Dear NSF
Awardees,
Thank you for
your patience as the National Science Foundation has launched the new
project reporting service on Research.gov. Since the October 2012 pilot
start date, over 31,000 annual, final, interim and project outcomes reports
have been submitted successfully. Since launching the service to all
awardees, we received feedback to help us prioritize fixes and enhancements.
This August, improvements are coming to Research.gov that will advance
project report submission, including:
·
Easily Check Report Completeness: Research.gov
will soon permit you to click a “check report completeness” link to easily
determine the section(s) of a project report that are incomplete.
·
Accurate Character Counter: Character
count will only include visible characters.
·
Unlimited Products & Participants: Enter
an unlimited number of products and/or participants to project reports.
Currently, Research.gov prevents you from entering more than 127 products
and/or participants.
·
Pre-Populated PI/co-PI Role: You are
currently not permitted to delete a participant if you inadvertently label them
as a PI or a co-PI. Research.gov currently pre-populates the report with the PI
and co-PIs based on the information from the award. With the upcoming
improvements, the system will no longer allow you to add new participants with
the PI or co-PI role. This change will eliminate errors from occurring.
·
Updated Publication Information:
Currently, Research.gov requires you to enter a publication day,
month, and year on all publications, regardless of their status. The
system will change so that:
§
Publications listed as “published” will require
the year only.
§
Publications listed as “under review, awaiting
publication, submitted, accepted, or other” will not require a date.
§
Finally, Research.gov will no longer require you
to enter volume or page number.
In addition to
these enhancements, NSF is currently conducting a usability assessment in order
to enhance Research.gov navigability in order to improve user experience.
Annual
Report vs. Final Report: Also, we realize there has been some
confusion over the content requirements of final reports. Please
remember that final reports are not cumulative; rather, they are considered the
last annual report of the project, and should be written specifically for the
most recently completed budget period.
We appreciate
all feedback, from both awardees and NSF staff, so we can continuously improve
Research.gov. All feedback is reviewed and the following actions are
taken:
·
Enhancement requests are documented and
considered for future releases.
·
The Research.gov Help Desk assists PIs with any
technical issues that may prevent them from completing project reports.
Thank you
again for your involvement throughout the transition of project reporting to
Research.gov. We look forward to continuing to serve the research community in
the future.
Where do I
go for help with my project report?
Where can I
share feedback on Research.gov?
Please send
feedback or questions pertaining to this email to feedback@research.gov.