Breadcrumbs

Create - Personal account


Path to function: Accounts > Create > Personal account

A personal account gives an individual, named user access to your subscription content.

To create a personal account, complete a four-step wizard. Default values for some data fields, such as the options for activating an account, are set under account preferences. 

To add a large number of accounts, you can upload personal accounts in bulk instead of creating each account individually.

Create a personal account

  1. Log in to the Compass admin area (https://admin.openathens.net).

  2. From the main menu, select Accounts > Create > Personal account.

    Home page of the Compass admin area. In the main menu, the top-level option 'Accounts' is expanded to show a submenu - 'List', 'Create', 'Bulk upload' and 'Accounts not activated'. The option 'Create' is expanded to show a further submenu, containing the options 'Personal account', 'Administrator account' and 'Access account'.

  3. The account creation wizard opens in a pop-up window. There are four steps to complete. See the following sections for details.

Login tab

In the first section, complete login details for the new user.

Login tab of the 'Create a new personal account' wizard. There is a text field, 'Choose a username', in which the account prefix is pre-loaded. This is followed by a check box, 'Login by email address', and a date field labeled 'Expires on'. Then there is a set of options, 'Create account and...', which can be set to 'Email an activation code to the user' (selected), 'Save in accounts not activated list' or 'Specify a password now'. At the bottom of the screen are buttons labeled 'Next' and 'Cancel'.

  1. In Choose a username, enter a unique username for the new user. The name must be 6-20 characters long, including the domain prefix (which is already loaded into the field). It may contain letters, numbers, the dot (.), the hyphen (-) and the underscore (_), but must not contain special characters or spaces.

  2. To enable the user to log in using their email address instead of their username, tick Login in by email address.

  3. Set Expires on to the date on which the account should expire. This setting defaults to the expiry period set in your account preferences.

  4. Set Create account and… to one of the following options:

    1. Email an activation code to the user. (Recommended.) Once the new user’s account is set up, they will be prompted to activate the account and create a password of their choice.

    2. Save in ‘Accounts not activated’ list. The new account will be inactive until you or another administrator change its status. This option can be useful if you create users in advance of going live.

    3. Specify a password now. Manually create a password for the user and activate their account immediately.

  5. If you chose Specify a password now, enter a password for the user in the Password field. Follow the on-screen guidelines to create a strong password.

    'Create account and' is set to 'Specify a password now'. Following this setting is an input field labeled 'Password'. Guidelines for creating a password read, 'Use a minimum of 10 characters. Try three random words. Uppercase letters, numbers, symbols and spaces may be used but are not required. Do not include the account username.'

    If you chose Email an activation code to the user or Save in ‘Accounts not activated’ list, the Password field is not shown.

  6. Press Next at the bottom of the window.

Unfortunately, a username cannot include non-English characters. To enable users to log in under a correctly spelled version of their name, you may wish to use Login by email address.

Details tab

You must complete all fields in this section.

Details tab of the 'Create a new personal account' wizard. There are three text fields, all marked as mandatory - 'First names', 'Last name' and 'Email address'. At the bottom of the screen are buttons labeled 'Next', 'Previous' and 'Cancel'.

  1. In the First name(s) field, enter the user’s forenames.

  2. In the Last name field, enter the user’s surname.

  3. In Email address, enter the user’s institutional email.

  4. If you have a custom schema, there may be other fields in this tab. Complete any additional details that are required.

  5. Press Next to continue.

If you enter an email address that is a duplicate, you will get a warning. Try searching for the address to check if the user already has an account, or if they formerly had an account that has been deleted.

Optional details tab

In this section, fill in other details about the user that are relevant to your organisation. If your organisation has a custom schema, there may be fields other than those shown here. All fields are optional.

Optional details tab of the 'Create a new personal account' wizard. There is a drop-down selector labeled 'Group', followed by several text fields - 'Title', 'Department', 'Position', 'Phone number', 'Fax number', 'Staff or student number' and 'Postal address'. At the bottom of the screen are buttons labeled 'Next', 'Previous' and 'Cancel'.

  1. Complete any details that are relevant. Some details might be pre-filled if they have already been set for the organisation.

  2. Press Next to continue.

Permission sets tab

In this section, assign permission sets to the account. The default permission set is assigned unless you specify otherwise.

For more detail about the options available, see Resources > Permission sets.

Permission sets tab of the 'Create a new personal account' wizard. There is a list of three permission sets, each with a check box that can be ticked or unticked. The second permission set, marked as default, is ticked. At the bottom of the screen are buttons labeled 'Create account', 'Previous' and 'Cancel'.

  1. Tick or untick permission sets to create the right permissions for this account.

  2. Press Create account to finish.

The account is now created. If you selected the option Email an activation code to the user, the new user will be sent an email with instructions to activate their account.