Esploro 2026 Release Notes
Click here to view the monthly release and maintenance schedules.
April 2026 Sneak Preview
The upcoming April release will include:
- Allow Researchers to Add Media Mentions
- New field in the Asset File to store accessibility information
March Main Features
Ongoing Update from OpenAlex CERV
March 2026 Management
OpenAlex provides information on Open Access status as well as Open Access links sourced from Unpaywall. When assets are imported into the system, Esploro can use the OpenAlex API to optionally retrieve Open Access–related details. To ensure greater accuracy over time, Esploro now supports ongoing updates from OpenAlex. These updates are important in cases such as:
- The asset was created manually or imported through a workflow that did not use OpenAlex.
- The record was imported before OpenAlex had information about it.
- The Open Access status has changed. This may occur, for example, when a Green Open Access link is added or updated, though other scenarios or errors can also lead to changes.
The following configuration options are available:
| Scenario | Actions |
| Update the Open Access (published version flag) | Yes/No |
| Update the Open Access Status | Yes/No |
| Update the license | Yes/No |
| If the Open Access Status is Diamond, Gold, Bronze or Hybrid (meaning the publisher’s version is open access) do you want to add a link using the publisher DOI | Yes/No |
| If the Open Access status is Green do you want to add the Green Open Access link? |
Never add a link Always add a link Add a link if the record has no other links |
| If the Open Access Status changed from Diamond/Gold/Bronze/Hybrid to Closed or Green what should be done with a link based on the publisher DOI? |
Delete the link Update the status of the link to "restricted" Do not do anything |
Once activated in the Research Jobs Configuration, the new job will run daily. The first execution is retrospective and will include all assets that have a DOI, excluding institutional DOIs and internal ETDs. Because of the volume, the initial processing may require several runs to complete. Subsequent updates occur on the following schedule:
- Records without an Open Access status (blank or Unknown): checked weekly
- Records with Closed or Green Open Access: checked every 3 months
- Records with Diamond, Gold, Hybrid, or Bronze Open Access: checked every 6 months
- Records with a publication date older than five years: not checked
The job report lists all assets that were updated during the run.
Both the last update date from OpenAlex and the next expected update date appear in the asset form. If the asset is no longer scheduled for updates, the message “No planned updates” is displayed.
To give operators more control, two row actions are available when the job is active:
- Add asset to “Update from OpenAlex” job – Includes the asset in the next job run.
- Remove asset from “Update from OpenAlex” job – Excludes the asset from the next job run.
Mapping to ORCID Work Type can now be based on Asset type and subtype (CERV)
March 2026 Management
The mapping from Esploro assets to ORCID Work Types can now include the asset subtype, enabling a more precise and accurate alignment with ORCID Work Types.
This mapping is configured in the Esploro Asset Type to ORCID Work Type mapping table (Configuration > Repository > Integrations > ORCID Work Type).
The mapping table now contains three columns:
- Esploro Asset Type
- ORCID Work Type
- Esploro Asset Subtype – sourced from the controlled list of asset subtypes
(Configuration > Repository > Asset Details > Esploro Subtypes).
The out‑of‑the‑box mappings can be adjusted as needed by customizing this table.
Update Set of Researchers with Data from ORCID
March 2026 Management
The new ad-hoc job that pulls unique identifiers from researchers’ ORCID profiles and updates their Esploro profiles can now be used with the ORCID Public API. Add your public API client ID and client secret to the configuration table Configuration > repository > ORCID Public API. When using the ORCID Public API the system will only have access to data that is flagged as public. With the member API it is possible for Researchers to grant read and write access to non-public data. For more information about entering your credentials for the ORCID Public API please see: ORCID in Esploro.
Query by Researcher Primary ID
March 2026 Integrations
A new Query by Researcher Primary ID was added to the GET Activities, GET Projects, GET Media Mentions and GET Grants APIs, enabling efficient retrieval of all entities associated with a specific researcher. A single API call per-endpoint reduces the need for multiple queries, improves performance, and simplifies data synchronization across systems. For more information see API documentation in the Developers Network.
