Research Team Manager

A comprehensive WordPress plugin for managing research team members and publications with Google Scholar integration. This plugin provides a complete solution for academic institutions, research groups, and organizations to showcase their team members and track publications.

It runs in single-team mode (one lab) or multiple-teams mode (a research team page for every lab on campus). See Multiple Teams (Labs) below.

🚀 Features

👥 Team Member Management

• Custom Post Type: Dedicated post type for team members with rich metadata
• Advanced Custom Fields: Secure fields for personal and professional information
• Profile Management: Profile pictures, biographical information, and detailed descriptions
• Contact Information: Email, phone, website, and social media links
• Academic Profiles: Integration with Google Scholar, LinkedIn, and ResearchGate
• Member Status: Track current members vs alumni with detailed status management
• Position & Role Tracking: Flexible position titles and member types (Faculty, PhD Student, Postdoc, etc.)
• Date Tracking: Join dates, leave dates, and tenure information
• Custom Sorting: Advanced sorting options including priority overrides and custom ordering

📚 Publications Management

• Google Scholar Integration: Planned feature for automatic sync (currently manual upload only)
• Publication Database: Comprehensive tracking with citations and metadata
• Admin Interface: User-friendly management of publications
• Frontend Display: Shortcodes and blocks for displaying publications
• Manual Import: Upload and manage publications through admin interface
• Citation Tracking: Monitor citation counts and publication metrics

🎨 Frontend Display & Gutenberg Integration

• Custom Blocks: Team member field blocks for the Gutenberg editor
• Query Loop Extensions: Enhanced sorting options for Query Loop blocks
• Responsive Layouts: Team member grid/list layouts that work on all devices
• Advanced Filtering: Filter by role, research area, and member status
• Individual Profiles: Dedicated team member profile pages
• Template System: Customizable templates for archives and single pages
• Social Media Integration: Display social profiles and academic networks

🛠️ Developer Features

• REST API: Full REST API support for custom integrations
• Custom Taxonomies: Research areas and team roles
• Extensible Architecture: Well-structured OOP codebase
• WordPress Standards: Follows WordPress coding standards and best practices
• Translation Ready: Full internationalization support

🏫 Multiple Teams (Labs)

The plugin can run as a multi-lab directory where each lab is a "Team" term with its own page, settings and publications.

Choosing a mode

Go to Team Members → Team Settings and pick:

• Multiple teams (default) — adds a Teams taxonomy, per-lab settings, per-lab pages and per-lab publications.
• Single team — hides the Teams UI and uses the global Scholar ID / one shared publications list (original behaviour). Optionally pick a default team to scope listings to one lab.

After switching modes the plugin re-flushes permalinks automatically.

📖 Full walkthrough: see docs/ADMIN-GUIDE.md for the complete admin & front‑end guide (modes, team fields, members, publications, shortcodes, and the block template).

Adding a lab

1. Research Labs → Teams → Add New — name the lab (e.g. Robotics Lab). Its page is created automatically at /research-team/{slug}/.
2. Fill in the per-lab settings on the term:
   • Type (Lab / Centre / Institute / …) and Research Theme (discipline grouping used by the directory)
   • Lead type — Individual (then search & click to add the PI member(s)) or Organization (a name)
   • Team Logo, Intro, Google Scholar ID, Contact Email, Website + Link label, Location
   • Group members by — None / Member status (Current, Alumni…) / Team role
3. When editing a team member, use the prominent Research Team box to assign the lab(s) — or click Add member from a team to start pre‑assigned. A member can belong to several labs.

Switching modes (guarded conversion)

Team Settings adapts to the current mode: Single → Multiple can create a starter team and move existing members into it; Multiple → Single lets you pick the active team and choose to keep / delete the others (with confirmation). Permalinks re‑flush automatically.

Lab pages

• Block themes: add templates/taxonomy-rtm_research_team.html (see the guide) composed of [rtm_team_header] + [rtm_team_roster] + [rtm_team_publications]. Empty sections self‑hide.
• Classic themes: the bundled templates/taxonomy-rtm_research_team.php renders the full lab page automatically.

