As most Elements users will be aware, we have used the CRediT taxonomy within Elements since 2018 to help simplify the capture of contributions undertaken by authors linked to a publication. However, the adoption of the CRediT taxonomy within Elements was only a stepping stone towards allowing Elements users to better describe their personal contribution to their outputs and activities. 

In this release we have made a major extension to our data model, introducing Object Annotations to help researchers more readily capture information on their contribution to research items within Elements, such as publications, grants, or non-standard outputs. By making it possible for researchers to showcase the full range of their contributions, we can help researchers get credit for all their work by ensuring they have the data they need when the time comes for reporting, assessment or promotion processes, as well as research-promoting activities such as press and public engagement.

In our last release, we announced a significant redesign of the Assessment module researcher user experience. In this release, we have continued to build on this work to further streamline review and assessment workflows with our new simplified submission process which will automatically progress each form to the next stage. New configuration options make the powerful ‘stages’ functionality even more flexible, granting institutional administrators more fine-grained control over actions, along with configurable guidance text to signpost users through the process with clarity. 

We have expanded our Data Extracts functionality to make it possible to generate extracts in an XML format. This functionality has been specifically developed with our Canadian clients in mind, to help support the export of data from Elements for researchers to more easily populate their Canadian Common CV (CCV). This means that your researchers can reuse data already captured and curated within Elements, reducing the need for repeated data entry. 

To support researchers and institutions who are making works openly available via an integrated repository and to ensure that they are including clear information on how they can be used, we have introduced new reuse licence configuration options to encourage or even mandate the use of reuse licences during the deposit process. 

Finally, we have continued to grow our dedicated Research Funding Solution (RFS), with ongoing development to allow organisations to integrate RFS with in-house finance systems in order to enable easier project set-up. 

For all details about the release, you can view the full release notes on the Symplectic support site. As always, the new version of Elements and associated upgrade instructions can be found in the Elements upgrade forum.

We had a good showing at our Elements Virtual User Meeting last month, and continue to be very grateful to you for taking the time to join us despite the ever-present threat of Zoom fatigue. We took a baby step forward to returning to in-person user events in London this year, and hope very much that we will be able to continue with a return toward relative normalcy as we move into 2023. 

If you were unable to attend the Virtual meeting, you can find a full playlist of all sessions here. Special thanks go to Jeff Agnoli of Ohio State University, for his fascinating overview of how the Ohio Innovation Exchange is spearheading industry innovation and economic development across the state of Ohio by utilising Equipment profiles in the Discovery module. 

Remember, if you have any questions, we’re here to help! You can contact us at support@symplectic.co.uk.  

Best wishes, 

The Symplectic Team

Elements is designed to capture a rich set of data on a diverse range of outputs and activities spanning the breadth of a researcher's expertise. In this release we have made a major extension to our data model, introducing new capabilities to support capturing contextual information about a user’s relationship with an object, such as their contributions to the work.  This new functionality allows organisations to capture rich information about their researchers’ efforts in a reusable way, saving time for faculty reporting activities whilst ensuring that your researchers get credit for all their work. 

Image: A user can add information about their contribution which is private and unique to them.

This highly-configurable extension to the Elements data model allows administrators to choose exactly what information they wish to collect for each object type. Once configured, information is collected per-linked user, meaning that each collaborator can capture information about their own contribution in a secure and private manner that is still reusable for reporting activities and assessment exercises. 

To make annotations as simple as possible to configure, the new Annotations data category builds upon the existing data model in Elements, allowing administrators to configure which fields they want to ask researchers to complete using a variety of validated field types. To provide you with a working example of this new functionality, by default upon upgrade, Elements will contain one stock annotation called ‘Contributions’ which is configured to be displayed for the Journal Article publication type. We recommend we review this and plan further configurations as a part of your upgrade process. For more information on how to configure Object Annotations, please see this support article. 

You can read our new blog about the wider context and use-cases for Object Annotations here, or watch a brief video overview of the functionality here.

