Before proceeding with uploading Researchfish with your data, take some time to consider the below matters, so you can create a more thorough and accurate plan.

If you require additional questions that you don’t believe the common question set covers, you can contact your Researchfish Customer Success Manager or rfclientsupport@elsevier.com to discuss implementing this. Once finalised, they will be applied to the applicable award holders and will be ‘Mandatory Additional Questions’ whereby the award holder will not be able to submit their data without first completing these. Our Data & Impact team will discuss with you what may be the most appropriate questions to ask to enable accurate and suitable reporting data.

It is advised that Research Organisations and Funders keep each other up to date and informed of any Response Code changes to allow awards to be updated not only on the Researchfish platform but to also update any internal records for both parties. Response Codes are mandatory for funders to set up awards on the system, so we encourage funders to put some consideration into these. This will not only assist with accurate reporting after a submission, but it will also enable award holders to understand if a mandatory submission is expected, therefore also benefiting with compliance rates. For example, if an award holder is temporarily away due to illness/maternity/etc, this should be response code 2.

We also advise against officially ‘closing’ any awards and instead, apply a Response Code 3 to them.

Funders will need to define the dates a submission period takes place. Once you know when your submission period dates will be, inform Researchfish and set up your dates in the system. Watch this video for instructions on how to set them up. Having the dates set up in the system will also allow other organisations and award holders to have a view of when your submission period will be, via the Our Community page.

Before award holders can use Researchfish, the awards you have granted them need to first be set up and available on the system. See “Adding an Award and using the RHT Uploader” in the Funder User Guide. If you have existing awards already in the system, you can also update them via this method too.

Please upload your completed respondent table at least 1- 2 months in advance of your submission period. (See more in Communications Plan below).

You can manually create awards individually through the system, but may find it easier to upload an RHT if you have many awards to process at a time.

While the data and any applicable additional questions are being updated to Researchfish, you can start to communicate to all your award holders, to inform them of the forthcoming submission dates, how to set up a Researchfish account, and why they need to use this.

We have put together a timeline and some example templates to assist you with the types of messaging.

Your communications plan will help your researchers to understand why it’s so important they use Researchfish. We have provided some useful communication examples

which will demonstrate the types of information to include.

For those that are new users to Researchfish, the initial Introductory communication can expect to include:

1.   Explanation of Researchfish, what the information will be used for.

2.   Benefits to the Researcher

3.   Mandating/Terms & Conditions of Submission

4.   When to expect the Invites and what to do

5.   When the submission period will be

6.   How to seek support.

Key things to consider are:

●    Is the submission going to be mandated? Will there be sanctions imposed if an award has not been submitted?

●    If they are a new account/award holder, when they can expect to receive an invitation to create an account. (and to check their Junk/spam email folders for this)

●    If you have included additional questions, consider explaining the need and use of this information

●    Consider a twitter plan as another way of reaching out and keeping users informed

●    Consider adding a notice board/webpage (if you have not already)to your website, with more information about Researchfish and the submission process

We encourage funders to send the invitations to new award holders well in advance of the submission period start date, allowing more time to access Researchfish as soon as they need. However, it is common behaviour for researchers to populate their outputs only while during the submission period, but it is good to provide the researcher with the option.

Researchers will need to contact you for help or guidance on some output types or additional questions. Update your contact information via ‘Organisational Details’ so it can be used for theResearcher ‘Award Details’ page.

It is also useful for ROs and Funders to keep in touch and is also presented on the 'Our Community' page along with other organisations submission period dates.

Researchfish technical support closes at 5pm but the platform will continue to allow submissions up until 23:59 (UK time) of the deadline date.

Funders often set their researchers a deadline with a specific time, so ensure this is communicated clearly.

This may also affect any support you can expect from the funder, if you are an RO.

All funders have a final submission end date (and time) and in general will not extend beyond this. If as a funder you think there are likely to be some extenuating circumstances for your researchers, please inform Researchfish as soon as possible. You will also need to arrange appropriate communications to notify this to ROs and the award holders.

Research Organisations: If researchers are enquiring about an extension, these requests will need to be directed to the relevant funder for further advice on this. Check you have the funders details to hand; as mentioned above, contact details should be available via the 'Our Community' pages on the Researchfish platform.

Chaser Emails- RO’s and Funders: Sometimes Research Organisations may also communicate with researchers to ensure they are submitting by the deadline, or they may have their own comms plan too. Ensure the details align so that award holders are not receiving mixed messages.

See the Reports and Exports sections of the Funder User Guide for instructions on how to download and use your reported data. You can use the data for annual reporting to show the pathways to impact of the research that is funded. Clearly reporting the data provided by your researchers can also encourage researchers to continue to keep their Researchfish account up to date with good quality data. Speak with our Data and Impact Team for further assistance and guidance.