Database FAQs

1. Are there general instructions for faculty on updating the annual report?

   Yes, two types of instructions are available:
   

   • Video introduction to the annual report
   • PDF handout on updating the annual report
     

2. Who can view my annual report?

   Your annual report may be viewed by:
   

   • you, and anyone to whom you have granted your proxy access
   • your department chair
   • staff in your department who have "manager" access to your department's FDS.
   
   
   The A&S deans can see a version of your annual report which you can review by clicking the "dean's view" link at the top of your annual report.  The dean's view includes some additional information such as research interests and education.  It does not include:
   
   
   • any entries on your report which have been tagged "omit from vita" or "omit from web."
   • any comments entered in an "Info for the Chair" field.
   
   
   For more information about the privacy of your information in the database, see the Faculty Database Privacy Policy.

3. What is the "dean's view" of the annual report?

   The "dean's view" is a modified version of the annual report which is available to the deans. It includes some information not included on your regular report, such as the information about your research interests and education that also appears on your web page.
   
   The dean's view does not include:
   

   • any entries on your report which have been tagged "omit from vita" or "omit from web."
   • any comments entered in an "Info for the Chair" field.
   
   You can see the "dean's view" of your report by clicking the link at the top of your annual report.
   
   For more information about the privacy of your information in the database, see the Faculty Database Privacy Policy.

4. I entered information on my annual report, but it doesn't show up, or it appears in the wrong year. What happened?

   The date of the entry may have been entered incorrectly.
   
   In most of the database entry forms, the Date field has two parts:
   

   1. Fields for entering year, month and day
   2. A "Custom Date" field
   
   The date entered in the first section (year/month/day) determines how the entry is listed chronologically.  This date must fall within the time period specified on the report form in order for the entry to appear on the report.  This date will also determine the order in which the entry is displayed on the report.
   
   The "Custom Date" field shows the date that will display in the entry.  It can be modified if the date for display needs to be different than the chronological date entered above it.

5. How can I locate an entry that is not appearing on my report?

   Click the Database link that appears on the left-hand side of your annual report. A list of links will appear under Database corresponding to the categories of information that can be entered in the database (Publications, Lectures, Comm(ittees)/Service, Grants, etc.). Click the relevant category to see and edit a list of all the entries in that category.

6. Why are courses I didn't teach appearing on my annual report? Is there a way to remove them?

   The course information listed in the faculty database is pulled in from the SISS system. As a result, all courses listed in SISS, even independent studies in which no students were enrolled, also appear in the faculty database. You can remove these courses from your annual report by clicking the "edit" link next to them and checking the "omit from annual report" checkbox that appears at the top of the form.

7. Who should I contact if I need to request a change to the annual report form for my department?

   Contact fds@aas.duke.edu or you may write directly to adrienne.moore@duke.edu .

8. Can I give someone else access to update my annual report without sharing my password?

   Yes. To give another person "proxy" access so they can enter and update information for you:
   

   • Make sure you are logged into the FDS
   • On the first screen you see after you have logged in, click the "Edit your personal information" link.
   • Scroll down to the bottom of the resulting Update General Info form and find the Optional Proxy section.
   • Enter an email address and password in the Optional Proxy section.  Note that this does not have to be a real email address, as long as it is in the form something@something.something
   • Click the Update button.
   • Now your proxy will be able to log in using the email address and password you entered.  The proxy must use the FDS Custom Login option to log in and update your information.
   • To remove proxy access, simply remove the email address from the Optional Proxy field.
     

9. Can I format the text I'm entering for my annual report?

   Yes. A built-in text editor has been added to the database so you can format text without having to use HTML.
   
   Note: This feature was made possible by new web-browser technology and is only available in the following recent browser versions  (contact your local computer support if you need  one of these browsers installed):
   Windows: Internet Explorer 4.0 and later; Mozilla 1.3 and later
   Mac: Mozilla 1.3 and later
   Linux: Galleon
   

   • In form fields for which the text editor is available, a paper and pencil icon will appear beside the field title: . Click this icon to activate the editor.
   • Text formatting buttons similar to those found in word-processing programs will appear above the field and can be used to apply formatting which will be visible in the field below.
     
   • Clicking the pen and paper icon a second time will display your text as plain text with HTML code.
   
   Note: When copying and pasting formatted text into a database form, you can retain at least general formatting if you activate the text editor before you paste.

10. How does the custom date field work?

    Some of the forms used to enter information (e.g., Publications, Lectures, Committee/Service) have a "Custom Date" field. The Custom Date field shows the date that will be displayed in the citation.

    By default, the Custom Date field is auto-filled with a text version of the numeric date entered in the fields above it.
    
    To display a different date than the one filled in automatically, just edit the text of the custom date field.
    