All annotations are captured within Elements as private data by default, and will only be viewable by the researcher themselves, their delegates, or by administrators with appropriate roles. Where a work has multiple linked authors/collaborators, each researcher can only see their own annotations. This  gives researchers the opportunity to build up private personal statements which describe the nuance of their own contributions to each work, whilst ensuring the data can be reused for reporting or assessment purposes. 

Elements version 6.9 introduced a significant redesign of the researcher user experience within the Assessment Module, helping organisations to further streamline their review and evaluation processes. In this release, we have built on this work and introduced a number of improvements to make completing an Exercise form even simpler and more intuitive for users.

A powerful feature of the Assessment Module is the ability to configure the different ‘stages’ that the exercise form moves through during the review and evaluation process. Stages can be used to manage when researchers and reviewers are permitted to view or edit each exercise and control the progression through review and sign-off phases. 

In this release we have simplified and extended the submission process used to transition exercises through these stages, providing researchers with a simpler and clearer user experience and reducing the need for administrative assistance. In earlier versions of the Assessment Module, users could be asked to mark their exercise form as ‘done’ and then to ‘move stage’ to transition their exercise to be ready for review. This two step process could lead to confusion, so we have streamlined it into a simple one-step submission process. Through this new functionality, when a researcher ‘submits’ their exercise, their form will be automatically progressed to the next stage. 

Image: The improved ‘Submit’ behaviour provides greater workflow control and improves the detail that can be provided to users when they carry out actions on their Exercise form. 

To support this new submission process and to allow administrators to take full advantage of the power of the Assessment Module’s highly flexible stage functionality, we have introduced a number of new configurable settings which will allow administrators to tailor the stage transition process to help guide researchers and reviewers through the broader exercise. 

On the redesigned ‘Stage transitions’ page that forms part of the Exercise Definition, it is now possible for administrators to configure a number of key new settings, including:

• Button label: The action button that is used to ‘submit’ or carry out a stage transition can now be configured to provide specific relevant terminology to your users. Previously, this was hardcoded to read ‘Move Stage’. This now defaults to ‘Submit’, but can be edited to any ten character word of your choice. This allows more specific calls-to-action to be configured e.g. ‘Withdraw’, ‘Advance’, ‘Send back’. In this way, administrators can create clearer pathways to guide users to easily transition each form between stages.

• Guidance: Configurable guidance text can be displayed to the user carrying out each submission/stage transition. This allows administrators to share contextual information with users about what will happen next. 

• Confirmation statement: Alongside the configurable guidance text, it is possible to configure a confirmation statement which asks the user to agree to a statement in order to proceed with their submission. This can be seen in the above example where a researcher is being asked to confirm that their submission is correct and up to date. 

To reflect the transition from the older ‘mark as done’ behaviour, to the new submission process, we have updated four stock reports: 

• Visual progress report (All)

• Visual progress report

• Exercise report

• PBRF 2018 Progress Report

These reports continue to return information on stages and the outputs for these reports have been adjusted so that the ‘Status’ column now contains the values: ‘Needs attention’, ‘In progress’, ‘Not editable’ and '-' (null). This adjustment allows all available stages and statuses to be viewed for all users of the Exercise as a whole. 

• The Assessment Management page now displays the redesigned summary modal. This provides Assessment managers with the ability to understand the state of a user’s Exercise form at the click of a button. 

• It is now possible to bulk remove items added to lists. The ‘Remove all’ button on the list component allows users to reset their selections for a list with ease. 

• The list component now includes pagination controls in order to better support long lists of items.

• The open access status of publications will now be shown on the list view as well as the selection view (if configured as part of the Exercise Definition). 

• We have made a number of small adjustments to custom field lists, so that when a user cancels the addition of an item, an empty item is not created, and to ensure that when adding a custom field item to the list, the user returns to the same place on the section page. 

Due to the removal of the ‘Mark as done’ functionality and the introduction of the configurable button label, it is important to review your existing workflows as a part of your upgrade process to optimise the experience for all users. This may involve updating the button label for specific stage transitions, or adding new stages to capture desired states. 

More information about configuring stage transitions can be found on the support site. We recommend that organisations using the Assessment Module plan their upgrade and consider timing it around scheduled Assessment processes if possible.