Per-lab publications & Scholar IDs

Scholar Settings shows a table of every team with its own Scholar ID. Publications lets you pick a team to view/sync/import its papers (Sync/Import appear only when a team is selected). In single mode both collapse to one global ID + list.

📋 Requirements

1. Upload the plugin files to /wp-content/plugins/research-team-manager/
2. Activate the plugin through the WordPress admin
3. Start adding team members through the admin interface
4. Manually upload publications or wait for automatic Google Scholar sync (coming soon)

Configuration

• WordPress 6.5 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher
• MySQL 5.6 or higher

📦 Installation

Standard Installation

1. Download research-team-manager-X.Y.Z.zip from the latest release
2. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and upload the ZIP
3. Activate the plugin
4. Configure settings under Team Members > Settings

Updates

From 1.4.0, WordPress offers new versions from this repository's GitHub releases, just like updates from WordPress.org (Dashboard → Updates or the Plugins screen). The plugin's Update URI header routes the check to releases/latest/download/update.json. A download is installed only when its SHA-256 matches the update.json attached to that same release. Automatic background updates are off.

Sites running 1.3.2 or earlier have no updater. Upload the 1.4.0 ZIP once (Upload Plugin → Replace current with uploaded).

Releasing

1. Bump Version: and RTM_VERSION in research-team-manager.php and add releases/X.Y.Z.md.
2. Run make test build locally.
3. Merge to main, then push a tag vX.Y.Z. The Plugin checks and release workflow builds the ZIP, .sha256 and update.json, and publishes the GitHub release. A tag with a suffix (vX.Y.Z-rc.1) creates a prerelease without update.json, so sites are not offered it.

Manual Installation

1. Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate through Plugins > Installed Plugins
3. Configure initial settings

⚙️ Configuration

Initial Setup

1. Activate the Plugin: Navigate to Plugins and activate Research Team Manager
2. Configure Settings: Go to Team Members > Settings to configure basic options
3. Set Permissions: Ensure appropriate user roles have access to manage team members

Publications Management (Current: Manual Upload)

1. Go to Team Members > Publications to manually upload publications
2. Add publication details including title, authors, journal, and citation info
3. Link publications to specific team members
4. Note: Automatic Google Scholar sync is planned for future release

Team Member Setup

1. Navigate to Team Members > Add New
2. Fill in comprehensive member information:
   • Basic Info: Name, position, department, member type
   • Contact: Email, phone, website
   • Academic Profiles: Google Scholar, LinkedIn, ResearchGate URLs
   • Descriptions: Short description (for listings) and long description (for profile pages)
   • Dates: Join date, leave date (if applicable)
   • Settings: Member status, position, display order, priority override
3. Set featured image as profile picture
4. Assign to research areas and team roles
5. Publish the team member

🎨 Usage

Gutenberg Blocks

The plugin extends Gutenberg with custom blocks and enhancements:

Team Member Field Block

Display specific team member information in posts and pages:

• Member name, position, contact info
• Academic profile links
• Customizable field selection

Query Loop Extensions

Enhanced sorting options for Query Loop blocks:

• Sort by join date, leave date, custom order
• Priority override functionality
• Alumni-specific sorting

Custom Sorting Options

• Start Date: Sort by when members joined
• End Date: Sort by leave dates (useful for alumni)
• Custom Order: Manual ordering via Display Order field
• Date Priority: Priority members first, then chronological

Team workspaces (a menu and permissions per PI)

In multiple-teams mode, Team Settings → Team workspaces gives each team (PI) its own workspace.

Sidebar menus. Tick Show a sidebar menu for each team and each team gets a top-level menu, named after its PI(s) or the team. Choose which teams get one; with none ticked, every team does. Each menu has:

• Overview: member and publication counts, quick links and the team managers.
• Members: the member list, filtered to the team.
• Add Member: new members join the team.
• Publications: sync or preview that team's publications.
• Team Settings: PI, intro, logo, Scholar ID and links.

Team access (choose one):

• Open: anyone who can manage team members can open every team. This is the default, and it matches how LeagueFlow's sport menus work.
• Restricted: administrators and editors manage every team. Everyone else only sees the teams assigned to them, and only through their team menus. They can't open another team's members or settings, and editing a shared member never removes it from teams they don't manage.