Map Multi-lingual Researcher Profile Data to Analytics
March 2026 Analytics
All multi‑lingual researcher profile data elements are now fully mapped to the Esploro Researchers subject area. A new dimension has been introduced for several of these elements , enabling institutions to use structured fields rather than relying on concatenated lists of values. This enhancement provides cleaner, more flexible reporting—also for institutions that do not actively maintain multi‑lingual researcher profiles.
The table below outlines how each multi‑lingual data element has been incorporated into the Researcher subject area.
|
Element |
Description |
|
Affiliation – title |
The language was added to the Researcher Affiliations dimension. |
|
Education |
The language was added to the Researcher Affiliations dimension. |
|
Display title |
A new dimension was added – Researcher Display Title. There are two fields: title and language. |
|
Keywords |
A new dimension was added – Researcher Keywords. There are two fields – keyword and language. |
|
Area of Interest |
A new dimension was added – Researcher Area of Interest. There are two fields – area of interest and language. |
|
Websites |
A new dimension was added – Researcher Webpages. There are several fields – language, title, type, description, and URL |
|
Honors |
A new dimension was added – Researcher Honors. There are several fields – code, name, time period, title, and language. |
Additional Enhancements
-
March 2026 Portal & Profiles
Increase the size and resolution of Researcher Profile images – Esploro can now support Profile images with dimensions of up to 500 x 500
March 2026 Portal & Profiles
Update to Angular version 21
March 2026 Portal & Profiles
Identify the Link to Web of Science in the Global ID section of the Profile Overview - A label was added to the Researcher ID display in the Global ID section to identify the link to the Web of Science Profile.
March 2026 Portal & Profiles
The text “view” has been added to the view icon on Activity and Project links in the portal to make Activities and Projects consistent with Research Output.
March 2026 Integrations
The Grant loader and API were improved so that if a primary_id in the incoming record doesn’t have a match in the primary_id index, the system will automatically search for a matching non-affiliated primary_id. This is important to ensure that the system can match both Affiliated and Previously Affiliated Researchers.
March 2026 Analytics
The Requester Type element from the Usage details dimension in the Esploro Assets Usage subject area was removed because it was unreliable and thus misleading.
Resolved Issues
March 2026 Management SF: 08211928 — When a researcher who was part of an itemized researcher set was deleted, they were not removed from the set. This has been fixed.
March 2026 Portal & Profiles SF: 08296496 — Long labels of field that were defined to be mandatory caused the red asterisk to not display in the researcher’s deposit form. This has been fixed.
March 2026 Analytics SF: 08223415 — When an organizational unit name changed, the updated name did not appear in the Awarding Academic Unit element in the Esploro Research Assets subject area. This has been fixed.
March 2026 Smart Harvesting SF: 08250046 — Error when saving Smart Harvesting Profile. An error was displayed when one of the Smart Harvesting Profiles was saved. This has been fixed.
March 2026 Portal & Profiles SF: 08297699 — <ul> and <li> HTML tags do not display correctly when used in an asset and resulted in an incorrect display. This has been fixed.
February Main Features
Add DOI as Grant Identifier
February 2026 Management
A new DOI (Digital Object Identifier) field has been added to the Grant record. This enhancement allows administrators to store and manage official grant DOIs directly within the system, supporting improved data standardization, traceability, and integration with external research systems.
The DOI can be added via the Grants Loader and Grants API and used as the match-point in grant updates.
Asset Subtype Added to All Asset Forms
February 2026 Management
The asset subtype can be used to add granularity to the asset type.
Until now, the asset sub‑type could be added to the generic asset form and the Dataset and Teaching & Learning asset type forms. This update expands its availability to all asset forms, ensuring a consistent data‑capture experience across all asset types.