In light of these changes, a number of adjustments have been made to the Reporting Database. Please see the end of this support article for further information. Any custom reports that use these specific columns will need to be updated. If you require guidance on how to make the changes, please contact support@symplectic.co.uk. 

Data Extracts within the Elements Reporting Hub provide organisations with a simple way of  extracting data from the system in a CSV format. In addition to being able to easily generate reports using a variety of stock extracts, organisations who licence the Elements Analytics Module can quickly and easily create custom Data Extracts and share them with relevant users via the Reporting Hub by uploading an SQL query and configuring who should have access. 

In this release, we have expanded our Data Extracts functionality, introducing the ability for Elements to generate extracts in an XML format.  This new functionality allows organisations who use the Analytics Module to create custom data extracts which output data to XML, for uploading to external sites such as funder systems. For further information about configuring XML data extracts, please see the support site. 

Image: When adding a custom data extract it is now possible to register SQL scripts that will return data in XML format

The Canadian Common CV (CCV) is an online tool for Canadian academics which allows users to create a profile with data about their academic career, research outputs, and activities to support submissions to Canadian research funders.  

Our new XML data extract functionality has been developed to support export of data from Elements to help researchers populate their CCV profile using CCV’s native XML import functionality. As the CCV schema is complex, organisations will need to consider how best to align their metadata structures to ensure that profile data can be mapped as closely as possible during import.  If you are interested in creating custom XML Data Extracts in order to transfer data from Elements to CCV, please contact support@symplectic.co.uk to discuss the options available. 

Reuse licences, such as creative commons licences, help users of open access items clearly understand the ways in which they are permitted to reuse the work. As more institutions and funders begin to require specific reuse licences or adopt rights retention policies, capturing this metadata efficiently and transparently becomes more important than ever.  To help better capture this information, we have expanded the range of configuration options available when asking researchers to supply a reuse licence during the deposit process. 

It is now possible for administrators to configure Elements to require users to supply a reuse licence when making a deposit to an integrated repository. If enabled, users will no longer be asked whether they wish to suggest a reuse licence, and will instead be prompted to select a licence before they can make their deposit. 

Image: The RT2 Deposit page configured to present a researcher with a default CC-BY deposit licence. 

Administrators can also choose to set a ‘default’ reuse licence that will apply unless the user elects to choose a different licence. This is particularly useful for organisations who operate with a rights retention policy or use a standard licensing model for their repository, as it allows you to offer your researchers clear information about how their work will be shared. 

We have also introduced a new reuse licence option to allow you to explicitly capture that no reuse licence applies to a given work. These new configuration settings can be found on the ‘Manage reuse licences’ page for each integrated repository (RT2). 

Image: On the ‘Manage reuse licences’ page for each RT2 integration, administrators can now configure whether reuse licences should be required and optionally set a default licence, as well as selecting which reuse licences should be enabled. 

We continue to grow the Research Funding Solution (RFS) to support institutions in managing their research funding workflows. In this release, we have focussed on continuing development of the RFS Finance integration, which will ultimately allow organisations to pass information from RFS to their institutional finance system to assist with project set-up and to import information about expenditure from the finance system back into RFS. 

In this release we have: 

• Added new custom fields to the Projects data model in order to support the set up of Projects on institutional finance systems (including Finance system reference ID, Cost centre, whether the project is subject to tax, and whether unspent funds are to be returned to the funder),

• Updated the RFS extract to reflect recent updates to the Funding Opportunities and Project data models,

• Introduced the first stage of the Finance system import into RFS to support the import of Finance system references to assist with Project set-up.

This release also includes a number of additional enhancements, including:

• Improvements to Funding Opportunities functionality, including:

  • The ability to capture the Funder’s timezone 

  • Enhanced view access functionality for users and groups

• Updated definitions of applied for and awarded amount values to provide clearer information to users. 

• Updates to the Funder submission and outcomes pages to capture foreign currency applied for and awarded amounts, and to clarify the data capture process.

• Improvements to the Proposal / Project details Console pages to capture new fields as described above.

• Improvements to our PDF document generation functionality, particularly to improve PDF formatting.

