Faculty Activity Reports & Publications Database

Purpose:

To provide information to departments about college policies and procedures related to the Faculty Activity Report (FAR) and Publications Database requirements.

Relevant Definitions:

FAR: Faculty Activity Report; formerly known as Faculty Annual Report, or technically “Annual Report by Faculty Member for Fiscal Year Ending August 31, _____”. (see screenshot).

• Required to be submitted by every faculty member on a yearly basis: “Responsibility for submitting annual reports and for keeping their personnel files up-to-date with any new material concerning teaching activities, research, scholarship, publications or public service rests with the individual faculty members.” (HOP 2-2160) 
• Is a report of the completed prior academic year’s activities; e.g., the FAR due in October 2023 will be reporting on AY2022-23.
• Used for annual review of faculty and other faculty review processes.
• There is an online FAR system maintained by the Provost Office.

Publications Database: part of the Provost Office’s web-based Faculty Information Systems suite; meant to be maintained by individual faculty members as record of their publication activities; if a faculty member accesses their Faculty Profile page, they can access this by clicking "Update Scholarly Work":

• Effective August 2021: Certification of publications data is no longer required by the Provost Office on an annual basis for tenured and tenure-track faculty members.

FAR Admin: The online tool used by Chairs, Academic Directors, and Senior Staff to review submitted FARs for their department/center/program and oversee compliance.

Faculty: University employees holding any of the academic titles defined in Regent’s Rule 31001, except for Faculty Associate. 

Department: For purposes of this article, the unit head and/or senior staff person within a unit that has regular faculty employees--whether tenured, tenure-track, or professional-track--and who has responsibility for overseeing (or tracking) faculty-related matters for the unit.

COLA: College of Liberal Arts (as an entity)

APS: Academic Personnel Services; team within the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost responsible for overseeing many faculty processes for the university.

Process:

General Deadline: October 1

1. Departments are responsible for informing their faculty of the requirement to complete their FAR by the department’s internal deadline.* (see FAQ below)
2. If the department utilizes the online FAR system, they can monitor their faculty members’ progress using the FAR Admin tool.
   1. If a unit head or staff member lacks access to FAR Admin, please send an email request for this access to cola_hr@austin.utexas.edu, attn: Ann Kelble, listing the name(s) and EID(s) of the individual(s) needing access.
      1. Note: this is generally limited to one staff contact plus the unit head. Additional staff access will require justification.
   2. If a faculty member submits the FAR but then wants to make a change, the staff or unit head can return the FAR to them using the FAR Admin tool.
   3. Once a new FAR “year” is open, the previous FAR year is closed to edits or submission. This means that faculty generally cannot go back and create or update FARs of years past.
      1. If a faculty member has a pressing need to update a prior fiscal year’s FAR, they may contact cola_HR@austin.utexas.edu with this exception request, but there is no guarantee it will be possible.
3. If the department does Not utilize the online FAR, the department MUST provide documentation of their alternate process and its compliance with HOP 2-2160 when the initial decision to adopt the alternate method is made. COLA is required to notify APS of any changes in FAR process at the department level by October 1 (on an annual basis).
   1. The department is then required to maintain accurate and up-to-date documentation of their alternative FAR process at the department AND college levels on an on-going basis. (Submit process updates and changes to cola_hr@austin.utexas.edu)
   2. Departments who elect not to use the online FAR system are ALSO required to submit copies of their FARs to COLA on an annual basis, as well as maintain a local (department-level) set of files. Departments who have not already established this process should do so by contacting cola_HR@austin.utexas.edu.
      1. At the very least, the department shall be prepared to produce these records for any of their faculty and or for any academic year, upon request.
4. Regardless of whether or not a department uses the online FAR, all tenured and tenure-track faculty are encouraged to update their publications using the online Publications Database.
   1. Note: this database is linked to the online FAR, so the faculty member can update their publications in the database and then import the ones relevant to the specific FAR, so as to not duplicate effort.
5. Once departments have collected their FARs, the FARs ought to be reviewed by the chair/director (as part of just knowing what your faculty are up to), as well as included in annual faculty review materials or related processes.

