OpenAthens

OpenAthens is an authentication system which ensures that users have access to the content they are entitled to use.

Administrators

There are local, regional, and national administrators. The regional and national administrators are list below.

All queries, for any regional team or the national team should be sent to the Service Desk. Alternatively, email [email protected].

Please make sure you include details of your organisation, so that your query can be directed to the right team.

Local administrators with OpenAthens problems should report them to their regional OpenAthens administrator via the Service desk.

OpenAthens regional administrators

Region	Administrator
Region Midlands	Administrator Emma Young and team at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foudation Trust.
Region North	Administrator Michelle Dutton and team at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Region South West, Thames Valley and Wessex	Administrator Catherine Micklethwaite and team at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.

Support

The following solutions are available ion the HEE Service Desk:

• request OpenAthens administrator rights
• where can I find guidance on OpenAthens administration
• find organisation IDs
• OpenAthens systems - status dashboard

Regional statistics

OpenAthens regional statistics can now be accessed via the Tableau dashboards.

The reports show:

• account totals for each OpenAthens organisation
• account totals for each OpenAthens organisation as a % of organisational headcount
• unique successful account authentications for each OpenAthens organisation
• % of accounts being used (unique successful logins/total number of accounts x 100)

Headcounts are taken from NHS Digital workforce data for January each year. They will not include students on placement within trusts and may not account for changes or mergers that may have taken place during the year.

As well as data for each organisation, there is data for each region, and for the overall national picture.

To compare your organisation with others, use the filters on the right hand side of the dashboard.

The default is to show all organisations. You can filter for your region, and just your own organisation. Or you can filter by type of organisation (such as acute, or mental health trusts), or size of organisation to compare your stats with other organisations of a similar type or size. You can also use the filters to select specific time periods.

Please remember that these reports just show you information about OpenAthens accounts and successful authentications. For information about resource usage, OpenAthens resource transfer data is not a reliable indicator and you should use supplier statistics instead.

The data in the dashboards starts from April 2022.

National Authentication Regional Administrators Group (NARAG)

NARAG manages OpenAthens authentication and its regional administration for NHS libraries in England. It reports to the Knowledge for Healthcare Resource Discovery Reference Group.

Its purpose is to:

• support the effective administration of the authentication system used by the NHS in England
• ensure correct access and seamless linking for nationally, regionally and locally procured NHS content
• coordinate consistent and efficient delivery of the roles and responsibilities of administrators

Group members

• Fran Wilkie, Chair
• Michelle Dutton, North
• Emma Young, Midlands and East of England
• Catherine Micklethwaite, South West, Thames Valley and Wessex
• Sabelo Mapasure, London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex
• Isla Kuhn, Higher Education Institutions
• Mary West, Public Health
• Celestine Johnston; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
• Phil Leahy, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)