Staff profile /research database
Your web profile is used to populate your contact details and to provide information about what you do. The great majority of staff and research postgraduates will have a profile, even if you don’t know it. Undergraduates and taught postgraduates do not usually have profiles, but may do if they also work for a department. Contract staff and casual staff do not normally have a profile.
A simple way to check if you have an active profile is to check your departmental staff list or the main directory – if your surname appears in CAPITALS, you do not have a profile, if in mixed case then you do. Alternatively you can ask your administrator (if you’re not sure who that is you can check here).
The database holds information relating to both departments and members of staff, as follows:
Departments
- Areas of expertise
- Research groups
- Research facilities
- Research projects
- Teaching groups
- Research staff
Members of staff
- Title, surname, forename (derived from the email/phone directory)
- Research publications
- Consultancies
- Teaching areas
- Research activities
- Research awards
- Qualifications
- Biography
- Photograph
- Supervised research students
- Associated web sites
Members of staff are associated with a department or research centre. In addition, they may be associated with research groups, research projects and teaching groups.
Staff publications are associated with their department. In addition, they may be associated with research groups and research projects
User Guides
- Guide 181: Editing your web staff profile (pdf) (last modified: 30 March 2012)
- Guide 182: Web profile system: department administrator's guide (last modified: 30 January 2012)
I don’t have a profile, do I need one?
Most departments have their own guidelines on who needs to have a profile, their format, and how these are created and maintained. Ask your departmental administrator if you are not sure.
How do I change my profile and where do my details appear?
You may maintain your own (with information about what your field of expertise is/publications etc.) or, more commonly, your departmental administration team will manage your profile for you. In some cases your profile may be ‘locked’ so only your departmental administration team can edit it, this is because the information is also used to populate the staff list on your department’s webpages. Instructions on how to manage your profile are available in our user guide (see link above).
Please remember that the information in your profile is visible externally and the content can be accessed by search engines.
How do I remove my contact details from the external website?
You can chose to hide your email address and phone number on the main telephone and email directory by editing your contact method preferences (see guide 181 above). Some people chose to do this to reduce spam emails; a contact form is displayed instead.
Please speak to your departmental administrator if you wish to edit your listing in the departmental webpages.
Staff profile / research database examples
The following links show examples of web pages within the University web site which display data held in the staff profile / research database system.
- Directory of Expertise
- Research groups in the Department of Geography
- Research projects in the Durham Centre for Applied Social Research
- Staff profiles in Durham Business School
- Staff profiles in the Department of Geography
- Staff profiles in the School for Government and International Affairs
- Staff profiles in the School of Applied Social Sciences