FAQs: Research Expertise Discovery Suite (REDS)
- What is Academic Analytics?
Academic Analytics is a supplier of data and analytics related to faculty research in recognized disciplinary fields. Beyond data, Academic Analytics allows custom comparisons of activity and productivity at the University, department, academic program, and faculty levels.
- What is the REDS portal?
The University's Research Expertise Discovery Suite is an online portal that allows users to search for faculty with particular scholarly subject matter expertise and maps the related internal collaborative scholarly network between faculty. The portal is powered by data from Academic Analytics. At the time of portal release, Clemson faculty included are those in the Academic Analytics 2014 dataset.
- How do I use REDS?
Users simply type a key word or words into the "Search By" box. Users may limit the selection of faculty to a particular academic department with the "Additional Search Filters" dropdown box.
Typing in multiple words, such as stellar lithium, will search the titles and abstracts of books, articles, or conference proceedings associated with Clemson faculty, and identify those containing stellar OR lithium. To use multiple words as a single concept, place the whole search term in quotation marks (e.g., "literacy education" will return results for the whole concept of literacy education).
Extensive information about REDS' underlying Apache Lucene Query Parser search logic and syntax is available here. - How do I use/interpret the Collaboration Map resulting from a search?
When the collaboration map appears, clicking on the "Collaboration Map Key" link at the top of the left-hand menu will present a legend to the map.
The colors of the dots (each representing a Clemson faculty member) indicate faculty rank. The size of each dot indicates the relative number of total collaborations of which the faculty is a part. The thickness of connecting lines, each of which represents a collaboration between two faculty members, indicates the relative number of those specific person-to-person collaborations. - How do I move the map around or zoom in/out?
You can move the map in any direction by left-clicking the map, dragging, and dropping (e.g., in the same manner you would for a Google Earth map). You can zoom in or out by whatever means you use to scroll.
- Can I learn more about my colleagues who appear in a collaboration map?
Yes. By clicking the dot representing a named faculty member, users will see an informational menu appear on the right-hand side of the collaboration map. This informational menu contains the faculty member's name, their terminal degree, date of terminal degree, terminal degree institution, a listing of journal articles, conference proceedings, citation counts associated with each journal article and conference proceeding, honorific awards, books, grants, and a scholarly terminology map showing key words associated with the faculty member.
- What should I know about the faculty-specific data?
There are several key data features to keep in mind:
Scholarly data shown in REDS are public in nature and simply compiled from public sources by Academic Analytics.
Academic Analytics only captures federal grants with the exception of those from the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the Institute of Museum and Library Studies.
Currently, chapters in books or edited volumes are not captured by Academic Analytics.
Academic Analytics only captures journal publications and conference proceedings with Digital Object Identifiers. DOI Registration Agencies charge fees (often linked to publication revenue) for their services. Thus, small journals or publishers with austere finances may not be able to afford the use of DOIs.
Overall, data are most complete in scholarly fields that focus on journal publications and federal grants. The data will be less complete--and thus less reflective of the full work of scholars--in some fields in the arts and humanities.
Article and conference proceedings data in REDS currently extend from 2004 to the present (though not necessarily "up to the minute"). Books, grants, and awards data reach back even further.
Grant data is only included for Principal Investigators, and not for Co-Principal Investigators.
Citations to books or from books to journal articles are not captured by Academic Analytics.
Patents and patent disclosures are not captured by Academic Analytics.
Artistic displays, exhibitions, products, and performances are not included in the Academic Analytics database. - I think some of my scholarly data are missing. Are corrections or additions to the data welcome, and how do I request them?
While Academic Analytics' methodology seeks to avoid errors of commission, they enthusiastically welcome requests for corrections or notes of omissions. Those requests can be sent to help@academicanalytics.com.
Faculty may wish to consult with the Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness (jking2@clemson.edu) before doing so in order to ensure that such requests are in scope for the Academic Analytics database. When contacting Academic Analytics to request a correction, faculty are strongly encouraged to Cc: the Associate Provost so that a systemic institutional sense of data reliability can be developed. - What if I have additional questions or concerns?
Please direct additional questions or concerns to the Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness (jking2@clemson.edu).