind that there is no need to add variant names for initials. This is something the algorithm will handle itself. For example, the researcher “Jerome David Salinger” there is no need to add “J.D. Salinger” or “J. Salinger”. However, if the researcher also published as Jerry Salinger add this as a variant name.
Add a variant if the researcher changed his or her name over the course of their career.
- For example, if the researcher "Jennifer Doudna” changed her last name to "Cate", and now publishes under the new name (which is not always the case), have one of the last names as her main one, and one as a variant.
- If researcher "Jennifer Doudna" only added last name "Cate” to her last name, and now publishes as "Jennifer Doudna-Cate", add only the double name as a new name variant. Do not add Jennifer Cate as a variant.
- Which name should be the main one and which the variant? It is recommended that the name under which more publications have been made is entered as the main one.
In the case of a double-barreled last name that has always been the researcher's last name (and not changed at some point in their career), just include the name as it is. For example, John Maynard Smith should not be added as "John Smith" and "John Maynard.”
In the case of a double-barreled middle name – enter the middle name with all the parts. For example, if the middle name is “Sara Lee” – enter “Sara Lee” as the middle name.

Editing Researchers

To edit a researcher or researcher proxy:

Navigate to Researchers > Researchers > Manage Researchers.
Select Edit in the row actions list.
When editing a researcher proxy, you can select Change to Researcher and select Confirm in the confirmation dialog box to change the proxy to a researcher.
When editing the researcher, a complete audit trail is recorded for changes that are made through the Repository.

Viewing Researcher Details

Navigate to Researchers > Researchers > Manage Researchers and select the Researcher Information icon (see Researcher Information Icon).

Researcher information icon.

Researcher Information Icon

In the Researcher Details page (select the Researcher Name or select Edit from the row actions menu), you can view researcher details in the right hand pane.

Researcher Details Page.

Viewing a Researcher's Assets

Navigate to Researchers > Researchers > Manage Researchers and select View assets in the row actions list. The results appear in the Research Assets page (see Managing Research Assets).

The list will not include assets that are still drafts or provisional assets from Smart harvesting that have not yet been approved. Assets imported via Smart Harvesting are approved when the first author match is approved. This means that the list can include assets that are approved even if they have authors whose match is pending approval. In this case, the system displays "There are unapproved author matches" for those assets. If the match for the active researcher is still pending approval for an asset, the system displays " Author-researcher match not approved".

Viewing the Researcher's Public Profile

As you make changes to a researcher's profile, you may want to view how these changes will appear to the public. With the View public profile row action, you can view what the public sees based on the content of the researcher's profile in Manage Researchers (Research > Researchers > Manage Researchers).

Moving Assets and Grants to Another Researcher

The following applies for moving a non-affiliated researcher's assets and grants to another researcher.

To move assets and grants (for non-affiliated researcher) to another researcher:

Navigate to Researchers > Researchers > Manage Researchers.
Select Move all assets and grants in the row actions list. The Move All Assets and Grants pane appears.

Move All Assets and Grants Page
Select the researcher to which to move the selected researcher's assets and grants.
Optionally select whether to delete the selected (original) researcher.
Select Move and select Confirm in the confirmation dialog box. The assets and grants are moved, and (if selected) the original researcher is deleted.

When the Move all assets and grants function is used to move assets to an affiliated researcher, the affiliations of the researcher are automatically updated in the asset records.

Updating Researchers in Bulk

Users with the Researcher Manager role can run bulk updates for a set of researchers with the following options:

Updates to flags on the researcher for granting access or showing the researcher profile.
Control the letter (mail) settings of the researcher.
Add or remove research topics and keywords.

To run an update, from the Run a Job page (Admin > Run a Job), select the Update Set of Researchers job on the Run a Job page. It is listed under type Researchers.

Update Set of Researchers job parameter page.png

Update Set of Researchers Job Parameters

For a video showing how to update researchers in bulk see here.

Checking for and Merging of Duplicate Researchers

Duplicate researchers can be created by the various ingest flows. This can happen due to problematic data and incorrect matching by the Author Matching algorithm. For information on checking and bulk merging of duplicate researchers, see Reports and Notifications for the Smart Harvesting Framework - Ex Libris Knowledge Center (exlibrisgroup.com).

Deleting Researchers

To delete a researcher or researcher proxy:

Navigate to Researchers > Researchers > Manage Researchers.
Select Delete in the row actions list. Note that you cannot delete a researcher associated with an asset or grant.

Deleting Redundant Unaffiliated Researchers as a Scheduled Job

Unaffiliated authors may become redundant when they are dissociated from any Esploro entities (such as assets). By default, Esploro deletes redundant unaffiliated researcher records that do not have assets, on a scheduled basis, using the Delete Non-Affiliated Researchers job. The job does not delete researcher records that were added using the non-affiliated researchers loader. To deactivate the job, please contact ExLibris.