FAQs

myVITA features work best in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari browsers. Internet Explorer is not recommended because of issues with functionality and display. Please set your browser to accept pop-ups from the myVITA site to ensure an optimal experience.

The Access Settings feature in myVITA allows you to set up a delegate. Refer to the How to Choose a Delegate quick reference guide for instructions.

• MyVITA contains all legacy records from the Faculty Accomplishment System (FAS).
• Many records from MU’s CAFNR reporting system were also transferred.
• Other information comes from the university’s official systems for Human Resources, Finance and Student information.
• A one-time bulk load from Web of Science fed to the Scholarly Contributions section.

• You can edit or delete FAS, CAFNR and Web of Science records as you choose. Once a record is deleted, it cannot be retrieved, and would need to be manually re-entered.
• Other information is fed from systems that are considered official sources of record. In those cases, changes must occur at the source. Administrative staff in your department are often in the best position to help start the process to update information. If you notice errors in the Personal Information, Contact Information, and Current University Position sections of the Profile Form, Human Resources can assist you in correcting it. See Correcting HR Information for contact information. Additional information on how to correct information will be provided in the help and instructions in myVITA. Examples might include:
  • Shared Credit in Grants – fed from PeopleSoft Finance
  • Instructor Role for Courses Taught – fed from the Student system

MyVITA accepts any file format; however, we recommend attaching commonly used formats like Microsoft Office or PDF files so that others can open them. At this time, the size limit for a single file is 750 MB. There is no limit to the number of files or the total storage size for your account. If you have a file that is larger than 750 MB, you can upload the file to the online storage location provided by your campus and then attach the URL of the file in myVITA.

No. Once you delete information in the system, there is no way to recover it. So please be cautious when using the delete function.

When first running a CV or when first viewing teaching in the Courses Taught section, myVITA defaults to displaying the last three semesters’ information. Near the top of the screen, look for the “Start Semester” and “End Semester” drop down options and enter your semester choices. Then refresh the page using the button on the page (not the browser refresh). The system will now display the records with the time frame you selected.

myVITA is available 24x7 for your convenience. Additionally, each semester, you can take advantage of time-saving features available only during an Open Activity Period. Open Activity Periods provide you with an easy-to-use form showing specific sections for a short and specified time period.  Entering your activities in myVITA helps provide a complete picture of your academic successes for your use on award and/or grant applications, as well as annual reviews and P&T. Updating your activities will also ensure that your accomplishments can be available for your department, librarian, or dean to showcase.

Each semester faculty can take advantage of a new, time-saving feature available only during an Open Activity Period, which are expected to occur twice a year. During this time, faculty will have the opportunity to employ a simplified tool, the Open Activity Form, to enter and update recent information in myVITA. This form will present specific sections and records for update and ask for information focused on a specific time period. When available, you will receive communication from your campus, and the Open Activity Form will appear as a link on your myVITA Dashboard. The Open Activity Form is designed to address entry of recent information, thus older activities will not appear and clutter data entry sections. However, all of your accomplishments still exist in myVITA and can be accessed anytime (24/7) by logging into myVITA and selecting one of the links on the left-hand navigation on the Dashboard (even during the Open Activity Period).

Please refer to the How to Enhance Readability document for procedures on adjusting color, contrast, and zoom.

Faculty input is critical to the success of this system. Please email your suggestions to myVITA Support Team.

The course component describes the format of the class offered such as lab, lecture, discussion, etc.

For a list of component abbreviations and definitions, please click on the PDF below.

• Course Components

Please refer to the Scholarly Contributions & Creative Activities Getting Started Guide for instructions.

Please refer to the Where's my FAS data? document for information.

In order to be pre-loaded into your myVITA account, the WOS record needed to be between 2004 and October 2015, and it needed to have a University of Missouri affiliation attached to it. Articles published at a previous institution, for example, would not have been pre-loaded. You can use the Web of Science connection to import missing records.

In Scopus, choose your records and select RIS export. You can either save the file or open it with Notepad (or similar). In myVITA, use Generic (RIS / BibTeX) import feature to add the records. Known Issue: As of January 2016, the author names are not loading into myVITA properly. You’ll see that the last name gets put into the first-name field and vice versa). You will need to manually correct the author information. Depending on how many records you need to upload and how many co-authors are on your publications, this manual fix could be very tedious.

Export the Google Scholar citations as BibTeX and use myVITA’s Generic (RIS / BibTeX) import feature. If you are exporting from Google Scholar search results, look for the Cite link. If you have a Google Scholar Citation Profile, you can Export multiple records to BibTeX.

Yes. Export your EndNote records to a text file in RIS format. In myVITA, you can then use the Generic (RIS / BibTeX) option to import the text file. Known Issue: As of January 2016, the Journal Titles are not loading into myVITA properly if you export your EndNote record to the RIS format. You need to manually enter the journal titles.

