CRIS User Guide

CRIS is an acronym for Current Research Information System. These systems aggregate and integrate information about research activity in a structured and standardised way. All 9 public Israeli universities have selected Pure (an Elsevier product) as their CRIS system. Pure is also deployed in hundreds of other academic institutions around the world.

Pure relies mainly on data from Scopus and Scival (Elsevier products), which are determining factors in several world university rankings. This enables the university to analyse its performance. CRIS also provides a better overview of the university’s research activity at the individual, departmental, and institutional level, showcases current research activity, and helps improve internal processes in the institution.
 
Israel’s higher education national budget is allocated to the various universities by the Israeli Council for Higher Education, Planning and Budgeting Committee (VATAT) according to a yearly list of publications.
CRIS is planned to be the system from which this yearly list of publications is compiled.

The university CRIS system enables the institution to document research data such as research outputs (publications as specified in the research outputs section), data sets, research activities (editorial work, organising conferences, membership in professional organisations, etc.), prizes, media coverage, research projects, grants and more.
 
Your researcher profile’s personal information is automatically imported from university systems such as human resources and student administration into your researcher’s profile (see more info in “Your personal info in CRIS” section). Some of your publications are automatically retrieved from databases, mainly from Scopus and IHP (Haifa index to Hebrew periodicals). Instructions on manually adding more research information are elaborated in the “Your research in CRIS” section.

"Research outputs" is the CRIS term for publications. 
Research outputs included in Tel Aviv University CRIS:

• Publications in journals: articles, review articles, editorials, letters, comments and debates, book reviews, special issue editing.
• Books
• Book chapters and encyclopedia entries
• Conference publications in journals (called “Conference article” in CRIS) or in conference proceedings published in printed or electronic volumes (called “Conference contribution” in CRIS)
• Reports
• Working papers/discussion papers in relevant disciplines

Research outputs currently not supported in Tel Aviv University CRIS (and some of which may be added in the future):

• Preprints
• Patents
• Student theses
• Conference abstracts or posters.
• Conference papers are available only on the conference websites and are not covered in academic databases.

Some of your research outputs are automatically retrieved and validated from databases, mainly from Scopus and IHP (Haifa index to Hebrew periodicals). 
Please note that publications in journals covered in Scopus or IHP may take several months from the online publication date to the automatic appearance in CRIS.  
Nevertheless, it is recommended to wait for the automatic retrieval of research outputs rather than uploading them manually in order to avoid mistakes and ensure correct automatic updating of the information.
Publications not covered in Scopus or IHP are retrieved from additional sources such as Web of Science or HeinOnline and considered individually.

The CRIS system has a back office interface and a public website called the CRIS portal. The back office is where all the research data is stored. Entry requires a username and password. Research information from the CRIS back office is presented on the Tel Aviv University portal under your researcher profile.
 
Information on Tel Aviv University publications (research outputs) published by current senior academic faculty from 2011 onwards is also visible on CRISrael, the national CRIS portal of all 9 Israeli public research universities (research outputs from earlier years will be added to CRISrael later).
 
CRIS portals are indexed by Google and usually rank high in Google search result pages when searching your name or publications.