Disclosure up front: I am an assistant professor and I make Vitae, a free Mac app for keeping an academic record, which can produce the files below. I do not have a Faculty Success login. The steps come from Watermark's documentation and from campus guides, linked where they are used, and menu names vary by school.
Which route to use
| Route | Brings in | Start with | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| BibTeX upload | Publications | A .bib file from Google Scholar, Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, RefWorks, Scopus or Web of Science | BibTeX is loosely standardized, and Watermark says some files fail to load. |
| Direct import | Publications | Your name or ORCID iD, searched against Crossref, ORCID, PubMed, Scopus or Web of Science | Searches can return papers by authors with similar names. Tick only your own. |
| CV Import | Whatever the system can read from your CV: publications and, in practice, other sections you mark | A .doc, .docx, .odt or .rtf file | You confirm every parsed entry. Universities describe it as a guided pass, not an upload-and-leave step. |
Rule of thumb: use BibTeX or direct import for publications, where the record is structured and the match is reliable, and use CV Import for the sections that have no file route, such as presentations, service and awards. Check that the Import button exists for you first. If it is missing, your campus did not enable it.
Import publications from a BibTeX file
- Export BibTeX from your source. In Google Scholar, open your profile, select the papers, choose Export, then BibTeX, and save the page as a .bib file. A reference manager has its own BibTeX export.
- In Faculty Success, open Manage Activities and choose Publications. Names differ by campus, so follow your school's guide if the label is not there.
- Choose Import and select the BibTeX option, then upload the file. Faculty Success asks you to confirm the matching to your account.
- Review the list. Remove anything that is not yours or that you already entered, then finish the import.
- Open a few imported records and check type, date, author order and status.
These steps follow two campus guides found through search, North Dakota State's and Purdue Fort Wayne's, so treat the menu names as a guide.
Import from Crossref, ORCID, PubMed, Scopus or Web of Science
Watermark's documentation lists these as direct sources, saving you the file step. Pick one, search for yourself, and tick the works that are yours. ORCID is the one with the most conditions. One university guide says Faculty Success reads only works that are public or visible to trusted parties on your ORCID record, imports publications only and is a one-time pull, not a live link. Check that your own record is complete and visible before you rely on it.
Import your CV
- Prepare the file. Save your CV as .docx, .doc, .odt or .rtf. A PDF is not on the list. My own suggestion, not Watermark's instruction: keep one heading per section, one entry per paragraph, a consistent date format and no tables or columns, because the system reads paragraphs.
- Log in and open CV Imports from the top bar.
- Drag the file into the upload box and choose Begin.
- Select the activity types you want to bring in, such as journal articles or presentations, and mark or confirm the matching entries on screen as your campus's guide describes.
- Choose Next to confirm what the system found, fix or split entries that merged, and choose Import.
- Open the new records and check dates, titles and anything with a number in it. Then add the rest by hand.
Watermark says the guided process is built to catch duplicate records, and that administrators can enrich imported data from Crossref, Scopus, PubMed, ORCID and Web of Science. It also claims users enter data five times faster and, in a pilot, validated a full CV in about an hour against eight or more hours of copying from Word. Those are Watermark's figures for its own pilot, and I could not verify how they were measured, so plan on your own pace.
Where Vitae helps today
- A BibTeX or RIS file for a period. In CV & Packages, choose Annual Review and a calendar year, an academic year or custom dates, then Export for Annual Report, which writes a folder with both files. Export, Publications in This CV also works. Under Settings, Import & Export you can export every publication. This is free. The file has title, authors in order, venue, year, volume, issue, pages, publisher, DOI and URL, and no month, since Vitae stores a year. Works with no year stay in the list, and in Annual Review mode manuscripts under review are left out.
- A CV file Faculty Success can read. Vitae exports your CV as Rich Text (.rtf, opens in Word), which is on Watermark's accepted list, and that export is free. A .docx export is part of Vitae Plus. I have not run a Vitae CV through Faculty Success, so you will find out how the parse treats it on your campus's configuration only by trying.
Vitae does not fill in Faculty Success for you. If your report runs July to June, set the Annual Review to an academic year with the start month you use; publications carry a year only, so check the ones near the edge in the review step. Vitae Plus adds a Word file of the period's activity and a README in the export folder; I have not tried either in Faculty Success.
Frequently asked
Is Faculty Success the same as Digital Measures?
Digital Measures Activity Insight is the earlier name. Watermark's product is now Faculty Success, and many campus pages still say Digital Measures. The import screens are the same family, so guides under either name are useful.
Can I upload a PDF CV?
The CV Import file types I found are .doc, .docx, .odt and .rtf. Export your CV from the original word processor and do not convert it to a PDF first.
Why is the Import button missing?
Campuses choose which imports to enable. Ask your faculty affairs office or the person who administers Faculty Success.
Will ORCID import my talks and awards?
One university guide says no: it reads publications only. Use the CV Import for talks and awards, or enter them by hand.
Do I still have to type my courses and grants?
Often yes, or an administrator loads them from the registrar or sponsored programs. Ask before you spend an evening on them. See what each reporting system can import.
Related guides
- Fill in your faculty annual report faster: Faculty180, Faculty Success, Pure and Elements compared.
- Import publications into Faculty180.
- Export your ORCID works to BibTeX or RIS, and what to fix before importing them.
- Convert references between BibTeX, RIS and EndNote and DOI to BibTeX.
- Build your faculty annual report from your own record, Vitae and all guides.