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Research Information

 

In August 2016, Elements was upgraded to version 5.1.1 which significantly changed the look and feel of the user interface and added functionality.

The principal changes include:

New home page and navigation menu
Actions panel / carousel

The new version of Elements aims to simplify the user experience, with clearer sign-posting of tasks, and cleaner summary panes in the user profile.  The site navigation has also been moved to the top of the page, providing immediate access to different parts of the system – whatever your role.

The homepage view now includes a carousel of tasks that need to be completed. This can also be flipped and viewed as a list if preferred. Alerts will only show if they are relevant (for example, if there are publications to be claimed, or an identifier to be configured).

Improved publication claiming
Elements will now start analysing author identifiers harvested from external sources to create new pending and/or claimed links to Elements user accounts if it thinks there is a good match to the search settings associated with a user’s account. This is not limited to new records, Elements will also look at all the records it already holds, referencing them against each user’s search settings to create new pending or claimed links where matches are found.

Equipment data now available
A dedicated module in Elements now contains the current Cambridge records from the Equipment Sharing Database. Equipment can be found via the System Search in the main Menu and links to pieces of equipment can be established to users, publications, grants or other activities which have used  it.

Research Intelligence
The Reporting Tools database for Elements was introduced in 2015 enabling us to produce bespoke reports for network analysis and other specific requirements.  The Research Information team has been working with UIS to create a web interface which now provides access to a number of these reports. These reports expose more of the data collected in Elements than has been accessible before, including co-author addresses, search settings, and internal collaborations. If you have a research development role, please get in touch to discuss access to this resource.  More reports and functionality will be added in due course, so please let us know what you would find useful.   

Repository Tools and Open Access Monitor
Elements is now connected to the University’s institutional repository, Apollo. This is the first phase of this integration, which means that publications will, in the first instance, be deposited into Apollo via Elements by the Open Access team. This initial phase does not introduce any change to the current processes; researchers and administrators are still required to submit accepted manuscripts via the Open Access website as usual. The integration with Elements will ultimately facilitate enhanced reporting, including amongst other things; more accurate figures on the number of deposits from a department or group.  If you have any questions about this please contact:  info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk


More information about how to use this new functionality can be found in our Moodle course.


The Research Information team will be holding four workshop sessions in September where we'll talk through all the new functionality and be available to answer any questions you may have. Find out more here.