Vita FAQs
Academic Course Supporting Data Changes Known Issues
Missing Records in Vita Supporting Data
Known Issue
You may see additional teaching records in Elements that do not populate in Vita Supporting Data or on the dossier report. This is caused by the lack of a start date in the Elements record.
Workaround
Add a start date to the Elements record in order for it to appear in Vita Supporting Data.
Academic Level Abbreviations Impact on Mixed Enrollment Courses
Known Issue
Users who edited mixed enrollment Academic Courses in Vita Supporting Data in order to combine records will see a change to the way the course record is displayed in the table in Teaching Section 1 of the dossier report.
The academic level will be reflected by abbreviations (UG, G, P) in the Enrollment (Enr.) column of the table.
Before the change:
Period Offered | Course Number and Title (Credit Hours) | Enr. | % Taught, Role | Stdnt Eval. | Peer Eval. | Other Eval. | Instr. Method |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spring 2019 | ESHESA 2572 Diversity and Social Justice in Leadership (3) | 18 | Yes | No | No | Didactic / Lecture |
After the change:
Period Offered | Course Number and Title (Credit Hours) | Enr. | % Taught, Role | Stdnt Eval. | Peer Eval. | Other Eval. | Instr. Method |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spring 2019 | ESHESA 2572 Diversity and Social Justice in Leadership (3) | 18 (UG) | Yes | No | No | Didactic / Lecture |
Workaround
Manually edit the records in Vita Academic Courses Supporting Data to accurately reflect enrollment and academic level.
If you need additional assistance, contact us at vita@osu.edu.
Can Elements pull data from other databases?
The databases that Elements currently harvests are those provided by the vendor. While it is possible to add additional databases, that would either require the vendor to add the database to Elements or we would need to write code to add it to Vita.
If you have a database you will like Vita to harvest, please email vita@osu.edu so we can track these requests.
Can I assign delegate access for Vita?
Yes. You will need to add your delegates in two locations:
- In Vita for access to Narratives and Supporting Data.
- In Elements for access to manage records related to your Publications, Professional Activities, Teaching Activities and Grants.
Dossier does not download in Internet Explorer Known Issues
Known Issue
Some users have reported being unable to download their dossier while using Internet Explorer. Users may also experience other undesirable behavior when using Internet Explorer
Workaround
Use a different browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge.
Explanation
Internet Explorer is no longer a supported browser.
Dossier Report Citation Sort Order Known Issues
Known Issue
The fields that citations are sorted by are invisible on the dossier report. The sort order may appear to be out of order.
All sections of the dossier are sorted in reverse chronological order by the entire end date (sorted by month, day, and year) first, then by the entire start date.
What appears on the dossier report | Date fields in Elements |
---|---|
2010-2011 | January 1, 2010 - January 1, 2011 |
2009-2011 | March 1, 2009 - March 1, 2011 |
Because January 1, 2011 is before March 1, 2011, it will be sorted before March 1, 2011.
Additionally, Teaching - Section 9 Other Academic Advising is sorted first by Advisor Role, then by the entire end date as described above.
For example:
- 2012-2013 | Maria Buckeye. Advisor. Project Title. Ohio State University: Columbus, OH, USA. Current Student. Current Positions: Entry.
- 2011-2012 | Diana Doe. Advisor. Project Title. Ohio State University: Columbus, OH, USA. Graduated On: 2012. Current Positions: Entry.
- 2014-Present | Joe Smith. Research Advisor. Project Title. Ohio State University: Columbus, OH, USA. Current Student. Current Positions: Entry.
Workaround
Export the dossier report to Word and edit manually.
Duplicate records in Elements / Expected Behavior Known Issues
Known Issue
You may see duplicate records in Elements. For publications, this would most likely be a result of ambiguity in matching records imported from Research in View and those harvested from Elements. Apparent duplicates may also have differentiating details that are visible when you open the record.
Depending on the reason for the duplication, you can merge or reject records.
Grants data import / Expected Behavior Known Issues
Known Issue
Grant information was imported from Research in View. We are not currently pulling new grant information into Vita, pending the availability of grants data from other university sources.
Workaround
You can manually add grant information.
How can I get delegate access for multiple people?
If in your role you need delegate access for 5 or more people, email the Vita support team.
In your message please include:
- Your department and role
- Each user's first and last name
- Each user's Ohio State username (lastname.#)
Journal Impact factors not available / Expected Behavior Known Issues
Known Issue
Journal impact factors are not available in Vita. In Research in View, this information had been generated by vendor. This functionality is not available in Vita.
