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Jun 25, 2026

Heratio Help Center article. Category: Research / Researcher Portal.

Researcher Portal

The Researcher Portal is the personal hub for registered researchers in Heratio. It brings registration, a workspace dashboard, research projects, saved searches, evidence collections, bibliographies, notes (annotations), reading-room bookings and notifications together under one set of /research/* pages, with admin tools for staff to approve researchers and run the reading room.

Overview

Every authenticated user reaches the portal at /research (which redirects to /research/dashboard). The portal is gated by researcher status: a logged-in user must register as a researcher and be approved by staff before booking visits, creating projects, generating API keys, or saving most workspace items. Visitors who do not yet have an account can self-register through a public form.

The portal is organised around a left sidebar that adapts to the page you are on (workspace, profile, projects, and so on). A self-declared research mode (beginning, intermediate, advanced) tailors the sidebar and on-screen guidance to your experience.

Reproduction requests and team workspaces are part of the portal but have their own dedicated help articles; this guide covers them only in passing and focuses on the portal hub.

Key features

  • Researcher registration - public self-service signup plus an authenticated registration form, with re-application for previously rejected accounts.
  • Profile - your researcher details, affiliation, ORCID iD, identity fields, and research mode selector.
  • Workspace dashboard - landing view with your stats, recent activity, unread notifications, recent journal entries, and (for staff) pending approvals and the day's bookings.
  • Research projects - create and manage projects with analysis and output tools (knowledge graph, timeline, map, snapshots, exports).
  • Saved searches - store catalogue searches, re-run them, and snapshot or diff results over time.
  • Collections (evidence sets) - group archival records into named sets with per-item notes.
  • Bibliographies - build reference lists and export them as BibTeX, RIS, or CSL-JSON.
  • Annotations (notes) - private notes attached to records or kept standalone.
  • Reading-room bookings - request a visit, then have staff confirm, check in, check out, or mark a no-show.
  • Notifications - in-portal alerts plus notification preferences.
  • Citations - generate and export citations for any record in multiple styles.
  • API keys - approved researchers can mint personal API keys for programmatic access.
  • Admin tools - researcher approval, rooms, seats, equipment, retrieval queue, walk-ins, institutions, and statistics.

How to use

Register as a researcher

If you do not have an account yet:

  1. Open /research/publicRegister.
  2. Enter a username (3+ characters), a valid email, and a password (8+ characters, confirmed), along with your name, affiliation, research interests, and identity details.
  3. Submit. Your account is created in the researcher seat and marked pending approval. You land on the registration-complete confirmation page.

If you are already logged in but not yet a researcher, open /research/register and complete the same details. A previously rejected applicant can re-apply: the rejected record is reset to pending and the rejection reason is cleared.

Staff then approve, verify, suspend, or reject your application (see Configuration). Until you are approved, booking, projects, and API keys are blocked.

Set up your profile

Go to /research/profile to maintain your title, name, phone, affiliation type, institution, department, position, research interests, current project, and ORCID iD.

  • Identity fields (ID type and ID number) can be set once by you while still empty; after that only an administrator can change them.
  • Research mode - pick beginning, intermediate, or advanced. This drives the sidebar selector and the on-screen levels guide. It can also be saved from the sidebar without leaving the page.

Work from the dashboard

/research/dashboard is your home base. Approved researchers see personal stats, recent activity, unread notification count, and recent journal entries. The sidebar links out to every workspace area below.

Save and re-run searches

  1. Run a search in the GLAM catalogue browse, then use the Save search action (or post to /research/saved-searches).
  2. Manage stored searches at /research/savedSearches.
  3. Run a saved search to re-execute it, snapshot its current results, or diff a new run against an earlier snapshot to see what changed.
  4. Delete a saved search you no longer need.

Build evidence collections

  1. Go to /research/collections and create a named collection (an evidence set).
  2. Add archival records to it from the Add to collection action, or directly from the collection view.
  3. Open a collection at /research/viewCollection?id=... to add per-item notes, edit the collection, remove items, or delete the whole set.

Keep notes (annotations)

Open /research/annotations to create private notes. A note can be attached to a specific record or kept standalone, and you can edit or delete your own notes at any time.

Compile bibliographies

  1. Open /research/bibliographies and create a bibliography.
  2. View it at /research/viewBibliography/{id} to add, edit, or remove entries.
  3. Export the whole bibliography as BibTeX, RIS, or CSL-JSON via the export action, or export a single entry the same way, for use in reference managers.

Manage research projects

  1. Go to /research/projects and create a project.
  2. Open a project at /research/viewProject/{id} to manage it.
  3. From a project you can reach analysis and output tools: knowledge graph, assertions and hypotheses, snapshots, timeline, map, network graph, and packaging/output options. These are advanced tools layered on top of the core project record.

Book a reading-room visit

  1. You must be an approved researcher. Open /research/book.
  2. Choose a reading room, date, and time, and list the materials you want to consult.
  3. Submit the request. Track it at /research/viewBooking/{id}.
  4. Staff confirm the booking, then check you in on arrival and check you out when you leave (or mark a no-show). You can cancel a booking you no longer need.

Generate citations

From any record use the Cite action, which opens /research/cite/{slug}. Export the citation in formats including RIS, BibTeX, EndNote, APA, MLA, and Chicago.

Notifications

Open /research/notifications to read portal alerts. The Preferences tab lets you choose which notifications you receive.

Generate an API key

Approved researchers can open /research/apiKeys to mint a personal API key. The key value is shown once at creation, so copy it immediately - it cannot be retrieved later. Keys can be revoked from the same page.

Configuration

Most portal settings live in admin pages behind the admin middleware (staff only) and in the central Dropdown Manager.

Approving and managing researchers

  • /research/researchers - the researcher admin list. Review pending applications and approve, verify, reject (with a reason), suspend, or reset password.
  • /research/viewResearcher/{id} - the individual researcher record.
  • Approval and account changes are written through a central user provisioner so the portal does not write directly to core auth tables; approval also manages researcher seat membership.

Reading room, seats, and equipment

  • /research/rooms and /research/editRoom - reading rooms.
  • /research/seats - seat inventory.
  • /research/equipment and /research/equipment-history/{id} - bookable equipment and its history.
  • /research/retrievalQueue - materials to be retrieved for visits.
  • /research/walkIn - register walk-in visitors who arrive without a prior booking.
  • /research/bookings (admin) - all bookings for confirm/check-in/check-out workflows.

Reference data and statistics

  • /research/institutions - the institutions list used by registration and profiles.
  • /research/adminTypes - portal reference/enumerated types.
  • /research/adminStatistics (also /research/admin/statistics) - portal usage statistics.
  • Enumerated values (for example identity type, equipment type and condition, seat type) come from the Dropdown Manager at /admin/dropdowns, never from hardcoded lists.

ODRL rights policies

Digital rights are enforced through ODRL policies managed at /research/odrlPolicies. Policies govern viewing (odrl:use) and reproduction/printing (odrl:reproduce) of archival descriptions. Records with no matching policy are accessible by default, and administrators bypass policy checks. Autocomplete endpoints back the researcher and target fields on the policy form.

Audit trail

Portal and record changes are logged and viewable under /audit, including per-record (/audit/record/{table}/{id}) and per-user (/audit/user/{id}) views.

Known issues

  • The authenticated /research/register URL is shadowed by the application login route, so the workspace "re-apply" path for rejected researchers is routed through /research/renewal instead. This is intentional and handled in code; use the on-page links rather than typing /research/register directly.

References