What’s New in the Unified Reporting System

You still must SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!! after entering information into each form. The URS will not record data that is not SAVED!

You must be using a current web browser to properly view the new URS forms. This URS version supports Netscape Navigator Version 6 or 7 or Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 5, 5.5 or 6. For Macintosh users, the recommended browser is Netscape 7. Any later versions should also work.

The “Credit Courses” section has been improved to allow you to report the number of students by quarter, rather than for the entire year, and add SEI scores for each quarter.

The “Research” component has been reintroduced, but in a revised form. The new “Research” component is designed to report overviews of major research efforts. If you include technical staff or collaborators in the “Research” section, the research record will NOT appear in those person’s reports. This section does not support the Team function that is a feature of the “Academic Activities” and “Grants and Gifts” sections. You can associate grants and other funding sources with a given research activity by checking the box in front of any grant listed in this section. You can also associate “Academic Activities” with a research program also by checking the appropriate box in the list. Both “Shared” and “Private” keys are allowed in the “Research” section.

To reduce the number of names that you must deal with in the drop-down lists, this version of the URS has added a “Collaborator” feature. When you add a new “Academic Activity” or a new “Grant or Gift”, you can add authors or co-investigators by clicking the link at the bottom of the form. A new box will appear at the end of the existing form that will allow you to select a team member. The list that originally appears in the drop-down list for selecting collaborators will be a short list of those colleagues with whom you have already published or submitted grants. If you need to include a person who is not on your “Collaborator” list, just click on the “View Full Investigator (or Author) List”. A new window will open which contains the entire faculty list. Just select the name of the new collaborator, and click “Save”. The new collaborator will be added to the activity record you are creating. If you make a mistake, you can click the “Remove” box on each collaborator’s box, and that name will be removed after the record is saved. The next time you add a new record, the added name will be on the short collaborators list.

New reports have been added. Most of the buttons listed on the main menu, before you select an annual report, generate reports based on the entire database. These global reports allow you to search Academic Activities, Grants and Gifts, Extension programs or Extension presentations using various search criteria. Academic Activities and Grants and Gifts can be searched by a single text string, or by either Statewide Teams or Private keys. Statewide Team reports that select activities from all the URS components will be available in the future. Extension programs can use the same search tools, but in addition, can also be searched by Plan of Action, Extension Keyword, County, and Ohio Legislative District. The final report on the main menu is your full Promotion and Tenure report. Use this report as the basis for preparing P&T format documents.

The reports selected from the secondary menu that is listed while you are working in a specific report, all are based on that single year’s information and only for the reporting individual.

For additional information on making the URS reporting even easier, please read the URS Tips and Suggestions.