Getting Started with FAR
Interfolio’s Scholar Services team will act as the primary contact for product and technical support for administrators, faculty, and staff. This guide will walk through the Scholar Services team structure as well as some of the most commonly asked questions, best practices, and helpful resources.
Getting Started with FAR
Log into Interfolio with SSO (Partner Institution)
Faculty members logging into Interfolio Faculty Activity Reporting (FAR, Faculty180) will utilize Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO is an authentication method that enables users to securely authenticate with multiple applications and websites by using just one set of credentials.
Interfolio will partner with Institutional Administrators and the institution's IT department to set up and manage the SSO integration. It is crucial to maintain the SSO integration and for the institution to provide Interfolio with notice of any changes to their SSO such as updated metadata, servers, or shared attributes.
Check out this article Overview of SSO Maintenance and Troubleshooting for more information.
SSO allows users authenticated with one trusted system (such as a university network) to also authenticate using those same home credentials with another trusted network (such as Interfolio). Users will authenticate with their university network and then be redirected to Interfolio without having to enter any other credentials.
The user’s login credentials (username and password) are never shared between systems.
Our Team
| Division | Details |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 - Scholar Advocates |
Initial issue triage; product education and support for how-to questions for faculty members.
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| Tier 2 - Customer Success Advisors |
Customer Success Advisors (CSAs) handle complex troubleshooting, bug triage, and product support for all users in Interfolio FAR.
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| Technical Services |
Support cases are assigned to the Technical Services team at the discretion of Tier 2. Technical Services SLAs are available here. The Technical Services team also offers data and API consulting.
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Terminology
| Term | Definitions |
|---|---|
| Activity | An event that a faculty member wants to track as a record of their career, such as a type of teaching, a scholarship, or a service performed. |
| Form |
A set of data input fields. The main forms used in FAR are:
|
| Activity/Faculty Classifications | Configurable metadata regarding activities or faculty. These classifications are customizable by the institution and allows for the tracking of data that is not included in default sections. |
| Section | An area for faculty to enter similar types of activities. Default sections are sections which are not customizable and exist with every FAR implementation. These may also have unique settings or reports associated with them. Institutions can also create custom sections which are specific to their FAR instance. |
| Faculty |
Users who are intended to add and/or manage information on their Profile and Activities pages. Faculty users can also be assigned administrator roles. |
| Support Account |
Users who need to be able to access the system and emulate faculty, such as an administrative employee who enters information on behalf of faculty or an academic advisor who needs to be able to report on information in FAR. These users do not have access to the Profile and Activities pages, and can be assigned various levels of administrative access. |
Interfolio Data Service (IDS)
IDS is technology that populates the Interfolio FAR module in bulk with correct and complete data about the academic work of faculty members.
Interfolio Data Service is an add-on feature that can be implemented to help faculty add scholarly activities quickly and easily to FAR. Please reach out to your Interfolio contact or the Scholar Services team for more information.
Important Help Articles
| Title | Articles |
|---|---|
| Administrators | |
| Faculty |
FAQs
What capabilities does an administrator have while emulating a faculty member?
When an administrator emulates a faculty member, they will have the ability to view and edit the faculty member's profile and activity entries. Depending on the section's configuration, administrators may also have the ability to edit or modify entries during emulation that faculty are only able to view.
Emulation only applies to FAR menu items and tasks. If a faculty member has access to multiple Interfolio products such as FAR and RPT, emulating will only show the FAR information.
It is not possible to limit emulation capabilities based on role or an individual basis. All administrators with the ability to emulate will have the same level of access for the faculty at their unit.
Can a faculty member's data be transferred from one institution to another?
No; FAR is highly customizable, and each institution's FAR configuration will be different, which does not allow for a simple transfer of information.
The best route will be for the faculty member to request a backup data export of their entries from their previous institution, and then have the faculty member re-add their entries manually.
What integrations are available in FAR?
FAR can integrate with Web of Science (WoS), Medline/PubMed, ORCiD, or INSPIRE. Interfolio also offers an add-on service called Interfolio Data Service (IDS) to help faculty upload their scholarly activities with ease. Please reach out to your Interfolio contact to discuss integration options or to learn more about IDS.
Check out this article About FAR Integrations for more information.
What sections will show up on the Activities page for faculty if the institution has multiple Activity Input Forms?
Institutions may create multiple Activity Input Forms, most of which will be utilized specifically for Initiated Faculty Input Workflows. Activity Input Forms also control which sections appear on a faculty member's Activities page, which is accessible to them even outside of a workflow period.
The sections that appear on a faculty member's Activities page are determined by the following:
- If the form is the Initial Activity Input Form or was cloned from the original. This can be seen by looking at the Form Name (not Display Name) column in the list of available forms in the Setup menu.
If the Form Name is Activity Input, it is either the original or was cloned from the original. Forms with any other name will not be seen on the Activities page.
- The faculty member's primary unit. Faculty will see the Activity Input Form that exists at their primary unit. If there is no form at the faculty member's primary unit, they will see the form that exists at the next highest unit.
Check out our article on how to Configure Activity Input Forms for more information.
How to determine what abilities Unit Administrators have?
- Permissions for unit administrators are defined in the Organizational Structure. Administrators who have access to this can see it by navigating to Administration > Setup > Organizational Structure, then selecting the Edit icon (pencil) adjacent to the applicable unit. This will show a list of the capabilities that have been granted to administrators assigned to the selected unit.
- Administrative roles are assigned to specific users on the faculty or support account pages.
Check out these article on how to Set Up or Edit the Organizational Structure or how to Add/Edit Administration Roles for more information.
Which users have the ability to create and edit Profile and Activity Input forms?
A user must have an administrator role in order to create or edit forms. Institutional Administrators will always have the ability to do so, but the capability for Unit Administrators to do so will depend on the responsibilities assigned to them in the Organizational Structure.
Why are users getting automatically logged out?
For security purposes, Interfolio will log out any user after 60 minutes of inactivity.
Why can’t faculty members add, edit, or delete something in their Activity Input?
Does your institution allow faculty to enter their own course information?
Check out this article About Locking Controls in FAR for more information
Does your institution use an external source (ARXIS, RIS/Bibtex, etc.) to integrate the faculty data? About FAR integrations
Check out this article About FAR Integrations for more information