Create or Edit a New Commons Account

If you are a Commons user with one of the following roles, you have the ability to create new Commons user accounts (such as for a PD/PI) using the Manage Accounts feature.

  • SO (signing official). Can create accounts of any role type, including creating additional SO accounts. See Signing Official (SO).
  • AO (administrative official). Create all accounts except SO, BO, FCOI accounts, and IAR accounts
  • AA (account administrator). Create all Commons accounts except SO, FCOI accounts, and IAR accounts
  • BO (business official). Create all accounts except SO, BO, FCOI accounts, and IAR accounts

Users, such as principal investigators (PIs), cannot create their own accounts. Commons accounts are created by users with the roles mentioned above or via invitation, appointment, or institutional registration (see additional links below).

You can also use the steps in this procedure to edit an account. For instance, you might want to change an AA or PD/PI account to a SO account in the case of a promotion to other duties. Keep in mind that some roles conflict; for instance, a PD/PI, which is a scientific role, cannot co-exist with an SO role, which is administrative, so you might have to delete some roles to add others.

To create a new account:

  1. Navigate to the Admin module, and select the Accounts tab.
  2. ClosedSelect the Account Management tab.

    Manage Accounts tab on Commons menu

    The ClosedSearch Accounts screen opens in a separate window. You'll notice that there is no Create New Account button displayed at this time. You cannot create a new account until you perform a search for the account first. This measure is in place to help avoid the creation of duplicate accounts.

    Search Accounts screen for initial search

    NOTE: By default, the Search only within my organization checkbox is not marked so that you first ensure that an existing account does not exist for the person you are searching for. If the person does exist, and they have a PI or other scientific role (example: trainee), they should be affiliated to your institution instead of creating a new account. PI and other scientific roles are intended to be used throughout the investigator's career regardless of their current institutional affiliation(s).

  3. Search for the person (Last Name, First Name) whose account you are creating. After performing the search, if no existing account is found, the Create New Account button becomes enabled.

TIP: Use the percent character, %, as a wildcard.

  1. Select the ClosedCreate New Account button.

    Create Account button enabled after a search

    ClosedThe Create Account screen displays. The User Type should default to Commons and the Primary Organization should default to that of your own. The User Type field can be changed if necessary.

    Create Account screen defaults to SO's organization and user type = Commons

  2. On the Create Account screen, fill out the fields. Note that all fields except Middle Name are required.
    • User Type: Select Commons from the drop-down list if it is not already displayed.
    • User ID: Enter a unique name as the system username.
    • Primary Organization: This field defaults to your organization and cannot be changed. If an individual needs to be affiliated with your organization and already has a non-administrative account with another institution (primarily Primary Investigators - PI), search for them outside of your organization and affiliate their existing account with your institution.
    • Last Name
    • First Name
    • Middle Name
    • Email
    • Confirm Email

After entering contact information, you must assign a role to the account.

  1. Click the + Add Roles button to open the AMM | Add Roles window.
    The organization defaults to your institution and cannot be changed. Below the Organization field is the list of available roles. Note that more roles appear for an SO than for some other administrative roles. For instance, only an SO can assign a SO role to another user. (Closedclick to view)

    Role information is filled in; Add link is highlighted next to role info

  2. Select the role(s) for the new account. You can Ctrl+click to select multiple roles. Some roles conflict with one another and should not be assigned at the same time, such as PD/PI and SO. An error message occurs if you assign conflicting roles.
  3. Click Closedthe Add Role(s) button. The Create Account screen appears, listing the roles you selected. If you made a mistake, you can click Closedthe Remove button in the Action column to remove a role.

    4. Create Account screen showing role added

  4. Click the Create button to create the new account.

A success message appears at top, or errors appear if anything was filled out incorrectly.

If you need to change the account you just created, click the Manage button. When editing an account, you can no longer change the userid or name. You can, however, edit the email, roles, affiliation, reset the password, or deactivate the account. The person for whom the account was created can edit all their personal and contact information using Personal Profile after they log in to Commons.

Additional information: