Office of Research Administration

Getting Started in Pivot

 

Pivot, formerly the Community of Science (COS), provides a comprehensive database of funding opportunities and an expertise database to help you identify potential collaborators within UMSL and at institutions around the world. The web site also allows users to set up automated funding alerts based on keywords and areas of interest. Pivot is a subscription service provided by the Office of Research Administration for all University of Missouri-St. Louis researchers. The ORA is happy to assist you in using this service.

Index of Information Found on this Page:

Join Pivot Pivot Home Page
Claiming a Profile Funding Page
Updating your Pivot Profile Profiles Page
Set up Funding Alerts Pivot Advisor
Change your username and password Training Links
Contact Information

Join Pivot

You must register on the Pivot site to use many of its services. If you have registered previously through COS, your same user name and password will allow you access to Pivot. If you don’t have a current COS or Pivot account, you can create one by going to pivot.cos.com. Click on “Sign up” in the upper right hand corner; fill in the open fields and click “create my account.” A confirmation email will be sent to the email address you provided; the email will contain a link that you must click on to get full access to Pivot.

Please note that the email address must be your UMSL address. This email address will also serve as your username when logging into Pivot (new accounts only). 

Claiming a Profile

Many UMSL faculty members will already have a profile in Pivot that you will want to connect with your account. Claiming a profile allows you to update your profile as well as see the Pivot Advisor on your home page. When logging in, if you see your name in the upper right as a hyperlink (your name will be blue in color) your profile is already claimed [note: A first-time user can have a claimed profile. This is due to the integration of COS Expertise profiles with Scholar Universe.] If the name is not hyperlinked (your name will be black in color) and you see an option to “Claim Profile,” it has not been claimed. Click on the “Claim Profile” link and search for your name. When your name appears in the search results click on the “This is me” button to the right of your name.

Pivot will display the email address(es) that they have on file for your profile. If the email displayed is still valid, simply select it. If you no longer have access to the email address, click on that option. You will then fill out a form requesting “Manual Verification,” which will be reviewed and validated by the Pivot team.

You will then be able to complete information about your current affiliation, including: Institution, School, Department, and contact information. Once completed the Pivot editorial team will review and approve the changes and send you an email confirmation.

Profiles are automatically created by Pivot using information on department and faculty web sites, published journal articles, etc. If you feel someone should have a Pivot profile, you can submit a request with the Suggest a Scholar tool.

Updating Your Pivot Profile

Keeping your profile up-to-date enhances the quality of matches made by the Pivot Advisor. Certain updates and additions to your profile can be made on your own; other updates take approximately 2 weeks before the information is published.

To update your profile, navigate to the Profile tab then click on the “Update your profile” link in the upper right area of your profile page. Another window will open called Scholar Feedback. Scholar Feedback allows you to provide updates to the Pivot editors, who will review the information and post it to your profile. You can update: Name; Email address(es); Webpages with publications; Degrees; Affiliations (both past and present); Other (this is an open text box that allows you to provide additional feedback and information that you cannot submit through the fields already listed—such as research interests. You can also upload a CV or a publications list in pdf, doc, or txt formats. Documents submitted to your profile are indexed and searchable (as are the webpages).

Pivot Advisor

The Advisor is Pivot’s intelligent mapping at work — analyzing your profile and matching you with funding opportunities. The Advisor analyzes several areas in your profile as well as analyzing all of the funding opportunities to present you with matches, some which you may not have found through simple searching. The more detail included in your profile, the better the Advisor matches will be.

Pivot Home Page

The Pivot Home Page serves as your dashboard to manage individual funding opportunities of interest; access saved funding searches (and view and manage funding alerts); track opportunities that you have shared or that have been shared with you; view funding suggestions from the Advisor.

Funding Page

Pivot funding is a comprehensive global source of funding opportunities totaling billions of dollars from all categories of sponsors, public and private. Features include: Top Funding Picks from the Pivot Editorial team, Funding News, the most popular Funding Opportunities from a given week, as well as information about your saved records and searches.

Funding Alerts

Funding Alerts are saved searches that you would like emailed to you on a weekly bases. You can save an unlimited number of searches to your home page. To set up an Alert, simply click “Save your query,” enter a name for your search and select the box next to the question: “Would you like to receive a weekly email containing new or updated opps from this query?”. Your search will then appear in the “Saved Searches” area on your home page. Saved searches can be re-run or edited at any time.

Profiles Page

Profile information is maintained in one of two ways — either harvested by Pivot’s editorial team from web sites and journal articles or added/updated by the profile owner directly.

The Profiles tab or home page includes several features to aid in your search for collaborators including an index of UMSL’s schools with the number of profiles available in each; a quick search area that can be limited to within UMSL or within the entire database, by text or by faculty name; an advanced search option; and a search tips tool.

Change your username and password

To change your username, password and University affiliation: Login to Pivot click on “Account” to the right of your name; click on “Change account information.”

Training Links

Pivot Support Documents
http://pivot.cos.com/support

Pivot Training Videos on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/ProQuestPivot

Contact Information

If you have any questions or to schedule a training session for your department’s faculty and staff, please contact:

Tamara Wilgers
wilgerst@umsl.edu
314-516-6884