Guest post by Alan Bracey, UCL Open Access Compliance Officer

As we prepare for a full week of events and updates during International Open Access Week, the UCL Open Access team is sharing recent improvements to UCL’s Research Publications Service (RPS) and its public interface, UCL Profiles. Below is a summary of the key changes implemented, including new HTML text entry boxes for easier formatting, refined search and filtering options, and improvements in readability and accessibility. Check it out!

Overview text boxes are now html

We start with one of the most popular feature requests from colleagues at UCL and other institutions, and are very pleased to announce that this has now been added by the supplier.

The text entry boxes in RPS for entering Overview, Research interests, and Teaching summary are now HTML rather than text, and have controls to add formatting and links:

Any formatting added here is applied in Profiles.

Better searching and filtering in Profiles

The update brings several improvements to searching and filtering. Firstly, the search algorithm itself has been updated. This means that although users will see fewer results as they add terms, those results should be more relevant, particularly where users are searching for multiple terms or multi-word terms. The supplier is keeping the new algorithm under review, so we welcome feedback on how the search is performing.

Profiles also now highlights where the search terms have been matched to major sections within a profile, helping users to understand the relevance of their results:

Plus, the display of zero search results has also been improved:

A search has also been added to the top of the publication and activity pages, so that users can search a list for content within that list (e.g. search an academic’s publications for an article):

The list of filters is now collapsible, making the full list of available filters more prominent and easier to navigate. Highlights also remind users what filters have already been applied, making search results easier to refine:

Other changes in Profiles

We are pleased to announce that Profiles has a new font, with a stronger weight and wider spacing, that improves readability:

The option to add pronouns has been available in RPS for a while now, but previously they did not display in Profiles. This has been updated so that pronouns added in RPS (on the Account Settings page) show in Profiles, under your name:

The X/Twitter icon has also been updated.

Other improvements you might notice in RPS

The RPS Edit Profile page (RPS > Edit my Profile) is better spaced out, making it clearer and easier to read. Updates have been made to the overall layout and to profile and field-level privacy controls. Accessibility improvements have also been made, including to the photo uploader.

Note: ‘Position’ and ‘Department’ no longer show in the Edit page, only the RPS ‘View profile’ page, which will help avoid potential confusion as these fields are sourced from HR and cannot be edited in RPS. See our FAQs for details of how to request changes to those fields.

This page used to show embedded publications (and a related graph), professional activities, teaching activities and grants. These have been removed because they were found to be confusing for users. (These tabs are still on the RPS View profile page.)

This means there are no shortcuts to Manage publications/professional activities/teaching activities/grants from the Edit profile page. Use the home button (top left of RPS) to return to your home page to edit publications/professional activities/teaching activities. Grants are not editable in RPS, but this data will be improved before it is added to Profiles in future.

We’d love to hear your feedback on these updates and any other features you’d like to see in Profiles! To share your thoughts, please contact UCL’s Open Access Team.