Setting up a PI

1. Go to Users → Add New. Choose the Research Team Manager (PI) role and tick their team under Research teams. You can also assign team managers later on the team's edit screen, or on the user's profile.
2. That role can manage members (add, edit, publish, delete), upload media, edit their team's settings and sync their team's publications. It cannot write posts or pages, create or delete teams, or change plugin settings. Importing publications from the server-side JSON file stays administrator-only.

Team members now use their own capabilities (edit_rtm_members, edit_others_rtm_members, …) instead of the post capabilities. When the plugin updates, every existing role automatically gets the member capabilities that match the post capabilities it already has, so nobody loses access. Administrators and editors also get rtm_manage_all_teams.

Blocks

• Query Loops that show team members get a Teams / PIs panel in the sidebar: leave every team unticked for all teams, or tick one or more. The Researcher Directory Query Loop gets it too.
• The new Team Section block shows one team's header, member roster or publications. Pick the team (PI) in the sidebar, or leave it on the team of the page it is on for team page templates.

Researcher directory

Formerly the separate University Research Network add-on. Turn it on under Team Settings → Researcher directory. It switches on by itself on sites that already have data from the add-on. It adds:

• Your own directory fields under Research Labs → Directory Fields: add, rename, reorder and remove the details you record for each researcher.
  • A List of choices field (for example Faculty, Department or Campus) stores values you pick from. It can be a filter on the public directory and a column in the member list.
  • A Text field holds a short value (for example Office).
  • Research topic (the Research Areas taxonomy) is built in.
  • New sites start with Faculty, Department, Research topic, Research theme and Institution. Sites upgrading from the add-on keep its fields.
  • Removing a field only hides it; the values return if you add the same key again.
• An Imported records section on the same screen for members imported from an external directory: the source names shown on profiles, a default institution, a trusted portrait address, institution aliases and values that are not institutions.
• A Directory details meta box with institutional affiliations (they fill the Institution field) and the text fields.
• A keyword search index (_rtmn_search) over names, positions, biographies, affiliations and every directory field.
• Blocks: Researcher Field (any built-in or configured field), Researcher Filters (keyword search plus the fields marked as filters) and Directory Tabs (Researchers / Labs & institutes).
• A Researcher Directory Query Loop variation and the University Researcher Directory and Researcher Profile patterns.

The directory page is /researchers/ by default; change it with the rtm_network_directory_url and rtm_network_directory_page filters. Developers can adjust fields with the rtm_network_fields filter. Block, taxonomy and meta names match the add-on, so migration is automatic. When an administrator next opens any admin page, the add-on is deactivated, the directory switches on, and the add-on's fields and wording are kept. Opt out with the rtm_network_auto_migrate filter.

📝 Shortcodes

Team Members Display

[rtm_team_members limit="10" show_current_only="true" layout="grid" columns="3"]

Parameters:

• limit - Number of members to show (-1 for all)
• role - Filter by specific role slug
• research_area - Filter by research area slug
• team - Filter by a team/lab (slug or term ID). On a team archive it auto-detects the current team.
• show_current_only - Show only current members (true/false)
• layout - Display layout (grid/list)
• columns - Number of columns for grid layout (2-4)
• show_bio - Display biography excerpt (true/false)
• show_contact - Show contact information (true/false)
• show_social - Display social media links (true/false)

Publications Display

[rtm_publications limit="10" show_citations="true" group_by_year="true"]

Parameters:

• limit - Number of publications to show (-1 for all)
• team - Show only a team/lab's publications (slug or term ID); auto-detects on a team archive
• show_citations - Display citation counts (true/false)
• show_abstract - Show publication abstracts (true/false)
• group_by_year - Group publications by year (true/false)
• author_filter - Filter by specific author
• year_filter - Filter by publication year

Labs directory

[rtm_teams]

A filterable directory of all labs grouped by Research Theme, with theme filter chips, search (name / PI / type), a Type badge, the PI/organization, and an "Official site" link per card. Used on the /labs page.

Team Header (lab page)

[rtm_team_header team="robotics-lab"]

Outputs a lab's logo, type · theme, name, PI member(s) linked to their profiles (or organization), intro, contact and website link from the team's settings. Omit team on a team archive to auto-detect the current lab.