The asset sub-type has also been added to asset search results:
Credentials Field added to Researcher Record
February 2026 Portal & Profiles
We’ve added a new Credentials field to the Researcher record. This field allows you to capture and manage professional credentials (for example, degrees, certifications, or licenses) directly within the researcher profile and display them prominently alongside the Researcher name. Customers control if the credential field displays on the Researcher Profile. For more information about how to configure see: Configuring Researcher Profiles.
Support Use of ORCID Public API
February 2026 Integrations
Esploro now supports ORCID Public API credentials, allowing institutions to read public data from their researchers’ ORCID records. Previously, Esploro relied only on Member API credentials, which continue to offer broader read/write functionality. Support of the Public API, which provides read‑only access to limited, publicly available information, enables institutions without Member credentials to collect data from their Researchers’ ORCID Profiles.
The job “Update ORCID Record for Researcher” can now run using Public API credentials. To use the Public API, enter your credentials in Configuration > Repository > Integrations > ORCID Public Integration. Note that this table only displays for institutions that do not have ORCID membership credentials.
Learn more about integrating with ORCID and see find more information about integrating Esploro and ORCID here: ORCID in Esploro.
Remove All Keywords (CERV)
February 2026 Portal & Profiles
Researchers can now delete all profile and asset keywords in a single action making it simpler to update keywords.
Edit asset:
Edit profile:
Default Collection Sort Changed to Date 
February 2026 Portal & Profiles
The default Collection sort order is now Date (descending) instead of Relevance, ensuring newer items surface first.
Campus Configuration for OpenURL
February 2026 Portal & Profiles
It is now possible to include a campus in the OpenURL sent from Esploro to the Alma link resolver. This can be useful if the institution wants to make use of the campus level link resolver functionality. Since all campuses share the same Esploro Research Portal, a virtual campus representing the entire institution should be created. The campus code should be added to the “esploro_campus_for_openurl” parameter which can be accessed via Configuration > General > Institution Settings.
Additional Enhancements
-
February 2026 Integrations
Altimetric is now available as a citation source, enabling customers with an Altimetric subscription to include metrics beyond traditional citation indexes.
February 2026 Management
Esploro has been updated to support version 2 of the ROR schema. This update introduces several changes to the organization data imported into Esploro. The new schema includes two additional organization types—funder and nonprofit—and replaces the address field with location field. In addition, more names are being brought in with associated languages and these are being mapped to multi-lingual organization names.
February 2026 APIs
The following relationships have been added to the Projects API:
- Project-Activities relationships
- Project-Media Mentions relationships
- Project-Project relationships
February 2026 Management
Customers can now add additional currencies for grants. The list of available currencies can be edited from Configuration > Research Administration > Grants > Grant Currencies.
February 2026 Management
Following the development of the multi-lingual researcher profile which includes an updated schema for researchers, customers can no longer update the default language in Multi-lingual Data Elements as any change also requires a database change. If you require any change, please contact Esploro support.
February 2026 Management
Open the Activity Category table for editing so that the Category Names can be customized.
February 2026 Management
Customers can now configure which character should be used as the delimiter in the CSV update loader. This has been added to Configuration > General > Institutional Settings and the flag is called “ esploro_csv_excel_delimiter_char”.
February 2026 Analytics
Multi-lingual researcher data is now partially available in analytics. The data and language of the data have been added to the Researcher Affiliations and Researcher Education dimensions. Additional multi-lingual data will be included in future releases.
February 2026 Analytics
Esploro needs to process asset metadata before it can be included in the nightly ETL so it will be available in analytics. In some cases, changes to the asset were not processed in time and the change appeared in analytics only after two days. The job that handles this will now run on an hourly basis, so more data is in place before the nightly ETL.
February 2026 Smart Harvesting
Admin tasks have been added for pending Author Matching tasks with the status “Matched on ID”.
