Getting Started with FAR
Interfolio’s Scholar Services team will act as the primary contact for product and technical support for administrators, faculty, and staff. This guide will walk through the Scholar Services team structure as well as some of the most commonly asked questions, best practices, and helpful resources.
Getting Started with FAR
Log into Interfolio with SSO (Partner Institution)
Faculty members log into Interfolio Faculty Activity Reporting (FAR, Faculty180) using Single Sign-On (SSO), allowing secure access to multiple systems with one set of credentials. Users authenticate through their university network and are redirected to Interfolio without needing to re-enter credentials. Login information is never shared between systems.
Interfolio will work with Institutional Administrators and the institution's IT department to set up and manage the SSO integration. It is crucial to maintain the SSO integration.
Institutions must inform Interfolio of any SSO updates, such as changes to metadata, servers, or shared attributes.
Our Team
| Division | Details |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 - Scholar Advocates |
Initial issue triage; product education and support for how-to questions for faculty members.
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| Tier 2 - Customer Success Advisors |
Customer Success Advisors (CSAs) handle complex troubleshooting, bug triage, and product support for all users in Interfolio FAR.
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| Technical Services |
Support cases are assigned to the Technical Services team at the discretion of Tier 2. Technical Services SLAs are available here. The Technical Services team also offers data and API consulting.
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Terminology
| Term | Definitions |
|---|---|
| Activity | An event that a faculty member wants to track as a record of their career, such as a type of teaching, a scholarship, or a service performed. |
| Form |
A set of data input fields. The main forms used in FAR are:
|
| Activity/Faculty Classifications | Configurable metadata regarding activities or faculty. These classifications are customizable by the institution and allows for the tracking of data that is not included in default sections. |
| Section | An area for faculty to enter similar types of activities. Default sections are sections which are not customizable and exist with every FAR implementation. These may also have unique settings or reports associated with them. Institutions can also create custom sections which are specific to their FAR instance. |
| Faculty |
Users who are intended to add and/or manage information on their Profile and Activities pages. Faculty users can also be assigned administrator roles. |
| Support Account |
Users who need to be able to access the system and emulate faculty, such as an administrative employee who enters information on behalf of faculty or an academic advisor who needs to be able to report on information in FAR. These users do not have access to the Profile and Activities pages, and can be assigned various levels of administrative access. |
Interfolio Data Service (IDS)
IDS is technology that populates the Interfolio FAR module in bulk with correct and complete data about the academic work of faculty members.
Interfolio Data Service is an add-on feature that can be implemented to help faculty add scholarly activities quickly and easily to FAR. Please reach out to your Interfolio contact or the Scholar Services team for more information.
Important Help Articles
| Title | Articles |
|---|---|
| Administrators | |
| Faculty |
FAQs
What capabilities does an administrator have while emulating a faculty member?
When administrators emulate a faculty member, they can view and edit the faculty member's profile and activity entries. Depending on the section's configuration, administrators may have the ability to edit entries that faculty can only view.
- Emulation applies only to FAR tasks and does not extend to other Interfolio products like RPT.
- Emulation access cannot be restricted by role or individual—administrators with emulation privileges have the same access for all faculty in their unit.
Can a faculty member's data be transferred from one institution to another?
No; FAR is highly customizable, and each institution's FAR configuration will be different, which does not allow for a simple transfer of information.
The best route will be for the faculty member to request a backup data export of their entries from their previous institution, and then have the faculty member re-add their entries manually.
What integrations are available in FAR?
FAR can integrate with Web of Science (WoS), Medline/PubMed, ORCiD, or INSPIRE. Interfolio also offers an add-on service called Interfolio Data Service (IDS) to help faculty upload their scholarly activities with ease. Please reach out to your Interfolio contact to discuss integration options or to learn more about IDS.
How to determine what abilities Unit Administrators have?
Permissions for Unit Administrators are defined in the Organizational Structure. Administrators can view them by going to Administration > Setup > Organizational Structure and selecting the Edit icon next to the unit. This displays the capabilities assigned to administrators for that unit.
Administrative roles are assigned to users on the faculty or support account pages.
Why are users getting automatically logged out?
For security purposes, Interfolio will log out any user after 60 minutes of inactivity.
Why can’t faculty members add, edit, or delete something in their Activity Input?
Does your institution allow faculty to enter their own course information?
Check out this article About Locking Controls in FAR for more information
Does your institution use an external source (ARXIS, RIS/Bibtex, etc.) to integrate the faculty data? About FAR integrations
Check out this article About FAR Integrations for more information