Help & FAQ
This page is a repository of information about using the Collaborations website. Here, you’ll learn how to post on the website (and whether to post an update, document, or event), get up and running as a presenter at collaboration team meetings, what to do if things aren’t working, and more. If you have questions that are not answered on this page, contact the Engagement Director, Liz Weinberg, at liz@iarpccollaborations.org.
Scroll down to see all the answers, or select your question from the menu below:
Getting Started on Collaborations
Do I qualify for an account on Collaborations? How do I sign up?
If you are in any way involved in or interested in Arctic research, you qualify for an account on Collaborations! Our community includes people from the federal government; the state of Alaska; Indigenous communities and organizations; academic institutions; nonprofit, private sector, and international organizations; and more. Collaborations is open to anyone who can contribute. You can request an account at this link.
I don’t remember my password. How can I access the member space?
Have a password reminder emailed to you.
You can avoid having to look up your password each time you sign in by clicking the "stay signed in" button on the sign in page.
If you don’t see a password reset email, Check your spam folder for an email from web@iarpccollaborations.org. If you cannot find the email in your spam folder, please check with your email administrator and contact the Engagement Director, Liz Weinberg, at liz@iarpccollaborations.org.
How do I update my profile?
To update your profile, log in and then click on your name in the upper right corner of the Collaborations website. Select “Profile,” and on your profile page, click the button that says “Edit Profile.”
We ask that whenever possible, all Collaborations members include a photo of themselves on their profile. In our online community, it is extremely helpful to be able to put a face to a name.
How do I join a collaboration team or community of practice (and why would I join one)?
Collaboration teams and communities of practice are the backbone of Collaborations. Collaboration teams are tied to the priority areas and foundational activities of the Arctic Research Plan 2022-2026, and work together to implement the plan. Communities of practice work together around scientific disciplines and other areas of interest. They support the collaboration teams on implementation of the Arctic Research Plan and also pursue additional activities. If you are unsure which groups are most relevant to you, click into their individual pages or check out a summary of their planned activities for 2023.
You may join as many collaboration teams and communities of practice as you like. There is no obligation to do anything when you join, but you will automatically receive an email invitation when meetings are scheduled, and will see posts from other members in your homepage feed and email digest.
To sign up for collaboration teams and communities of practice, click the Teams tab on the website menu. Click the blue “Join” button next to any group to sign up.
How do I join a collaboration team or community of practice meeting and add it to my calendar?
You can see all upcoming events on the Events page. To RSVP for an event, click on the blue “I will attend” button. You can also RSVP on the specific event’s page using the same button.
To add an event to your calendar, click the event title. On the event page, click the “Add to calendar” or “Add to Google calendar” button. The “Add to calendar” button will download a .ics file that you can then upload to your calendar app, while the “Add to Google calendar” button will open a window to add the event to your Google calendar.
Zoom connection information for Collaborations meetings is always listed on the individual event pages.
Are collaboration team/community of practice meetings and other Collaborations events recorded?
For the most part, all meetings and public webinars are recorded. Meeting recordings are posted within a week on the meeting event page and on our YouTube channel.
Posting on Collaborations
Who can post to the member space?
All members are encouraged to use the member space to post updates, documents, and events. You do not need to have your post approved before posting. However, the Secretariat may make changes to make the post more visible and useful to members, including adding topic tags, spelling out acronyms, and tagging collaboration teams/communities of practice/team members. Any other editing will be accompanied by a comment explaining what was changed and why.
What makes a good post?
Whether you are posting an update, event, or document, there are a few things you can do to help make your post more findable and relevant to the Collaborations community:
Other tips:
Should I post an update, event, or document?
Is there a date associated with your post?
You should post an event if you want to share anything that has a date associated with it such as a conference session, a submission deadline, etc. Events will appear not only in the home stream, but also on our events page, and will include a downloadable calendar file (.ics).
Is there a file you want to attach?
Documents are anything that you want to upload that include a file such as a word document or a PDF. Documents appear in the home stream as well as under the document tab in the main menu bar. You can write a description in a document post, explaining what the document is about and any other relevant info, so they are almost exactly the same as updates and events, except they have a file included.
Is there both a date associated and a file to attach?
Post an event and click “attach document” at the bottom of the form. You will choose the file and then be taken to a second form to fill out for the document. This is because you are essentially creating two posts: an event and a document. The two posts will appear separately on the website, but will be linked to each other.
None of the above?
Updates are for anything you want to share that doesn’t have a date or a file associated with it: news, announcements, resources, requests for feedback, etc. Updates also appear in the home stream and under the updates tab on the main menu bar.
How do I connect my work to the Arctic Research Plan 2022-2026?
Members of the Collaborations community may report on actions they have taken that support the deliverables of the Arctic Research Plan 2022-2026 at any time. Tagging your work with a deliverable ensures that your work is recognized by federal agencies and other Arctic research entities. Your reports also help team leaders with quarterly reporting and the Secretariat track progress toward the implementation of the Arctic research plan.
You can tag a deliverable when you create a post on Collaborations. Find more detailed instructions here.
For more information on reporting, check out these instructions.
What are topic tags and how do they affect my post?
Topics are like keywords used in research papers and hashtags used in social media. They allow posts to be categorized and grouped together so that users can more easily find the type of posts that interest them. You must enter at least one topic for a post, but we recommend using more to make your post available in more locations on the website. We recommend using the topics that are predicted when you begin entering text as well as the “recommended topics” as often as possible: this groups your post with other posts that have been tagged with the same topics.