Resolved Issues
February 2026 APIs SF: 08254306 — Researcher Draft Deposits were included in Assets GET API. This has been fixed.
February 2026 Management SF: 07934090 — Education year field decreases by 1 for users in Americas time zones. When the researcher education years were edited in the private Researcher Profile, the year would automatically decrease by a year in some time zones. This has been fixed.
February 2026 Analytics SF: 08106320 — Current External Organization Affiliations not always included in Analytics. In some cases, a researcher’s Current External Organization Affiliations were not saved to analytics. This has been fixed.
February 2026 Smart Harvesting SF: 08250046 — Error when saving Smart Harvesting Profile. An error was displayed when one of the Smart Harvesting Profiles was saved. This has been fixed.
February 2026 Management SF: 08238433 — The Update DOI Agency Job sometimes had an error due to incorrect mapping of the Esploro to Crossref relationship types. This has been fixed.
February 2026 Management SF: 08227209 — The article number was not included in the RIS and Citation format exports from the Research Portal. This has been fixed.
January Main Features
Improved Handling of Assets with Many Authors
January 2026 Smart Harvesting
Research outputs – especially articles - can have many authors, in some cases even thousands of authors. Handling this number of authors can pose a challenge for the system and for administrators.
You can now choose from one of two policies for the handling of assets with many authors:
-
Keep all authors – this is the default policy, and this is how the system behaves today. In this policy all the authors – affiliated or not – are kept in the asset.
-
Keep affiliated authors – this is a new policy added now. In this policy only affiliated authors are kept in the asset. If chosen, you can define the following:
-
Number of Authors Threshold – any asset with this or a higher number of authors will be considered an asset with many authors and the “Keep affiliated authors” policy will become active. The threshold must be below 500 authors.
-
Optionally always include the first 10 authors even if they are not affiliated. This allows you to support the common requirement for citations to include the first 10 authors.
-
Optionally add a group author to represent deleted authors and define the text for the group author. The default text is “et. al”.
-
System limits for handling assets with many authors were not changed and assets with more authors than the limit will be rejected. These are the limits:
-
Smart Harvesting Framework jobs – 3000 authors
-
Import profiles and SWORD – 800 authors
-
Create Asset API – 100 authors
In addition, there is now an author limit for auto-population in mediated and researcher deposits, to avoid import failures. There is now a limit of 500 authors, and if the record has more authors the system will delete authors 501 and beyond. These authors will be deleted before author matching and may include affiliated authors. the group author option can be used to represent deleted authors.
The configuration for the handling of assets with many authors was added to Configuration > Repository > Asset Details > Handling of Assets with Many Authors.
The following table illustrates what will happen with either policy being active for assets added via Smart Harvesting.
|
Number of authors in asset |
Active policy = Keep all authors |
Active policy = Keep only affiliated Threshold = 100 authors
|
|
50
|
All authors are kept in the record |
All authors are kept |
| 1500 | All authors are kept in the record | All 1500 authors will be matched to researchers but only affiliated authors will be kept in the record. If enabled by the configuration, the first 10 authors will also be kept even if they are not affiliated. A group author to represent the deleted authors can be added. |
For more information about configuring handling of assets with many authors see: Configuring the Many Authors Handling Policy
Update Set of Researchers with data from ORCID
January 2026 Management
A new ad-hoc job “Update Set of Researchers with data from ORCID” enriches a Researcher’s Esploro record with unique identifiers from their ORCID profile. The job runs on a set of Researchers and can retrieve up to three identifiers - the Researcher ID, the Scopus ID and ISNI - if these identifiers are on the ORCID profile and not in Esploro. If an ID is in Esploro it will not be replaced. The job is available for Esploro customers who have ORCID membership. In February it will also be available for customers with an ORCID public API key. For more information about running the job see: Running Manual Jobs on Defined Sets
Move to DataCite version 4.6
January 2026 Management
We moved to DataCite Metadata Schema 4.6, bringing improved accuracy and richer metadata to research outputs. This update introduces a new contributor type - Translator - and two new relationship types — IsTranslationOf and HasTranslation — to better link original and translated works, replacing the previous mapping IsVersionOf / HasVersion. Finally, specific resource type mappings are now available for common scholarly outputs, including JournalArticle, Book, BookChapter, ConferencePaper, ConferenceProceeding, Dissertation, Preprint, and Report, which were previously mapped to the generic “Text” type. These changes ensure more precise metadata and improved interoperability across research systems. You can review your mappings in Configuration > Repository > Creator/Contributor Mapping and Configuration > Repository > Asset to Asset Relationship List to see if you want to update them considering the changes to DataCite.
