Researcher Support Library Services: Elements support & guidance
Elements is an internal research information system used to capture details of publications produced by researchers at the university. It can be used for internal & external reporting (e.g. REF) and can send files to PEARL, the university's Open Access repository.
How to deposit your work via Elements to PEARL
- Depositing your Publication Using ElementsA step by step guide to depositing a publication into Elements
- Depositing or editing your Publication: where the record is already claimedA step-by-step guide on how to add acceptance date and deposit for publications that are already claimed in Elements.
Setting up and using Symplectic Elements
- Elements User Guide: Full Document GuidanceHow to configure search settings to automatically harvest publications from databases, manually add records, and enable your publications to feed into the external facing staff profiles.
Using Elements to manage your publications
When you sign into Elements you will be brought to the homepage - this should look something like the below. You can access this at any time by clicking the Home icon on the left-hand side of the screen.
If you haven't yet connected your ORCID account with Elements, your profile will appear as below. For information on connecting ORCID to Elements, see 'Adding an ORCID iD to Elements' below.
To access your Elements profile at any point, click on the profile icon on the left-hand side of the screen, underneath the Home icon. Your profile will look something like the below:
Senior staff may wish to delegate access to their Elements account to another individual, such as an Administrator or assistant, so that they can manage publications on their behalf. Actions taken by the delegate will be recorded as being done by the delegate. The delegate must be added by the profile holder: Go to “Account Settings” > type the surname of the delegate and add. Delegates can be removed in the same way.
When you sign into Elements you will see an option to connect your Elements account to ORCiD:
Alternatively, you can navigate to your ORCID settings under Menu > Settings > ORCID Settings.
You will be redirected to ORCiD to register or sign in.
You will be redirected to ORCiD to register or sign in. Click 'Register or connect your ORCID iD. If you have already created an ORCID, sign in using those details; if not, click 'Register Now'. Once you have signed in, your ORCID will be connected to Symplectic Elements.
Symplectic will read your ORCiD record and add publications that you have claimed (or will claim in future) in ORCiD to your Symplectic profile if it can find a DOI match in its system. This means ORCiD can auto-populate your Elements profile with any articles. This will cut down on some of the manual burden of keeping your Elements profile up to date.
Adding your Scopus ID to Symplectic Elements with 1 click!
If your work has been previously harvested by Elements from Scopus (or, if you have connected ORCiD with Elements and ORCiD is also connected with Scopus), Elements will already have your ID waiting for you to claim with one click.
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Simply log into Elements and click 'Add Scopus ID' on the home page - your Scopus ID is now connected!
Adding your Scopus ID to Symplectic Elements if Elements has not already found it
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First ensure you have connected your ORCiD ID with your Elements account (how do I do this)
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Authorise a connection between ORCiD and Scopus to add your past works to Scopus (how do I do this) first ensuring that any duplicate Scopus IDs are consolidated
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Simply log into Elements and click 'Add Scopus ID' on the home page - your Scopus ID is now connected!
Setting up autoclaim allows Elements to pull in records automatically that are linked to your IDs. This means that they will appear in your profile as promptly as possible, thereby allowing the system to send you deposit reminders for them. To do this, go to Menu> Settings> Automatic claiming:
This will take you to your linked IDs. (If you haven't yet added any IDs, see 'Adding an ORCID ID' and 'Adding a Scopus ID'.) Next to the ID you wish to set up autoclaim for, click on the 'manage' button.
Use the drop down menu to select 'Auto claim associated items' and click 'Confirm'. This will automatically claim any publication records found linked to that ID so they will appear in your profile without needing to claim or reject them.
Database Harvesting Settings
Elements will search databases for records of publications that look like they might belong to you. Depending on how accurate this is, you may wish to change these settings.
Click the Menu and ‘Name-based search’ box on the home page:
Name variants:
The default name given will be that which is held on iTrent, the university’s HR system. The need to use any of the subsequent search terms below will depend on how common the surname is.