Lab roster & publications sections (self-hiding)

[rtm_team_roster team="robotics-lab"]        — "Lab Team", grouped per the team's setting (e.g. Alumni separated); leads first
[rtm_team_publications team="robotics-lab"]  — "Publications" for the team

Both render their own heading and output nothing when empty, so a lab with no members/papers shows just the hero. group_by on the roster overrides the team's setting (none / rtm_member_status / rtm_team_role).

Publications Grouped by Year

[sorted_publications team="robotics-lab"]

Lists publications grouped by year with year navigation. team scopes to one lab (slug or ID); auto-detects on a team archive.

🎨 Template Customization

The plugin includes customizable templates that can be overridden in your theme:

Template Files

1. Copy template files from plugins/research-team-manager/templates/ to your theme directory
2. Customize as needed:
   • archive-rtm_team_member.php - Team members archive page
   • single-rtm_team_member.php - Individual member profile page
   • taxonomy-rtm_research_team.php - A single lab/team page

Available Template Tags

• rtm_get_member_field($field_name) - Get specific member field
• rtm_display_member_contact() - Display contact information
• rtm_display_member_social() - Display social media links
• rtm_display_member_publications() - Show member's publications

🔧 Advanced Features

Custom Fields Available

• Basic Information: Position, member type, member status
• Contact Details: Email, phone, website
• Academic Profiles: Google Scholar, LinkedIn, ResearchGate URLs
• Descriptions: Short and long descriptions with rich text support
• Date Tracking: Start date, end date for tenure tracking
• Display Settings: Custom order, priority override for featured positioning

REST API Endpoints

• GET /wp-json/rtm/v1/team-members - Retrieve team members
• GET /wp-json/rtm/v1/publications - Retrieve publications
• POST /wp-json/rtm/v1/sync-scholar - Trigger Scholar sync

Hooks & Filters

// Customize member data before save
add_filter('rtm_before_member_save', 'your_custom_function');

// Modify publication display
add_filter('rtm_publication_display', 'your_display_function');

// Custom sorting logic
add_filter('rtm_custom_sort_query', 'your_sort_function');

📚 Documentation

Field Mapping

See FIELD-MAPPING.md for detailed information about:

• Import field mappings from other systems
• Custom field structure and usage
• Taxonomy relationships

Sorting Documentation

See SORTING-DOCUMENTATION.md for comprehensive guide on:

• Advanced sorting options
• Query Loop customizations
• Priority and custom ordering

🛠️ Development

Plugin Structure

research-team-manager/
├── admin/                     # Admin interface classes
├── assets/                    # CSS, JS, and media files
├── blocks/                    # Gutenberg blocks
├── includes/                  # Core plugin classes
├── public/                    # Frontend functionality
├── templates/                 # Theme template files
├── research-team-manager.php  # Main plugin file
└── README.md                  # This file

Key Classes

• RTM_Custom_Fields - Meta fields and data handling
• RTM_Teams - Per-lab research_team term settings (PI, logo, intro, Scholar ID, contact)
• RTM_REST_API - REST fields + Query Loop sorting for team members
• RTM_Blocks - Gutenberg block functionality

Note: RTM_Post_Types, RTM_Publications, RTM_Admin and RTM_Public exist in includes//public/ but are legacy scaffolding and are not loaded. The live functionality is in the main research-team-manager.php plus RTM_Custom_Fields, RTM_REST_API, RTM_Teams and RTM_Blocks.

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Publications not syncing:

• Verify Google Scholar User ID is correct
• Check WordPress cron is functioning
• Manually trigger sync in admin panel

Team members not displaying:

• Ensure members are published (not draft)
• Check template files are correctly placed
• Verify shortcode parameters

Sorting not working:

• Confirm custom fields are populated
• Check Query Loop block HTML syntax
• Verify sorting parameter names

Debug Mode

Enable WordPress debug mode to troubleshoot issues:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Follow WordPress coding standards
4. Test thoroughly
5. Submit a pull request

Coding Standards

• Follow WordPress PHP Coding Standards
• Use proper sanitization and validation
• Include inline documentation
• Write clean, readable code

📄 License

This plugin is licensed under GPL v2 or later.