    Note:  Say you enter a publication, edit the custom date text so it's just right, and submit the form.  Later you edit the entry and change the year or the month, causing your carefully composed custom date to be overwitten by the auto-fill.  All is not lost: simply click the green cycling arrow icon to the right of the Custom Date field    to restore the previous custom date. 
    

11. Can I customize the text of links to online publications?

    Yes. When you include a link to an online publication in the "Web URL" field of the publication form, the link that appears in the citation is the last part of the URL that was entered. (E.g., the link http://www.duke.edu/articlex.pdf would display in the citation as [pdf])
    
    To specify other text for this link, enter the URL of the publication in the "Web URL" field on the publication form, then append a space at the end, followed by the desired text.
    For example, if the URL of your publication is:
    
    http://www.duke.edu/articlex.pdf
    
    and you want the link to be [MyArticleX] rather than [pdf],  enter the URL like this:
    
    http://www.duke.edu/articlex.pdf MyArticleX
    
    The link can be any word, but it cannot contain any spaces.

12. Can I upload a file containing my publications, instead of entering them one by one?

    Yes, you can upload your publications from a file of any of the following types:
    BibTeX
    EndNote
    Refer
    ProCite
    Medline
    AIP Spin (BibTeX format)
    

    1. Open a blank "Add a new publication" form.
    2. Scroll to the bottom of the form and find the "BibTeX/EndNote/Refer/ProCite/MedLine Upload" section: click the Upload button.
    3. Select the type of file you wish to upload.
       
    4. Browse for and select the file. Then click the Submit button.
    5. At the top of the form is a table with the publication types indicated in your file on the left and the FDS publications types on the right. Select the type on the right that corresponds with the type on the left--once you have done this the first time, the FDS will remember your choices.
    6. Specify the criterion by which the system should identify duplicate entries (the "Title with" options only work if the fields match exactly).
    7. Choose Update or Overwrite (the difference is explained on the form).
       
    8. Click the Submit button.
    9. Finally, you will see a list of all the publications that will be uploaded. From here you can choose not to upload certain entries, and to do some last-minute editing. Then click Submit one more time to upload the publications to the database.

13. Can I import my publications directly from another online database into the faculty database?

    The FDS supports import of publications directly from PubMed. This option is available in departments known to use PubMed. If you would like to use this feature but do not have the import option in your publications form, please write to fds@aas.duke.edu to have it turned on for your department.

14. Can I attach files, such as images or other documents, to my annual report?

    Yes. In all of the forms used to enter data for the report, a small paper clip icon appears near the bottom of the form:
    To attach a file to an entry:
    

    • Click the paper clip icon to expand the file attachment area
      
    • Click the "Browse" or "Choose File" button and select the file for attachment
    • If desired, add a brief description of the file in the "Link Label" field.
      
    • Choose any desired options in the "Any Info" section:
    • check  "display directly at end of entry when possible" to display the entire file in the report (rather than a link to it).  This will only work for "web friendly" formats such as images.
    • check "public" if you want the attachment to be available in views other than the annual report.
    • Click the Update button (above the file attachment section) to submit the form and the attachment.
    
    To add contextual images:
    
    By default, attached files will appear at the end of the entry to which they are attached.  If you would like the attachment to appear within the text of an entry (e.g., if you wish to include images contextually within your research statement) you can do this with only a few additional steps, by using the text editor to place a "tag" to your image in the body of your text.
    
    
    • Do not check "display at end of entry when possible" when uploading the attachment (otherwise the image will appear twice--once where you are about to place it, and again at the end of the entry).
      
    • Submit the form to upload the attachment (this creates the link to your image).
      
    • Your attachment will appear as a link at the bottom of your entry.   Click this link and copy the address of the resulting web page, or right-click (windows) or control-click (mac) and choose "Copy link location" or similar option from the resulting menu.
    • Edit the entry again.
    • Click the text editor icon beside the text field where you wish to add the image. 
      
    • Place your cursor at the point in your text where you would like to place the image.
    • Click the "add image" icon in the editor menu:
    • Paste the link of the image into the resulting "Enter url" field.
    • Click the "Update" button on the form to submit your entry.
      

15. I need to make changes to last year's report, but I can only get to the report for the current year. How can I access a previous year's report?

    You can access a report from a previous year by going to your current annual report and appending
    -2004 (substituting the desired year for 2004)
    to the end of the url.
    
    For example, if the url for your current report is:
    https://fds.duke.edu/db?listrpt-1-2-4
    you can access your 2004 report by ammending the url as follows:
    https://fds.duke.edu/db?listrpt-1-2-4-2004
    

16. How do I indicate to my department chair that my annual report is complete?

    At the top of the annual report form, click the link that says "Click here to indicate that this report is ready for the chair to review."
    
    When the report has been marked ready, the text will read "This report is ready for the chair to review. Click here to mark it "not ready", if you choose.

Last Update: 2008/11/25 13:07:47.