MY NCBI Delegates FAQ

This FAQ addresses how to create delegates for the My NCBI services My Bibliography and SciENcv. For more information on using My Bibliography to manage Public Access Compliance, please see our My Bibliography FAQs here: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/my-bibliography-faq.htm.

A. Creating and Managing Delegates

1. Sending a delegate request

2. Delegate request errors

3. Accepting delegate requests

4. Confirming that delegate requests have been accepted

5. Controlling delegate access to sections of my account

6. How delegates access their delegators' My Bibliography or SciENcv

B. Managing Public Access Compliance as a Delegate

1. Serving as a delegate for eRA and My NCBI

2. A delegate for a My Bibliography account can't perform basic My Bibliography tasks

3. Other Citations

A. Creating and Managing Delegates

1. How do I send a delegate request?

  1. Login to your NCBI account (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/)
  2. Click on your username in the top-right corner of the screen to access the Account Settings page
  3. Under “Delegates,” click “Add a delegate”
  4. Enter your delegate's email address and click OK.

2. I tried to send a delegate request but I got an error. What do I do?

  1. Click “confirm” to send a confirmation email to the email address on your NCBI account OR close this dialog box and look at the “Email” section of your Account Settings page: Note that the email address on your account has not been confirmed.
  2. Click “Request a confirmation email” and follow the instructions in the confirmation email when it arrives.
  3. Return to FAQ #1 and try again.

3. How do I accept a delegate request?

  1. Login to your NCBI account (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/)
  2. Check your email for the delegate request. If you haven't received the request email, be sure to check you spam folder - the email comes from myncbi@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  3. Use the link in the delegate request email to accept and confirm the delegation

4. I am the delegator, how can I tell if my delegate has accepted the request?

  1. Login to your NCBI account (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/)
  2. Click on your username in the top-right corner of the screen to access the Account Settings page
  3. If you have sent one or more delegate requests, you will see a table in the Delegates section: This delegation request has not been accepted - refer your delegate to FAQ 3: How do I accept a delegate request?

    This request has now been accepted.

5. I am the delegator, how can I control what my delegate has access to?

  1. Login to your NCBI account (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/)
  2. Click on your username in the top-right corner of the screen to access the Account Settings page
  3. You can use the table in the delegates section to control what your delegates have access to.
  4. If you have checked the “My Bibliography” box, your delegate will have the ability to view and make changes to your My Bibliography and Other Citations collections. If you have checked the “SciENcv” box, your delegate will be able to create, view, and change your SciENcv products.
  5. Note that the Public or Private settings on your My Bibliography or SciENcv have no effect on your delegate's ability to view and make changes to these resources. Should you wish to remove a delegate, use the red “X”. Should you wish to give a delegate access to only one resource, use the check-boxes.

6. I am a delegate, how do I access my delegator's My Bibliography or SciENcv?

  1. Login to your NCBI account (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/)
  2. If you have been granted access to your delegator's My Bibliography and Other Citations collections, you will see those collections listed in your collections list:
  3. If you have been granted access to your delegator's SciENcv, you will be able to access it from your SciENcv portlet:

B. Managing Public Access Compliance as a Delegate

1. I am a delegate on my PI's eRA Commons account, if I want to manage their My Bibliography, do I need to be a delegate on their NCBI account as well?

Yes. Linked NCBI and eRA Commons accounts will share some information, but they do not share settings or delegates.

2. I have access to my delegator's Bibliography, but I can't ... (e.g. generate a PDF Compliance report, or associate an award with a citation).

  1. First check to make sure you are looking at your delegator's Bibliography and not your own.
  2. Then, check to make sure your delegator's NCBI account has been linked to their eRA Commons account. You can check this by looking for the eRA Link symbol at the top of their Bibliography:
  3. You can also check to make sure the Display Settings have been set to Award view. The Display Settings are in the blue bar at the top of the collection, on the left:

3. What is Other Citations and why do I see that along with My Bibliography?

Other Citations is a standard collection in a My NCBI account, and it has all of the same Public Access Compliance management tools as My Bibliography. You might think of Other Citations as an extension of My Bibliography. Some people like to use Other Citations to track citations that they need to report on, but that they did not author. This leaves My Bibliography free for only those citations that they did author. To move a citation from My Bibliography to Other Citations, select it using its check-box and click “Move” in the blue bar at the top of the collection.

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