Address:
This has to match any terminology used by databases e.g. as PU could be described as “Univ. of Plymouth”; “University of Plymouth”; “Plymouth University”; "Plymouth Business School" etc., it is safest to simply use the lowest common denominator of “Plymouth”. Likewise, add a short place name for each previous institution e.g. “London”.
Keywords and Journals:
Use with care – these fields are only recommended only for very common names where name/place does not bring back specific enough hits.
Database search settings:
Scroll further down the page to adjust the harvesting settings of databases configured work with Elements: PubMed, PubMed Central, Web of Science, arXiv (physics/computer science/maths), DBLP(computer science), RePEc(economics) and CiNii(Japan) are currently configured for harvesting by Elements. Tick only the databases relevant to your area.
CrossRef database of DOIs (multidisciplinary) will also be searched.
Add in specific profiles e.g. a ResearchID from Web of Science to personalise even further:
Manage your Pending Publications harvested by the databases:
Elements harvests hits from different databases. You need to ‘claim’ them as your publications or ‘reject’ them if incorrectly harvested.
Go to Menu > My Profile > My Work > Outputs:
Claimed = publications accepted as being written by the user
Pending = results retrieved by the automated harvesting, awaiting Claim or Reject
Rejected = these will not be retrieved by the automated harvesting again so a decision is only required once on each output.
Mistakes in the data?
To view full details of the publication, click on the publication title link. This will also display the database source name. Click this to display the full record from the database. If any of the details are wrong, then the database, e.g. Web of Science, should be contacted to request a data correction. Contact IT self-service if this is required. A temporary fix is to create a manual record with the correct information and then to click the 'heart' symbol to denote it as the ‘favourite record’.
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Log in on the www.plymouth.ac.uk website and click the tile for 'Personal Details'
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Click the link to 'External Staff Profile (formerly PPP)'
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Click on the 'Publications' tab and tick 'Show Elements Publications'
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Then select “Save and Publish" at the bottom of the page.
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Changes should take effect after 24 hours.
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Go to Elements > My Profile > My Work > Outputs:
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Altmetrics: Hover over the Altmetrics donuts to see the social media buzz on your articles.
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Export a list of publications:
Depositing Research Data
- Step by Step Guide on Depositing a Dataset in PEARL via Symplectic ElementsHow to deposit a dataset in Elements, include metadata, and write a data description for your output.
For more information on depositing research data, visit our guidance on Research Data Management.
Elements: who to contact
Information Specialists
Your Information Specialists can advise on issues relating to open access, repositories, publications and depositing your work using Elements.
The team can also be contacted via the generic email: informationspecialists@plymouth.ac.uk.
Open Research Team
For queries relating to exceptions, article processing charges, and compliance:
Service Desk
For login or technical problems:
PEARL - full guidance
PEARL is the University's Open Access Research Repository showcasing UoP research and accumulating over 20,000 downloads a month!
Find out more about how PEARL connects your research to the wider public and discover other collections such as University hosted journals. See how you can generate download statistics on your PEARL outputs and see our usage infographics; copyright statements and policies:
Sherpa Romeo
What version of my article can I upload?
Sherpa Romeo is an online service that aggregates and presents publisher and journal open access policies from around the world.
You can use Sherpa Romeo to check your journal's Green Open Access policies and which version of your article you can upload to Elements.
Author Profiles - full guidance
Guidance on managing your ORCiD profile and connecting this to other IDs (e.g. Scopus, Web of Science) and ensuring that they can read/write to each other and auto-populate to save you time:
Producing Basic Reports in Elements
Producing Basic Reports in Symplectic Elements
Publication activity recorded in Symplectic Elements can be extracted for reporting purposes.
Producing a report will require sufficient admin privileges. Please contact researchadvice@plymouth.ac.uk if you require the relevant permissions.
Below are some step-by-step instructions on producing a basic report (publications list) in Elements:
- Producing a Basic Report in Symplectic ElementsA step by step guide to creating basic reports in Elements