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Research Services: Pure Hints and Tips

Pure Hints and Tips

Pure is the University Current Research Information System. This guide gives an overview of the stages of creating a record and some hints and tips to get the best from the system.

Got a question that isn't answered here? Email us

Logging into Pure and Creating a Record

Most staff and PGRs can access Pure at pure.soton.ac.uk if they are signed into the University environment using Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)

Some Visitors may need to arrange access please see here for details

Create a record by clicking Add new content – not sure which template to use Use the decider tool

The university requires a record be created for all research you publish while employed by the university. There only needs to be one record per publication so only one author needs to create and link it to other users. You can post to other sites depending on what the publisher permits e.g. Arxiv

You can add any research you have done prior to joining the university

You must complete all fields with a red asterisk

For dates

  • Epub ahead of print is used as the first online date 
  • Published is the date of the volume/issue your article appears in. 
  • For books epub ahead of print is the day it sells from 
  • Published date is the copyright year 

For articles you need to add the accepted manuscript

              For REF this must be done within 3 months of acceptance

              If you don’t know the open access status set it to unknown

Once all mandatory fields are completed save for validation –

If you can’t see save for validation double check all internal people’s current affiliation is linked and mandatory fields are completed

Once saved for validation you will not be able to make changes until the record has been validated

If you still need to work on your record save as ‘Entry in progress’ this is the draft status, records stay here until you push them on to be validated

 

For Validation

When you save 'for validation' your record enters a queue for review. It does not go to any other system such as webpages until it passes this review.

You will not be able to edit the record during this time

Our team will check each record to ensure compliance with publisher policies to ensure we can use the file version you have uploaded. They will add any embargos or licenses to the file.

If there is something missing or wrong with your record the team will email you and save the record as entry in progress, if will not be looked at again until you respond to the email or update the record and save if for validation again.

They may change the access restrictions to your file based on publisher requirements

When a publisher doesn’t specify a license the team will add the University Accepted Manuscript license to appropriate files so end users know how they can use your work

The team check the record in order of last modified date. They aim to validate records as soon as possible and within 2 weeks but it depends on volume, so sometimes it may take longer, for example during REF benchmarking  or holiday periods.

Validated

Once the team validates your record it can take up to 48 hours to appear on Eprints Soton – our university institutional repository, and any profile pages for authors linked to the record.

If something isn’t showing on your staff profile page and the record is validated and linked to you it may be a problem with the backend of the webpages which we do not have access to, instead you need to contact the Digital User Experience Team form  so they can investigate: 

You will be able to edit your record once it’s validated – for example adding volume and issue. Each time you change something it goes back to the team to check.

Please note - You will not be able to amend the access to your file that is set by the publisher

Any embargoes to the file will come off automatically once the embargo period has been reached.

Common Problems

 

A record isn’t linked to me/is incorrectly linked to me

A record will be linked to a university account – sometimes the wrong account is linked because you have a common name, or it was linked to a student account, and you are now staff.

If the record has been validated and is not connected to you but should be you can Claim the record by following claims/disclaims process. see the Claim a Research output in Pure handout. You can also disclaim content incorrectly linked to you.

              You cannot disclaim old content you no longer want to see

Press embargoes

  • Some journals have specific pre-publication requirements (press and publicity restrictions or embargoes, including social media) such as the Nature journals, which may also extend to the bibliographic details of your paper. If you follow the procedure below you will be meeting your open access obligations for funders (including the REF) and abiding by the publishers rules. 
  1. This is what authors need to do, or if someone uploads to Pure on your behalf what you (the author) must make them aware of: 
  1. Create a Pure record and deposit the accepted manuscript of your accepted research output. Record as many dates as possible, especially the acceptance date. 
  1. If there is anything unusual about the record, or you know the anticipated publication date, make a note in the ‘Bibliographical Note’ field. 
  1. If in doubt, mark the embargo for the accepted manuscript files as ‘unknown’ when you attach them. 
  1. If the item needs to be ‘confidential’ (invisible) for a limited period (e.g. press embargo) email eprints@soton.ac.uk include: 
  • Author 
  • Title 
  • Short Pure ID (from the top left hand corner of the record, once it’s been saved) 
  • Short explanation of why you are contacting them – if setting visibility or embargo, make it clear why and what level of in/visibility is required 
  • Any key dates, such as when the record can be visible, or likely publication date so they can check for it 

If in doubt, contact the ePrints team before proceeding.