In any database, look for a way to export your records to either RIS or BibTeX format. For example, in MathSciNet, you’ll see an option to Batch Download citations in the BibTeX form. With myVITA’s Generic (RIS / BibTeX) option, you can either copy and paste RIS / BibTeX text or import a RIS / BibTeX file. Be sure to check the accuracy of what’s been entered!

Yes. When you Show the Details on one of your Works in ORCiD, you’ll see the BibTeX citation. Copy and paste that information into myVITA’s Generic (RIS / BibTeX) option.

Only UM System faculty with active myVITA accounts are listed. If you cannot find someone, add him/her as Other Co-Author.

Your citations will still be credited to you even if the Faculty at Your Institution column is incorrect (i.e., an “x” instead of a “✔”). Correcting the co-author affiliations is tricky, but it is needed for reporting at the departmental level and above. For example, if you tag a publication to a departmental co-author, your co-author will be able to use that same record in his/her myVITA account, eliminating a duplicate record at the department level. Keep in mind that we won’t be using myVITA for reporting previous years, so don’t feel like you have to fix the institutional affiliations on records prior to 2016. The easiest way to adjust the co-author list while keeping the authors in the correct order is to first Add the co-author(s) as an Internal Faculty Member. The author(s) will be added to the bottom of the co-author list. Move an author to the correct position (e.g., change the number from 10 to 4). Then delete that author’s incorrect entry (e.g., the new number 5). The Deleted entry will appear at the top of the co-author list until you Save the record.

While this decision is up to your department, be sure that you have complete information on your Scholarly Contributions and Creative Activities at least back to your last promotion or appointment. For Full Professors, be sure you have all the information you’ll need for your next 5-year review.

Choosing a Type can be difficult, especially for creative writing. “Article” includes any work in a serial, ongoing publication like a scholarly journal; trade magazine; newspaper; newsletter. “Book Chapter” includes any work in a stand-alone publication. If you published your poem in a literary review, use Article. If you’ve published your poem in an anthology, use Book Chapter. Once you choose the Type, you can indicate that your work is a poem in the Activity Classifications.

Yes, if needed, you can remove yourself from the co-author list. Add the appropriate co-authors and then “Delete” your name. You’ll find the Delete in the Coauthor(s) drop-down menu.

No, access to myVITA is determined by the campuses. Campus leaders used a variety of factors, including rank, tenure, employment status and job code, to determine which faculty members were given access to the system.

MyVITA is a hosted, cloud service. This means the servers and hardware supporting myVITA are not administered by the University. The vendor, Data180, is responsible for all aspects of system administration, including security. UM’s Information Security and Asset Management team in the Division of IT assessed the system and approved its use. The system will be periodically reanalyzed by UM System.

No, Social Security numbers and birthdates were not included in the system.

• No other faculty members will be able to see your information. The single exception is the Search function where faculty can use a keyword search in order to identify potential opportunities for collaboration. The system provides your basic contact information in this search (name, working title, phone, email, work address). Keyword searches can be done on Scholarly Contributions, Grants, Areas of Interest and Expertise, and Continuing Education (delivered to an external audience).
• Department chairs, deans and provosts in your area will have access to your information. Administrators will be granted access at appropriate points in the organizational tree. Administrators do not have access to faculty or information in other departments, colleges or campuses outside of their own.
• Institutional Reporting, the Libraries and other interested parties will not have direct administrative or reporting access to myVITA. Select non-sensitive information will be made available in secure data tables in the UM Data Warehouse so these groups can use external reporting tools for these reports.

See the myVITA training page for details on the types of training that are available.

• For help in entering your information, email the myVITA Support Team, or contact your campus myVITA team. Your campus will notify you or your department about training opportunities.
• We have developed quick reference guides to help you get oriented to myVITA and navigate the system, as well as how to complete the Profile and Activity forms. More training materials will be added as new features become available.
• myVITA also has a variety of online training resources that were developed by the vendor, Data180, to help faculty learn and navigate the new system. These materials can be accessed by clicking the Help link in the top menu of myVITA. The system also has question mark icons or "help bubbles" near many sections or fields that can be clicked to access contextual help.

The myVITA project team worked with the four campus registrars to define the semester dates in myVITA. They are as follows:

• Spring: January 1 – May 15
• Summer: May 16 – July 31
• Fall: August 1 – December 31

Semesters in myVITA for courses are the same as the official UM student system.

• If you are experiencing issues with logging in, browsers, printing, or some feature of the system is not working properly, contact your campus help desk.
  • MU – 573-882-5000
  • UMKC – 816-235-2000
  • S&T – 573-341-4357
  • UMSL – 314-516-6034
• If you have questions about entering your activities or information in the system, which category to use for a specific activity, etc., contact myVITA Support Team for assistance.