System Logins

Users new to Boston University or new to sponsored research will need to review their systems access and make sure that they have the necessary credentials to apply for funding and manage their awards.

Key systems that researchers may need access to include:

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) eRA Commons – Request access through the BU form.
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) Research.gov – Request a username through NSF.
  • ORCID – Use the BU ORCID interface to create an ID or connect an existing one with your BU information. For more information, see the walkthrough below.
  • Login.gov – Create your Login.gov account and tie your other federal accounts to this login.
  • MyNCBI (SciENcv) – Please see the walkthrough below.

While not strictly required, both ORCID and Login.gov are suggested for all researchers. ORCID is increasingly required by many agencies and publishers. Login.gov serves as a secure password manager and makes it easy to keep track of federal credentials.

Multiple Accounts

In some cases, users accidentally create multiple accounts for the same service. Care should be taken to reduce or merge these accounts as described by the service in question. For any user that has more than one MyNCBI account, please contact their helpdesk and ask them to merge your accounts. Similarly, for users with more than one ORCID account, please follow their instructions to remove the duplicate accounts.

Detailed Guidance

eRA Commons

ORCID

ORCID.org describes itself as “a free, unique, persistent identifier (PID) for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities.”

While ORCID is not a government agency, its platform is increasingly required or used by federal government agencies as part of managing sponsored programs. Some agencies now use the ORCID ID at the time of proposal or award to identify specific researchers applying for and receiving federal funding. It is also used by publishers and federal sponsors to disambiguate researchers with similar names.

Aside from an ID number, ORCID offers additional services that researchers can use to stay organized:

  • ORCID provides publication and CV management as an alternative to a website or MyNCBI.
    • Provides static URL for publication list that can be used on biographical sketches (“biosketches”).
  • Publishers can automatically push citations to an author’s profile, lowering data entry. See ORCID’s description of implementing CrossRef.
  • ORCID data can be linked to SciENcv to lower data entry required to generate biosketch documents.

In order to create an ORCID ID, it is recommended to use the BU ORCID interface. This will help prepopulate the ORCID profile. For more information, including the link to the interface, please see BU’s ORCID website.

Three types of permissions are available in ORCID: Everyone, Trusted Organizations, and Only Me. Permissions can be set on individual records within a profile, but the profile can also have a default setting. For users interested in porting data into other systems, it is recommended that users select either “Trusted Organizations” or “Everyone.” This will allow for the least amount of maintenance with permissions over time and provide the best user experience with tools like SciENcv.

There are two components that need to be evaluated separately when connecting ORCID to NIH systems, the persistent identifier and the CV data.

Adding the ORCID ID into eRA Commons will connect grant applications and awards to the ORCID ID (the persistent identifier). Similarly, connecting ORCID into MyNCBI will place the ORCID ID onto NIH biographical sketch (“biosketch”) documents.

NIH also allows SciENcv users to optionally pull CV/resume data from eRA Commons or ORCID if the accounts are linked. Please see the videos on setting up SciENcv if this feature is of interest.

MyNCBI (includes SciENcv)

How do I know if I have an account? If you have filed an NIH RPPR before, you have a MyNCBI account. This is the software that houses My Bibliography, which is where the NIH RPPR publications are stored. If you are not sure, you can try logging in with your eRA Commons account. Otherwise, you may not have a MyNCBI account and you can follow this demo to see how to make an account with MyNCBI (which includes SciENcv).

Login Recommendation

New users should login first using BU credentials. This login is the one you use the most often and are most likely to remember. MyNCBI allows users to link multiple login methods to one account. Please see the Linked Accounts section to add additional login methods to your account.

While not required, users may wish to edit the MyNCBI homepage to allow them to focus on the components they use most. For some this may be only My Bibliography and SciENcv.

To send a delegation request:

  1. Log into your SciENcv account.
  2. Click on your username in the top right corner.
  3. Under the “Delegates” section, click “Add a delegate” and enter the email address of your delegate.
Delegation Expiration

Delegation requests must be accepted by the user before they time out. If the user does not accept quickly, the user may need to be removed and re-added. The delegate user will receive a new email and will need to accept the delegation request.

To accept a delegation request:

  1. Log into your SciENcv account.
  2. Open the delegation request located in your email.
  3. Click on the delegation acceptance link.
  4. The managed collection should now appear in My Bibliography and SciENcv.
Acting as a Delegate

Many delegates accidentally create documents in their own SciENcv account instead of switching to the intended user. Please see the SciENcv Walkthrough to see how you can avoid making this mistake!

The first time the user opens SciENcv, the profile at the top of the page will need to be filled in. This demo shows how this can be done. It is important to use this screen to properly link the ORCID account to the profile. While the initial link can be done in the account settings as a method of logging in and displaying the ORCID ID on the documents, the account needs to be properly linked to the profile in order to pull information from ORCID, including publication and CV information. This only needs to be done at set up. The profile also allows you to directly tie your NSF credentials in a similar fashion.