New Metrics Endpoint for Esploro APIs
January 2026 APIs
We added a new Metrics API that allows you to add citation counts to research outputs. With this feature it is possible to use one of four different identifiers to identify the output record in Esploro – DOI, Web of Science ID, Scopus ID or MMS_ID. and includes the source of the metrics and the total number of citations. Up to 100 entries can be loaded per call. Citation metrics help you track and showcase the impact of your research more accurately. For more information about the API and details about the input schema see the Developers Network.
Display Researcher Associations on their Profile
January 2026 Portal and Profiles
We added the ability to display a researcher’s associations — such as memberships — directly on their profile page. Researchers have full control over visibility of each association, and can show or hide individual entries. This ensures that profiles remain accurate and personalized, allowing researchers to highlight the connections most relevant to their professional identity while keeping others private. Associations have been added to the configuration table Configuration > Portal & Profiles > Researcher Profile Management –Profile Privacy Display Settings. If you want to include Associations on your Researcher Profiles, update the field to display Publicly. For more information see: Configuring Researcher Profiles.
Additional Enhancements
-
January 2026 Management
The System Job Letter was added to the Esploro letters configuration.
-
January 2026 Analytics
The Collaboration by Country report took a long time to load and therefore was moved from the Researcher Collaboration Overview tab to the Researcher Collaboration Network tab, which is pre-filtered to focus on a single researcher and loads faster.
Resolved Issues
- January 2026 Management SF: 08260922 — An error displayed in the Research Jobs Configuration page – the system expected a set to be defined in the Push Assets To Sword Servers job. This has been fixed.
- January 2026 Management SF: 08206265 — Redirect Behavior When Accessing Student Deposit Form. Users attempting to access the student deposit form were not redirected to the form after signing in. This has been fixed.
- January 2026 Portal and Profiles SF: 08198707 — Auto-population using a DOI in the new configurable Researcher deposit form did not bring in authors and keywords and the form could not be saved. This has been fixed.
- January 2026 Management SF: 08186082 — The DOI URL prefix (https://doi.org/) displayed in the PDF Cover page even if the asset had no DOI. This has been fixed.
- January 2026 Management: 08176541 — In environments that have been set up for entry of multi-lingual data elements, keywords could not be updated via CSV update because the new values were added under the language code “undefined”. They are now added using the default language.
- January 2026 Smart Harvesting: 08170219— The Esploro search results page in a mobile browser or a minimized browser window was obscured by an overlaid search page. This has been fixed.
- January 2026 Management SF: 08121858— Users were redirected to the portal login page or encountered SAML authentication errors instead of being taken directly to the researcher deposit form when they invoked the “Go to form” option from the list of Deposit Profiles. This has been fixed.
- January 2026 Management: 08176541 — In some cases, the metadata exported in the Research Assets CSV export job did not align with the column headers. This has been fixed.
- January 2026 Smart Harvesting: 07962286— The Research Asset WOS Identifier Retriever job completes successfully but reported errors in the Clarivate API failures. This has been fixed.
- January 2026 SWORD: 08029645— Limit the file size in the SWORD Integration between Esploro and ETD_Admin to 2GB per-deposit not 2GB per-file.
-