Implementation: Filters - Enabling & Populating

This article covers the following filters that can optionally be enabled: 

• 'Tag' filter and search (usually Fields of Research)

• Department filter

• Custom filters (up to five, can include Availability, Campus Location, SDGs, some other research grouping)

Whilst it may be tempting to populate all of the available filters, think carefully about the filters you use - select those that will strategically represent your research and avoid too many options that could become overwhelming. You also need to think about where the data will come from and how it will be maintained. Here are some questions to think about when planning which filters to enable in your Discovery Module:

Discovery Module User Experience

1. Which filters (and source data) will make most sense to visitors of your Discovery Module? How do you want visitors to discover your institution’s experts?

2. What do you want your visitors to do as a result of visiting your site? Is your primary use case to encourage media enquiries, enable collaboration with your researchers, to promote your expertise in a particular topic or something else? 

3. Are there any particular areas you want to promote? For example, would Research Areas or Research Centres make more sense to members of the public/peers/students visiting your Discovery Module? 

4. Do your filters help guide users or confuse them? For example, are there too many filters or do filters have more than too many options/too few results?

Source Data from Elements

1. Do you have an ongoing reliable source of accurate data in Elements for each filter? Is the data quality good. For example, inconsistent spelling of a Department name across records will create multiple values for the same Department in a filter.

2. Is the data contained in Elements appropriate for a public interface (e.g. does not include internal facing department codes or abbreviations.)

3. Are you comfortable that you will be able to explain to your research community how data associated with their Discovery Module profile can be corrected/amended in Elements?

4. Could you capture/maintain data in a different part of Elements? If so, how can you get the data into the right places in Elements to support the Discovery Module? Will this be done manually, via the API or with Digital Science's support?

The Discovery module allows for the inclusion of a “tag”-based search of researchers. Once enabled, the ability to search by 'tag' is displayed on the Discovery Module landing page and on the search results page where this can then also be used to filter and explore the results set.

By default, the Australian and New Zealand Science Research Classification (ANZSRC)'Fields of Research' taxonomy is used for tags. This taxonomy is a controlled structured research categorisation scheme created, maintained and provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, New Zealand Department of Statistics, and New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and available as a stock label scheme in Elements. It contains a large number of labels and provides good coverage across a wide range of research disciplines. It was created in 2008 and updated in 2020.

However, if preferred, any label scheme can be used to populate the "Tag" Search and Filter. 

There are 3 options for adding Label values to Elements user profiles

1. Manual: Researchers manually add labels (recommended, as this will get the highest possible data quality and granularity);

2. API: Use the Elements API to populate labels enabled on the Elements profile;

3. Symplectic Service: You ask for the Symplectic service that will analyse and populate the Fields of Research (2008) data on your behalf. To learn more about this service, please raise a ticket on the support site or post a message on your basecamp if you are implementing the Discovery Module.

To give you the chance to get the data populated in Elements, there is control over when the filters are made public so the data can be analysed, curated and added to Elements before the filters are made available to a public audience. 

1. In Elements go to System Admin > Links & Labels > Configure Label Schemes

2. Select the Fields of Research or the relevant label scheme option

3. In the section "Display on," check that Researcher Profiles is ticked and click Save

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and Manage the roles associated with this label scheme

5. Tick Label Editor and select the group/s this should be available to. 

6. Click Add Groups

This will now be available when users Edit their Elements Profile

When you are ready to make the search and filter live either:

- Raise a ticket on the support site or 

- Post a message on your Asana project if you are implementing the Discovery Module.

One of the key goals of the Discovery Module is to provide different types of visitors with quick access to details on your researchers who may be available to undertake a range of different activities alongside their day to day research.

To assist visitors, Symplectic has created a new label scheme that enables researchers to select the types of activities that they are available for: 

1. Career Advice

2. Collaborative projects

3. Join a web conference as a panelist or speaker

4. Media enquiries

5. Membership of an advisory committee

6. Mentoring (short term)

7. Mentoring (long term)

8. MSc or PhD student supervision

9. Teaching provision

10. Technical support

To enable this label scheme inside Elements, please ask your System Administrator to enable the label scheme.

To give you the chance to get the data populated in Elements, there is control over when the filters are made public so the data can be added to Elements before the filters are made available to a public audience. 

1. In Elements go to System Admin > Links & Labels > Configure Label Schemes 

2. Select the Availability option

3. In the section "Display on," check that Researcher Profiles is ticked and click Save

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and Manage the roles associated with this label scheme

5. Tick Label editor and select the group/s this should be available to. 

6. Click Add Groups

This will now be available when users Edit their Elements Profile. 

When you are ready to make the filter live either:

- Raise a ticket on the support site or 

- Post a message on Basecamp if you are still in the implementation stage.

The Department filter can be customised, e.g. Unit, Area, Theme etc and this will depend on the data you are using to populate the filter. 

• The “Department” filter switched on

• Your preferred name for the "Department" Filter

• Specify what order you would like the filters to appear in. This should include all filters enabled on the Discovery Module e.g. 

  • First- Unit ("Department" filter)

  • Second- Availability Filter

  • Third- Custom Filter 1- Role and please specify which of the Generic Fields #1-10 the data will be fed from.

  • Fourth- Fields of Research classification filter

  • Fifth- Custom Filter 2- Primary Grand Challenge Theme and please specify which of the Generic Fields #1-10 the data will be fed from.

2. Ensure that you have set the filters to populate correctly via System Admin > General Settings >  Discovery Module Configuration. To populate the data run Reload all Discovery module data

Note: Both steps must be completed before you will see the data on the Discovery Module. 

The name can be customised, e.g. Role, Primary Grand Challenge Theme etc and this will depend on the data you are using to populate the filter. 

1. Raise a support ticket or use Basecamp (if in the implementation stage) and confirm that you would like:

• Custom filter <insert 1 or 2> switched on

• Your preferred name for the <Custom filter> 

• Specify what order you would like the filters to appear in. This should include all filters enabled on the Discovery Module e.g. 

  • First- Unit ("Department" filter)

  • Second- Availability Filter

  • Third- Custom Filter 1- Role and please specify which of the Generic Fields #1-10 the data will be fed from.

  • Fourth- Fields of Research classification filter

  • Fifth- Custom Filter 2- Primary Grand Challenge Theme and please specify which of the Generic Fields #1-10 the data will be fed from.

2. Ensure that you have set the filters to populate correctly 

Verify this here System Admin > General Settings >  Discovery Module Configuration and to populate the data run Reload all Discovery module data

Note: Both steps must be completed before you will see the data on the Discovery Module. 

Back to the Discovery Module index