More about the online FAR system:

• Firefox and Google Chrome continue to be the preferred browsers for the FAR system.
• Once the online FAR is submitted, the faculty member will no longer be able to make changes (unless the department chair or admin "Returns" it to them).  
• Proxy functionality is available for FARs. Faculty members may assign proxy users to add, edit and delete data in the FAR and, if necessary, submit the FAR on behalf of the faculty member. Proxy users are managed in the Publications Database section.
• Each faculty member will only be able to view his or her own profile or FAR, unless they are a chair or dean.  Chairs will be able to view created FARs in their department and track submission through the FAR Administration Tool.
• Questions and comments regarding the functionality of the online FAR can be sent by submitting a Service Now ticket via the Faculty Affairs & Academic Personnel Services Portal.

FAQ:

Q: Why say deadline is October 1 but then refer to 'department’s internal deadline'?

A: The traditional deadline for the FAR (prior to the online version) was October 1, to allow faculty around a month to complete their FAR and turn it into their department while the prior year was still somewhat fresh in their memory. Faculty used to sign their FARs, the Chair (or Director) would also sign, and then the department would make copies for the faculty member, the department files, the college, and the Provost’s Office. That timeline was retained when the university launched their online version of the FAR.

However, when the Provost Office decided it was delegating responsibility for compliance with FAR submission to colleges and schools, COLA deans decided to allow departments to establish different internal deadlines if those alternate deadlines worked better for department needs. The downside, from an administrative point of view, is that it is not possible for our (dean's) office to send reminders or follow-up for a multitude of deadlines, so departments with non-standard deadlines have increased responsibility for maintaining their own internal compliance.

According to our records, the following table describes the different department processes and deadlines: Note: Please let us know if any of this is inaccurate!

*We are also missing data for our non-department units with faculty, so unless otherwise noted, we assume you will use the online FAR and October 1 deadline.

Q: How do we know if our alternative FAR process is compliant with HOP 2-2160?

A: Short answer is – your department would have submitted a description of its process to the college, and if it weren’t compliant, the department wouldn’t be allowed to use it. (Although, if your department uses an alternative process but are listed as using the "online FAR" above, then you need to contact cola_hr@austin.utexas.edu, (see Process, step 3, above)

Longer answer -- FARs are expected to provide a record of a faculty member’s activities (teaching, scholarship, publications, public service, advising, honors and recognition, etc.) for a given academic year. And this ought to involve some sort of summary/positive assertion provided by the faculty member. In other words, this requirement would not be fulfilled by something like submitting a CV (with the assumption that the Chair/BC/EC can “figure out” what was done in a given year.)

Q: What if my faculty member is having trouble completing the online FAR?

A: Ideally, the admin contact for a department will be able to help troubleshoot the FAR. Here are some basic tips:

• When the online FAR is created for a given year, the system will automatically import data from certain university information systems – instructional data and graduate committee work, for example. You will know the data source because it will display that information in the report: “Central” = UT info system.
• If there is incorrect data in a centrally updated source, the faculty member can make a correction by going to the top of the given section and click the gear icon next to “Make Adjustments” (see next bullet for more); however, making the correction in the FAR will not update the source of the incorrect data. To correct centrally-imported data, such as degree year/institution, the faculty member will need work with their admin contact and COLA HR to correct this information at its source.
• Each section of the online FAR either includes information imported from existing university systems or relies upon the faculty member to update it. When it is possible to update or add information, it will look like this: 
• Clicking on the gear will show additional options.
  • If the faculty member has entered publications into the Publications Database--under the “Update Scholarly Work” tab—they can import the publications into the FAR by clicking on the Make Adjustments tab in the Scholarly & Creative Works section and then clicking “Import” above the "Publications and Creative Works" section.
  • This will produce a pop-up of all of their publications, and they can put checkmarks next to the works from the fiscal year of the FAR on which they’re working. (Follow the instructions on the pop-up window.)
• A faculty member can designate a proxy to help them with their data entry or report completion, but the faculty member is responsible for ensuring their own FAR’s completion and accuracy.

• If the faculty member seeks additional help, they may contact cola_hr@austin.utexas.edu or submit a Service Now ticket to APS as mentioned above. They ought to try department first, then college, then APS.

Related Policies:

HOP 2-2160 - Recommendations Regarding Faculty Compensation, Faculty Promotion, Tenure, Renewal of Appointment, or Nonrenewal of Appointment

Annual Review of Faculty

Comprehensive Periodic Review of Faculty

Other Related Links:

FAR Administration tool: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/provost/far_admin/

FAR Faculty Access:  https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/provost/far/

Publications Database: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/provost/faculty_pubs/