How does tagging collaboration teams and communities of practice affect my post?
Tagging a collaboration team or community of practice means that your post, in addition to appearing in the home stream and the corresponding content tab in the main menu, will also show on that group’s page (for example, here is the Sea Ice Community of Practice page).
You can tag any group that you are a member of, and you are welcome to join as many teams as you wish. There is no obligation to do anything as a member of a group, but you will receive an email automatically each month announcing that month’s meeting. Request to join collaboration teams and communities of practice.
My post applies to all collaboration teams and communities of practice. How should I tag it?
If your post applies to all groups, you have two options. Firstly (and recommended), you do not need to tag any group. A post not tagged with any group will appear on the home stream and on the corresponding content tab in the main menu, and in the email digest. Secondly, you are welcome to join all the groups and tag them all in your post, so that the post will also appear on every group’s page.
Where does my post appear on the website based on how I have tagged it?
Every post appears in three places no matter how it is tagged:
Adding topic and/or team tags will make your post appear in places in addition to the four listed above:
How can I find a post I made a long time ago?
You can find all posts you have ever made to the website on your personal archive in your profile. To access your profile, make sure you are logged into the member space, then click “Account” and “Profile”).
How can I edit a post I've already made?
Once you have clicked to open the post you wish to edit, you will see an "edit" and "delete" button just below the title of the post. Click to edit anything you wish.
You should make a comment on a post when you want to ask a question to the poster or spur discussions and collaboration. Comments do not appear anywhere except on the post itself. Therefore, if you have information to share with the broader community, it is better to make a post.
When you comment on a post, the person who posted it is automatically notified via email that you have done so.
If you would like to include a different person, you are welcome to @tag them, which will also send an automatic email notification to the person you @tag. In this way, you can bring multiple people into a discussion on a certain topic. You can also simply @tag people who might find a certain post interesting to draw their attention to it. To tag a person, type the @ symbol directly before the name of the person you want to add. Once you begin typing their name, you can select it from the drop-down menu that appears.
Presenting at Collaboration Team/Community of Practice Meetings
If you are presenting at a collaboration team/community of practice meeting, please click through this brief tutorial.
If you have additional questions, you can contact Liz Weinberg, web manager & community coordinator, at liz@iarpccollaborations.org.
What do I need to do before I present to a collaboration team?
- Update your profile on Collaborations
- Join the team you are presenting to
- Upload your slides
How do I make my presentation more engaging?
We love hosting really well done presentations. Our community coordinator, Liz Weinberg, is a practiced science communicator and is happy to help improve your presentation, so don't hesitate to reach out! You can reach her at liz@iarpccollaborations.org.
Some tips to get you started:
- Know your audience. Our collaboration teams and meetings are open to anyone who can contribute and the audience may be very diverse. You should expect your audience to already know something about Arctic issues, and while there will be some experts in the audience including program managers and researchers, there will also be many individuals with Arctic interests but no research experience, state of Alaska officials, Indigenous community members, and representatives from the private sector. In this case, it's a good idea to explain things in more detail than you would when presenting to your academic peers. We recommend you aim for a sophisticated audience, but without expertise in your field – perhaps imagine a 100-level undergraduate science class. Especially watch out for acronyms (even if you use it all the time, everyone else might not!)
- Be concise and invite discussion. Attention spans for presentations are limited and especially so online, when checking email is just a click away. We recommend shortening your presentation as much as possible, 10-15 minutes is ideal. To keep the audience engaged, try asking questions throughout your talk. This is a collaboration team, so if you are looking for feedback on your work or potential new collaborators, ask how your work might be useful to them or how they might want to work with you in the future.
- Declutter your slides. Stick to three to five bullet points per slide at most. (No words at all on a slide is usually better!) More than that is too much for people to read, and they will be reading the slide instead of listening to you speak (most people can't do both at the same time). If you are trying to put too much info on one slide, try breaking it up into several slides. Bullet points should contain keywords – not complete sentences. Make sure your text is readable. Rule of thumb for fonts: 28-40 point for headlines; 18-28 for text; Sans serif fonts are better for presentations. Don’t use ALL CAPS; underscore a point by putting it in italics or bold (underlining can make the text more difficult to read).
- Sit in a well-lit, distraction free environment. Presentations are much more engaging when you can see the presenter and aren't listening to a disembodied voice – please use your webcam if you have one. Lighting can make a bigger difference than you think, so try to sit near a light source. If your office is cluttered, try to have your back to a wall or use a virtual background so the audience will focus on you, not your stuff.
General Questions about the Collaborations Website
How is the member space moderated?
The Secretariat monitors activity to ensure that interactions are respectful. We will sometimes go in and edit posts to do things like fix links and remove acronyms from post titles. If we make any more substantial changes to posts (which is very rare!) we will include a comment explaining what we changed and why.
For more information about moderation in the Collaborations space, read our code of conduct.
Can I post my update to the public home page as a news story?
Collaborations posts are only visible to our members. However, if you would like us to share your post with the public, you can request for the Secretariat to share your post to the public news page.
After you have made your post, click the "Request to publish to News" button. This will alert the Secretariat that you would like your post to be shared to the public news page.
Where can I learn about @tagging, topic tags, self-forming teams, and other website features?
When logged in to the member space, follow the topic tag Collaborations website tips & tricks to learn about more advanced how-to topics.