🆘 Support

For support and questions:

• Check the documentation files included with the plugin
• Review common troubleshooting steps above
• Submit issues with detailed information

📈 Changelog

Version 1.3.2

• Branding fix: the roster “View profile” link and member position now use the brand font (--rtm-font, Outfit) instead of inheriting the theme's default content font.

Version 1.3.1

• Per-member profile link: each member can point their name/“View profile” link to this site's profile page (default), an external page (e.g. their UNBC people page — opens in a new tab with an ↗ icon), or no link. New Profile link goes to + External profile URL fields on the member editor.
• Card markup fix: roster cards are now emitted as block-level wrappers so WordPress's wpautop (applied to shortcode-block output) can no longer inject stray <p>/<br> tags — fixes the mis-placed “View profile” link. Team/contact chips on the profile page are likewise newline-safe.

Version 1.3.0

• Member profiles: new [rtm_member_profile] shortcode powers a real /team-member/{slug}/ page (photo, PI badge + position, linked team chips, bio, contact, academic links: Scholar/ResearchGate/LinkedIn/ORCID/GitHub) with empty parts hidden.
• Works on any theme: when a block theme has no matching template, the plugin renders its own canvas (templates/block-canvas.php) using the theme's header/footer parts + global styles, so labs and profiles display even on a theme that knows nothing about the plugin. A real theme/Site-Editor template still wins (rtm_theme_has_block_template() check).
• Honest publications Sync: "Sync" no longer inserts placeholder/sample papers. With no fetcher it shows a clear notice to use Import/manual; integrators supply real data via the new rtm_fetch_scholar_publications filter (upserted per team, dedup by Scholar ID + team).
• Seeded PI member posts are tagged Current Members so grouped rosters read correctly out of the box.
• Docs: docs/ADMIN-GUIDE.md updated (profiles, canvas fallback, Sync behavior, hooks).

Version 1.2.0

• Team classifiers: per-team Type (Lab/Centre/Institute/…) and Research Theme; the /labs directory now groups by Theme and shows a Type badge.
• Structured lead: PI is now real member post(s) chosen via a search + click-to-add picker (linked to their profiles), or an Organization name; auto-shows "Principal Investigator(s):" vs "Led by:".
• Roster grouping: per-team Group members by (none / member status / team role) — e.g. Alumni split into their own section; leads sorted first with a PI badge. New status/role terms become sections automatically.
• Team-aware admin: Teams column + filter on the member list, a prominent Research Team box on the member editor, and Add member from each team.
• Guarded mode conversion: Team Settings pipeline for single→multiple (starter team + move members) and multiple→single (choose active team; keep / delete others, with confirmation).
• Per-team Scholar/Publications: Scholar Settings is a table of all teams' Scholar IDs; Publications scopes sync/import to a selected team.
• Website link label (Official site vs More information) + deep #anchor support.
• Added docs/ADMIN-GUIDE.md; front-end CSS inherits the active theme's light/dark variables.

Version 1.1.0

• Multiple-teams mode: model each lab as a research_team term with its own page at /research-team/{slug}/
• Per-lab settings (PI, logo, intro, Scholar ID, contact) via team term meta
• Per-lab publications (a team_id column scopes the publications table and the Publications admin screen)
• Single ⇄ multiple mode toggle under Team Members → Team Settings
• New [rtm_team_header] shortcode + team= attribute on the team/publications shortcodes
• "Team" field added to the Team Member Field block
• Generic default member-status terms (Current / Alumni / Visiting)
• Hardening: prefixed all post type / taxonomy keys (rtm_team_member, rtm_research_team, …) to avoid collisions; added uninstall.php (drops table + options); shipped & enqueued front-end CSS (assets/css/rtm-public.css); added wp_unslash() to save handlers and plugin constants (RTM_VERSION, RTM_PLUGIN_URL, …); removed unused legacy classes and debug logging
• [rtm_teams] directory: card-based lab directory (per-theme inline SVG icon · title · PI · focus) with theme filter chips, live search, and a light/dark toggle (auto via prefers-color-scheme, manual override persisted in localStorage); CSS is fully tokenised and cache-busted by file mtime