Workaround
Consult with your promotion and tenure coordinator to identify the appropriate resource to use to populate this table in the Word version of your dossier. See the University Libraries' help guide for more information on tracking your research impact.
Missing Information from Dossier Report: Service Known Issues
Known Issue
Users may notice missing data from citations in Service, section 6a, 6b, 6e. This is a result of a recent update to the system. A fix is currently being developed. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Missing Records Office of Student Life Committee Records (Service – 8a) Known Issues
Known Issue
Previously, information was pulled into this section from the Elements New Advising Student Group form.
During a recent change, this was corrected so that all advising activities display in the correct areas of the dossier report.
Records that formerly populated in this area are now displaying in Service - Section 7 Advisor to Student Groups and Organizations of the dossier report.
Workaround
Users should export the dossier report to Word and manually enter Student Life Committee Memberships in the following format:
Start Date YYYY - End Date YYYY Your Role, Subcommittee: Workgroup. Institution Name, Institution City, Institution State, Institution Country.
Description of effort: "Enter a brief description of effort."
Example:
2016 - 2019 Committee Chair, Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Student Life: Hiring Practices. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, US.
Description of effort: I participated in developing hiring guidelines for new student organization program managers.
Unexpected formatting in Narratives / Expected Behavior Known Issues
Known Issue
You may see unexpected formatting in your narratives on the dossier preview. This is a result of how the text had been formatted in Research in View. The Word and PDF versions of downloaded dossiers should reflect correct formatting.
Workaround
Examine your narratives carefully for special characters that may have been overlooked. You can edit the text in Vita or make necessary changes in the Word version of your dossier.
Vita Update - Impact on "Other" Journal Articles Known Issues
July 29, 2019 - We have made a number of changes to Vita and Elements to improve the user experience. We have corrected formatting and display issues on the dossier report and clarified labels and help text in Vita and Elements.
Known Issue
We removed the option for "Other" as an article type for Journal Articles on both the dossier report and Elements. Any articles that had appeared on this section of the dossier report will not display until the record in Elements is adjusted.
Required Action
For any Journal articles that had been set as Other in Elements, return to the record, select Edit Source and choose either Journal Article OR Review for Article Type.
- If you select Journal Article, use the Review Type field in Supporting Data in Vita to select Peer-Reviewed or Editor-Reviewed. This will determine whether the article will be included in dossier report Research section (1e) - Peer-Reviewed journal articles or (1f) - Editor-reviewed journal articles.
- If you select Review, your article will display under section 1(g) - Reviews.
Why is a co-author’s information showing in Vita?
The following information pertains to data imported from Research in View to Vita and edited by one or more co-authors between April 1, 2017 and December 9, 2017.
If you are a co-author on one or more publication harvested by Elements, you may see another co-author's information in the description of effort or percent contribution fields in Vita.
Background
The Office of Academic Affairs' core dossier requirements say that for an article that is co-authored, each author must provide a description of effort for publications. Some colleges/units also require authors to provide their percent contribution for publications. When Vita was released to the Ohio State community in April 2017, users were asked to edit these fields in Elements.
As users began interacting with Vita in a real way, it became apparent that this approach had unintended consequences. OTDI staff began researching and devising a new approach, which was implemented in December 2017.
Problem Description
Elements is designed so that the focus is on the publication, not the author. Each publication record can only store information that pertains equally to all co-authors. Because of this, one author can overwrite information entered by a co-author. That is, if you entered information such as percent contribution or description of effort in Elements, that information shows for all other authors attached to that publication, and any of the other authors could change this information.
As a further complication, the data in Elements is not structured in such a way that it is possible to retrieve previous versions of the information stored in those custom fields. It is also not possible to know who made an entry into a custom field. For a multi-author publication, the only data available for the group of authors is the text of the most recent entry.
Solution
In order to allow you to enter the proper information for your publications and to ensure that your supporting data, and ultimately your dossier, is correct, these personal data fields were moved out of Elements to Vita, which is supported by OTDI and focuses on you, the author, rather than the publication.
Moving data entry for these fields to Vita's new supporting data form prevents your co-authors from overwriting your personal details. Therefore, this issue will not occur going forward.
Data from Research in View and data that had already been entered into Elements was used to populate the supporting data fields. Keep in mind, this information will only be correct for one author on the publication (the last author to edit the record). It is highly likely that you will need to re-enter supporting data for at least some of your publications.
Once the supporting data information is saved, this data will be immediately accessible on the dossier, below the citation of that data element.
We recommend reviewing the step-by-step guide for co-authors to verify that your supporting data is correct.
Our support team will be available to answer your questions and help you through the process of verifying your own information. Contact vita@osu.edu with any questions or concerns you may have.