There are number of categories within Research and Creative Accomplishments in Activity Insight. For the purpose of this documents, the categories of interest include the following.
- Publications – this category is generally used for any written published scholarly work that is widely disseminated and available to peers in their field.
- Report to sponsor – this is generally an update on a research grant or project and is not widely disseminated.
- Papers, presentations, seminars and workshops – this is typically for works presented at professional meetings. Many times, the abstracts are published in professional journals, but generally should be contained in this category.
The remaining categories are largely self-explanatory, and do not refer to disseminated public works.
Under Publications, the following items are the most commonly used contribution Types at the College of Medicine.
- Abstract – Posters, oral presentations and invited presentations can be entered under either “Publications” or “Papers, Presentations, Seminars, Workshops.” In general, these types of activities are best placed under “Papers, Presentations, Seminars, Workshops.” It may be reasonable to include abstracts that are published in a professional journal. If one chooses to do this, it should be clearly labeled as an abstract and separated from peer-reviewed publications. This should be used in most instances where a poster or presentation or verbal presentation is given at a professional meeting. When abstracts are published in a professional journal, some search engines will find it as a conference proceeding and will include it in peer-reviewed publications. This is generally a poor practice and should be avoided. Such items can be downloaded, but should be edited after the download and recharacterized as an abstract.
- Book chapter – this contribution type is fairly straightforward, and should be used when authoring a book chapter or portion of a book.
- Journal article – this is also a straightforward contribution type. If the faculty member has both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications, that field should be used to characterize the type of publications. Peer-reviewed publications should be separated from non-peer-reviewed publications and abstract or presentations at professional meetings.
- Avoid using multiple categories for peer-reviewed publications. When publications are imported into Activity Insight, they will often be assigned a Contribution Type and a Sub-Contribution Type. The dossier generated will include publications separated into various types and sub-types. In general, the only categories necessary are peer-reviewed publications, non-peer-reviewed publications and abstracts.
- Other – this can be used for a broad range of publication types that are not included as a specific category. Examples could be a podcast, a video or other digital media presentation at a professional meeting or publication through a professional website, or other written documents such as a guidance document through a federal agency or other professional organization. When this is selected, there is an option to include an explanation of “other.” This should be used to define the type of publication.
There are other practices that are reasonable, but not mandated. For example, peer-reviewed publications may be categorized (at the faculty member’s discretion) into subcategories such as original research, reviews, and case reports. It is reasonable and more common to keep all peer-reviewed publications together.
Under Papers, Presentations, Seminars, Workshops, the following items are the most commonly used contribution type at the College of Medicine.
- Keynotes/plenary addresses
- Oral presentations
- Posters
- Posters and oral presentations
- Workshops
These are mostly self-explanatory. Generally, these are works and invited presentations given at professional meetings. The other presentation types can be used when appropriate, but the faculty member should attempt to stay with a limited number of categories.