Researchfish reporting
Why do we ask you to report outcomes?
As a charitable funder, it is critically important that we gain an understanding of what has been achieved from the research we fund. This helps us to plan our research strategy, ensure we are meeting the broad aims of the charity and communicate the benefits of research to people with arthritis and our supporters. Demonstrating the benefits of the research we fund directly impacts our fundraising success and thus our ability to support further research.
What is Researchfish?
Researchfish is an online questionnaire system that captures the outcomes and impacts of funded research and is used by many funders. Award holders will only have one Researchfish account and each funder can only see the outcomes reported to the awards they fund. For more information on using Researchfish, please refer to our Researchfish Guidance (PDF, 346 KB).
Why we use Researchfish
We use the information you provide to demonstrate the impact of the research we fund and the benefits to people with arthritis. The information is also used for fundraising, which helps us to raise more money to fund further research.
Please note that it is a condition of Versus Arthritis funding that the award holder provides information about the outputs and outcomes resulting from their funded research on request.
We recognise that recent awards may have little to report but we do ask that you complete your update as fully as possible and submit by the required deadline. In particular, we ask that you:
- Only report outputs arising from work funded by the specific award that we have asked you to report on
- Review all sections in Researchfish and complete all those for which you have outputs to report
- Remember to update the ‘Further Information’ section from your previous submission (if you have previously reported on this award)
- You can delegate completion of the report to a member of your research team but you will need to review and submit the report.
If you need help, please visit researchfish.net. If you are reporting for the first time, we strongly recommend that you attend one of the online training webinars.
Researchfish reporting for clinical studies
Clinical studies are required to complete a clinical studies progress report in addition to reporting via Researchfish. However, there is no requirement to report content equivalent to the progress report in Researchfish and progress information should not be reported in the ‘Further Information – Other Information’ section of Researchfish.
For clinical studies awards, the Researchfish ‘Further Information’ section questions 1-6 do not need to be completed until the end of the award. If the award is still ongoing, please enter ‘Please refer to Clinical Study Progress Report’ in response to these questions.
Information relating to outcomes and impacts in Researchfish must be completed as fully as possible and can be entered at any time during the award.
Reporting for centres
Centres funded by Versus Arthritis do not currently report through Researchfish and will continue reporting as before.
Conditions of award
It is a condition of funding that award holders provide information about the outcomes of their research upon request. Failure to comply may result in Versus Arthritis withholding payment of any instalment of the award.
Further information
You will be contacted if you are required to report through Researchfish. If you are unsure of the reporting requirements for your award, please contact research@versusarthritis.org.
For details on how to set up your Researchfish account and reporting via Researchfish, please see our Researchfish Guidance (PDF, 346 KB).
Progress review committee
Purpose of the progress review committee:
The progress review committee (PRC) reviews the progress of clinical studies and is comprised of members with rheumatology clinical and methodological expertise. Clinical study award holders are expected to submit a report twice per year highlighting progress in terms of regulatory approvals, recruitment/follow up and spend. Further interim reports may be requested by the PRC where this is felt necessary.
The committee
- Dr Ed Roddy (Chair)
- Dr Issy Reading
- Professor Nick Harvey
- Dr Jonathan Hill
- Dr Coziana Ciurtin
- Dr Sarah Kingsbury
- Dr Mark Lunt
Contact this committee: Dr Enhad Chowdhury - e.chowdhury@versusarthritis.org.
Europe PMC
What is Europe PMC ?
Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC*) is a free-to-access digital archive of biomedical and life sciences research publications. It was developed by a group of leading European biomedical research funders (including Versus Arthritis) in collaboration with the founders of PubMed and PubMed Central (PMC). Europe PMC aims to promote open access to biomedical and life sciences research publications supported by European funders.
Europe PMC provides a number of useful features, including:
- Free access to abstracts and full text articles available in PubMed and PMC.
- Access to a range of other materials including books, theses, biological patents and clinical guidelines
- Text and data mining tools, which highlight and link biological entity types (e.g. diseases, genes/proteins) found within the text of an article to external data sources.
- A linkage service that allows authors to link their papers to their ORCID, a unique digital identifier used by researchers to identify their research activities and distinguish these activities from those of researchers with similar names.
Europe PMC plus
Europe PMC plus is a manuscript submission and award reporting service. The manuscript submission service allows award holders who are supported by a member of the Europe PMC funders’ group to self-archive peer-reviewed articles that have been accepted for publication by a journal. Please note, the self-archive service should only be used if the journal does not offer open access repository on the author’s behalf. The submission service also allows award holders to link their papers to awards.
The award reporting service allows funders to assess the published outputs of the research they fund on a award-by-award basis, which is an important component of funders’ research evaluation programmes.
Award holders will receive account details by email from Europe PMC once an award has been added by Versus Arthritis to Europe PMC (typically 3 months after the date of award).
Where can I find out more?
For further information visit europepmc.org, where you can login to your account and access helpful FAQs.
* formerly UKPMC