Getting Started with Elements

Enter efars.provost.vt.edu into your web browser. Click on CAS Login. Use your Virginia Tech PID and password to log in.

Courses taught at Virginia Tech have been fed into the system from Banner and will be updated at the end of each semester. Information about grants is fed into the system from the Office of Sponsored Programs monthly. Note: If a grant or contract appears in your profile with "No data provided", that means that the funder has restricted publicity about that project.

If you used the Digital Measures EFAR system in the past, information about scholarly activities and service activities has been imported for you. You should review all of this information for accuracy and make corrections if necessary. In particular, date information for conference papers and presentations did not import correctly, and will need to updated.

Data imported from Banner and OSP cannot be deleted or edited. However, you can change how that information appears in your reports by adding a manual record. Select the item you want to change, click on the title, and look for the blue button that says "Add manual record". Click there to revise the information. The information that you enter manually will then be used in your reports.

If you want to correct the underlying data in Banner, you will need to contact your department Banner representative for teaching data or the Office of Sponsored Programs for grants data.

If you use a different name for your scholarly work than the name that appears in Banner, you can indicated a Preferred Name by going to Menu>My Account>Account Settings and scrolling to Preferred Name.

Note: The prefix field (Mr/Ms/Dr) is populated from Banner. Your department Banner representative can change it. The field is called spbpers_name_prefix on the screen PPAIDEN.

The rank field (position) is imported from the Banner university functional title field, found on the  PWADREM and the PWAVTTL form in Banner.

Once the information is updated in Banner, it may take a couple of weeks for the update to appear in Elements.

The Elements system can search online databases including Web of Science, PubMed, MLA, ArXiv, SSRN, DBLP, and RePEc, as well as VTechWorks for publications that belong to you. You can configure Elements to automatically accept publications (PDF) that are associated with your ORCID, ResearcherID, or other unique author identifier. Otherwise, you must review and accept or reject each publication identified by the database search. Some publications may have already been accepted on your behalf by staff in the library or the provost's office. You should review any accepted publications for accuracy. 

If the search has identified publications that may belong you and need to be reviewed, you will see an alert on the home page under My Actions. To review your publications, scroll down and click on Publications on the home page, or click on the Menu tab and click on Publications.

If the search has not found any of your publications or if it has found a large number of publications that do not belong to you, you will need to adjust your search settings. On the Menu tab, look under My Account>Data Source Search and click on Name-based search. Here you can add name variations to expand the search and enter other information to limit the search in various ways.

You can manage how the system uses unique author identifiers such as ResearcherID, PubMedID, or ORCID by going to Automatic Claiming (PDF) on the Menu tab under My Account>Data Source Search. For more information, see the Troubleshooting Guide for Search Settings (PDF) or contact your liaison librarian.

If you have a Google Scholar profile or an EndNote database with your publications, you can upload that information (PDF) into the Elements EFAR system.

From Google Scholar or EndNote, select and export your publications into a RefMan (.ris) format. Note: Elements cannot import EndNote .enl files.

In Elements, click on the Menu tab and look under Manage Publications to click on Import. Click on Choose File and navigate to the file you want to import. Indicate the file format and click Upload.

The system will compare the new publications with your current publications list (including any declined publications) and look for it in other users’ records as well. It will generate a list showing the new publications and any matches found with existing publications. 

For each publication that matches an existing record, you will be given a range of options. For records that match an existing publication of yours, which has only online database records, you have three choices:

1. Import as new: create a new record based on this data, separate from the existing record.
2. Supplement Existing: add a manual source to the existing publication record and make this the preferred source. This is probably the option you want to select.
3. Do not import: skip this record in the import file.

For records that match an existing publication of yours which has a manual source, you have three choices:

1. Import as new: create a new record based on this data, in addition to the existing manual publication.
2. Overwrite existing: overwrite the existing manual record with the new data.
3. Do not import: skip this record in the import file.

For records that match another user’s record with an existing manual source, you have four choices:

1. Import as new: create a new record separate from the other user’s record.
2. Import as link: create a new record in your list, as a link to the existing record, without changing the details of the existing record.
3. Overwrite existing: create a new record in your list, with a link to the existing record, and overwrite the data in the existing manual record. (You probably don't want to do this without consulting your collaborator.)
4. Do not import: skip this record in the import file.

For records that match another user’s record with only online sources, you have three choices:

1. Import as new: create a new record separate from the other user’s record.
2. Import as link: create a new record in your list, as a link to the existing record, and add a manual source to the record.
3. Do not import: skip this record in the import file.

Choose the option you prefer for each publication then click on ‘import’ to finish the process.  

Activities in Elements are organized in modules. Scholarly activities are captured in the Publications module (even if they aren't publications per se, such as presentations, patents, performances, and exhibitions). Other modules include Grants (including proposals and internal and external funding), Teaching (including student supervision, advising, and course or curriculum development), and Professional Activities (including university, professional, and community service activities, awards, and administrative activities).

To add a new activity, scroll down on the home page, identify the appropriate module, and click +add to see a list of available activity types.

Required fields are indicated with a red *. Remember that every activity must have at least one date. Hover your mouse over the ? for guidance on each data entry field.

Be sure to click the Save button at the bottom of the screen! You will be automatically logged out after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Reporting requirements and processes vary by college. Some colleges utilize custom reports available through the University Data Commons. These reports can be accessed directly at udc.vt.edu or via the Help page within Elements.  

To run your report in the UDC, go to the "Faculty Activity Reports" menu tab in the upper right corner of the screen. When you click on that, you'll have the option to choose an "Individual" or "Group" report. (Most individual users will only see “Individual” as an option). After selecting which report type you'd like to run, you'll see fields requesting the following information:  

1. In the College field, select your college 
2. In the Report field, select the report you'd like to generate. If your college has a custom report template, the name of that template will appear at the bottom of the drop-down menu. 
3. In the Faculty field, your name should appear, given that you are logged into the system. (Two-factor authentication is required). 
4. Select the Start Date (Month/Day/Year) and End Date (Month/Day/Year)  
5. Click "Download Report"  

*A mapping for each report template can be accessed at the bottom of the UDC interface once a specific report is selected.