As with previous releases, full details of the RFS functionality released in v6.10 are available in the RFS release notes on our support site.

• We have upgraded our dashboard designer to the latest version of DevExpress, providing access to a number of new features including GRID item filtering.  

• We have updated the Cinii data source integration to align with changes to the Cinii APIs. No additional configuration is required upon upgrade, other than switching on the data source.

• Elements will now capture additional file-level metadata from Europe-PMC including file version, reuse licence, file URL, embargo release date, and file upload date (fullTextReceivedDate). At the moment only file URL, file version, and whether the file is embargoed are displayed in the record; all additional metadata is available via the Reporting Database.

• We have adjusted the Web of Science (Expanded) publication date logic to improve data quality.

• The Scopus type mappings have been updated to map documents of the types ‘Press Release’ or ‘Short Survey’ to the stock type of ‘Other’. 

• We have improved error handling for RT2 DSpace integrations to provide users with more detailed feedback about any deposit errors. 

• ‘Knowledge Exchange’ has been added as a module display name option for the Impact Module, to support organisations who are using the Impact Module to capture Knowledge Exchange activities. 

• You can now use the Elements API to obtain a list of the Annual Collection Evidence files and their associated nomination.

• The Reporting Database now includes ‘format as’ information in the Publication Type table. 

• The Search Index Management page now displays latency information if delays are detected in the indexing process. This will make it easier to identify if the system is processing a large number of changes which could result in delays in data processing. 

• We have updated the reporting synchronisation of all tables to use SQL Server Change tracking. This is to ensure that no updates are missed in the process of synchronising data to the Reporting Database. Please note that as a result of this change there is an update to the required minimum patched version of SQL server; if you are self-hosted, please see the upgrade notes for details. 

• We have also made a number of accessibility improvements including: 

  • Updates to the use of headings on the homepage to improve the screen-reader user experience. 

  • Adjustments to the close function in the menu to improve performance with screen-readers.

  • The labels functionality on the Elements Profile page was not fully keyboard accessible. This has been fixed.

  • Adjustments to the behaviour of the menu search function in the menu to ensure that the keyboard navigation appropriately distinguishes between tab and enter behaviours, in line with accessibility best practices. 

  • Fix to an issue where focus could be dropped when using keyboard navigation on the manual entry screen. 

  • Updates to the Seek Duplicates page to avoid an empty unordered list. 

  • Improvements to the Annual Collections Module. 

  • Improvements to a number of administrative pages including the Groups page, the API pages, and user / authentication management pages.  

• We have fixed a set of layout issues on the collaboration network diagram in the Discovery Module. 

• We have updated the Discovery Module ‘Page not found’ error page to present appropriately in mobile mode. 

• We have clarified the guidance text on the Users page about ‘Active Users’.

• There was an issue on the My Publications page with the display of resolved editors on publications. This has been fixed. 

• There was an issue with System Administrators copying professional or teaching activities. This has now been resolved. Please note, a system administrator must be impersonating a user linked to the activity in order to copy it on their behalf. 

• We have fixed a small issue with the layout of field-level help text on the manual entry page.

• We have fixed an issue with case sensitivity in the Primary Group Descriptors field on the Groups page. 

• We have fixed an issue with the RT2 DSpace 7 integration impacting the handling of date fields by automated metadata updates. 

As always, we recommend that you regularly review our End of Support Announcements for information about upcoming end of support in Elements for various technologies. 

As of this release, we no longer support use of WebAuth or Raven as authentication mechanisms for Elements. We do not believe these are in use at any organisations anymore, however if you are concerned that you may be affected, please contact our team before upgrading. 

On occasion, it is necessary to improve the structure of the Reporting Database in such a way that existing SQL queries crafted by clients may require updating. In our next (v6.11) release we will be introducing a change to the [Group] table, which may require changes to custom reports that use this table. For further information, please see the support site. 

We hope you enjoy getting to know the latest version of Elements. Remember, should you have any questions, we’re here to help! Just contact us at support@symplectic.co.uk for assistance.  

Best wishes, 

The Symplectic Team