Version 1.0.0

• Initial release
• Team member management
• Google Scholar integration
• Custom blocks and sorting
• Publications tracking
• REST API support

---

Research Team Manager - Streamline your academic team management with powerful WordPress integration. 2. Customize as needed while maintaining the basic structure 3. Available templates:

• single-rtm_team_member.php - Individual member pages
• archive-rtm_team_member.php - Team member archive
• taxonomy-rtm_research_team.php - Single lab/team page

CSS Customization

The plugin includes comprehensive CSS for styling. To customize:

1. Use your theme's CSS to override plugin styles
2. Target classes prefixed with .rtm-
3. Key classes include:
   • .rtm-team-members - Team member container
   • .rtm-team-member - Individual member card
   • .rtm-publications-list - Publications container
   • .rtm-publication-item - Individual publication

Security Features

• All user inputs are sanitized and validated
• Nonce verification for AJAX requests
• Capability checks for admin functions
• SQL injection prevention with prepared statements
• XSS protection with proper output escaping

Google Scholar Integration (Planned Feature)

Current Status: The plugin currently supports manual publication upload only. Automatic Google Scholar integration is planned for a future release.

Planned Features:

• Automatic scraping of Google Scholar profiles to import publications
• Publication titles, authors, and journal information sync
• Citation counts with regular updates
• Links to original papers and abstracts
• Respectful scraping with appropriate delays to avoid blocking

Current Workaround: Use the manual publication upload feature in the admin interface to add publications until automatic sync is available.

Database Structure

Publications Table

The plugin creates a custom table wp_rtm_publications with the following structure:

• id - Unique publication ID
• title - Publication title
• authors - Author list
• journal - Journal or venue name
• year - Publication year
• citations - Citation count
• url - Link to publication
• google_scholar_id - Unique identifier for Scholar sync
• abstract - Publication abstract
• date_created - Record creation date
• date_updated - Last update timestamp

Team Member Meta Fields

Custom fields stored in WordPress meta tables:

• _rtm_position - Job title/position
• _rtm_department - Department or institution
• _rtm_education - Educational background
• _rtm_research_interests - Research interests
• _rtm_biography - Full biography
• _rtm_email - Email address
• _rtm_phone - Phone number
• _rtm_office - Office location
• _rtm_website - Personal website
• _rtm_linkedin - LinkedIn profile
• _rtm_twitter - Twitter profile
• _rtm_google_scholar - Google Scholar profile
• _rtm_orcid - ORCID identifier
• _rtm_researchgate - ResearchGate profile
• _rtm_github - GitHub profile
• _rtm_start_date - Start date with team
• _rtm_end_date - End date (for former members)
• _rtm_is_current - Current member status
• _rtm_order - Display order

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Publications not displaying:

• Verify publications have been manually uploaded through admin interface
• Check that publications are properly linked to team members
• Clear any caching plugins

Team member images not displaying:

• Check file permissions on uploads directory
• Verify image file formats are supported
• Clear any caching plugins
• Check for theme conflicts

Shortcodes not working:

• Ensure plugin is activated
• Check for syntax errors in shortcode attributes
• Verify you have published team members
• Check theme compatibility

Debug Mode

Add this to wp-config.php for debugging:

define('RTM_DEBUG', true);

This will enable detailed logging for troubleshooting issues.

Support

For support and feature requests, please:

1. Check the documentation above
2. Review technical documentation in the docs/ folder:
   • Field Mapping Documentation - For data migration
   • Custom Sorting Documentation - For advanced display options
3. Review the plugin settings
4. Test with default theme to rule out conflicts
5. Contact your developer for custom implementations

Changelog

Version 1.0.0

• Initial release
• Team member management system
• Manual publications management
• Frontend display templates
• Responsive design
• Security hardening

Planned Features (Upcoming Releases)

• Google Scholar Integration: Automatic publication sync from Google Scholar profiles
• Advanced Analytics: Publication metrics and citation tracking
• Enhanced Filters: More sophisticated filtering options
• Export Features: CSV/PDF export capabilities

License

This plugin is licensed under GPL v2 or later.

Credits

• Built with WordPress best practices
• Uses Google Scholar for publication data
• Responsive CSS framework
• jQuery for interactive features