Outcome Prioritisation e-Val Guidance
Funders may wish to further reduce the reporting burden for researchers by identifying which common outcome categories researchers should prioritise when reporting against their awards in Researchfish. This prioritisation may differ from award to award.
Outcome Prioritisation allows funders to create “Outcome Priority Schemes”; these schemes define the prioritisation across the common outcome categories. Multiple schemes can be created. Each scheme specifies which common outcome categories are a priority and which are not. and save any number of schemes for future use. Each scheme specifies which common outcome categories are a priority and which are not. Funders can then assign existing Outcome Priority Schemes to awards as they wish. Note this is optional functionality; funders can assign Outcome Priority Schemes to all, some, or none of their awards.
When Researchers access an award that has an Outcome Priority Scheme assigned to it, their view of common outcome categories will be determined by that scheme.
This guide provides instructions for funders on how to create Outcome Priority Schemes and assign them to awards, as well as showcasing what researchers of such awards will see.
Note for Centre Administrators
Centres can also utilise Outcome Prioritisation for projects created by their organisation. However, they cannot assign Outcome Priority Schemes to awards created by funding organisations; only the corresponding funder can do this.
If you are a centre administrator, all information in this guide is applicable, however please regard any references to “awards” as “projects”.
Navigating to Outcome Priority Schemes
From the navigation bar on the left side of any page on Researchfish, navigate to e-Val > Outcome Priority Schemes
Here you can create a new Outcome Priority Scheme, view the details of any existing schemes, and edit or delete existing schemes.
Creating an Outcome Priority Scheme
From the Outcome Priority Scheme page, select "Add an Outcome Priority Scheme" at the top of the page.
You will be taken to a page where you specify the name of the scheme, give it a description, and the priority level for each common outcome category (more information on priority levels can be found below).
Upon saving the scheme, it will be added to the list of existing Outcome Priority Schemes, ready for future use.
Outcome Priority Levels
When creating or editing an Outcome Priority Scheme, one of three priority levels must be chosen for each common outcome category:
- Normal
- Low priority
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Hidden
These represent the degree to which the funder wants to encourage (or discourage) reporting for each outcome type.
- Normal priority = The funder is interested in / encourages / expects reporting on these outcome types
- Low priority = The funder is less interested in these outcome types / researchers can optionally report to funders for these outcome types
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Hidden = These outcome types will be hidden where appropriate in the UI. However please note that this does not prevent attribution. Researchers who manually navigate to hidden common outcome categories are not blocked from reporting such outcomes.
These will be used to help signpost to the researcher regarding where they may wish to focus their reporting efforts, without imposing any limitations or restrictions.
Are Outcome Priority Schemes compatible with Additional Questions?
Outcome Priority Schemes pertain to the “common outcome” categories only, and are not compatible with Additional Questions.
Additional Questions already allow for funders to choose which awards they are assigned to, if they are mandatory or optional, etc. Further guidance on Additional Questions is available here.
Assigning Outcome Priority Schemes to Awards
When manually creating a new award or editing an existing award via e-Val > Awards, an Outcome Priority Scheme can be assigned to it.
It is not yet possible for funders to bulk assign Outcome Priority Schemes to multiple awards simultaneously; this must be done by our Data Team.
Please first ensure that any relevant Outcome Priority Schemes have been created/saved.
Create a spreadsheet with two columns; one containing a list of Agreement IDs of the awards you would like to assign schemes to, and the other containing the names of the Outcome Priority Schemes you would like assigned to each corresponding award. Below is an example:
Please then send your request and spreadsheet to rfclientsupport@elsevier.com
Note that we can only accept requests from users with sufficient administrator permissions for the relevant funding organisation on the Researchfish platform. To expedite your request, please contact us from an e-mail address that is registered to a Researchfish account that has full admin permissions (eg. can create and edit awards). This allows us to verify authorisation to make changes to awards for your funding organisation in Researchfish.
Researcher View
If an Outcome Priority Scheme is assigned to an award, the next time the researcher of that award accesses it in Researchfish, they will be presented with a choice of two views:
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Funder View - This will result in the researcher seeing common outcome categories grouped (or hidden) in accordance with the priority levels of the assigned Outcome Priority Scheme.
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Full View - This is the default view in Researchfish. It will result in the researcher seeing the full list of common outcome categories. Researchers may wish to retain this view if they use Researchfish as a comprehensive repository of all their research outputs, and are confused by the disappearance of certain common outcome categories.
By default the researcher will not see this prompt again upon subsequently accessing that award, however researchers can change their desired view at any time by accessing an award with an Outcome Priority Scheme assigned to it, and then choosing between "Funder view" and “Full view” in the top-right of the page.
When a Researcher uses “Funder View” to view an award with an Outcome Priority Scheme assigned, the common outcome categories presented to them will be grouped or hidden accordingly. Common outcome categories that were stipulated as being “Normal Priority” will be displayed first. Then Additional Questions (if any). Finally, common outcome categories that were stipulated as being “Low Priority”. Any common outcome categories that were stipulated to be “Hidden” will not be visible unless the researcher switches to “Full View”.
This helps signpost to researchers which outcome common categories they may wish to focus on if they are otherwise uncertain, reducing the reporting burden.