CRIS Forms
AD-421 Progress/Termination Reports
Following are guidelines to electronically submit annual progress reports as required by the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) and the Cooperative Research Information Service (CRIS).
Please type your report in WORD and forward to Colleen Johnson electronically (), who will transmit Horticulture's AD-421 Annual Progress Reports to the Ag Experiment Station Office.
CRIS strictly limits the narrative to 3200 characters, and cannot accept any characters not found on your keyboard. Do not use degree symbols, math symbols, Greek letters, italics, boldface, super- or sub-scripts, or underlines. Please substitute suitable words and alternate characters. Consider entering and spell-checking the text in your favorite word processor (then paste it into the Web form), but DO NOT include tabs or indents nor any other text formatting or graphic characters. General directions can be found at the following address: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/iaexp/cris/ad421.html
In requesting that you complete these forms, please keep in mind that not only scientists, but administrators, State and Federal officials, and legislative officials read and use these progress reports. The CRIS technical database is available on-line to the public worldwide. The quality and timeliness of the report reflects strongly on the research, the investigator(s), and the institution, and has a decided influence on State and Federal levels of research funding.
The Progress Report should contain summaries of significant results, accomplishments, conclusions, and recommendations, and reasons why these are meaningful. If conclusions and recommendations are not available, report the present stage of achievements. Statements must be adequate to appear without change in published sources. There are a number of problems that seem to occur fairly frequently and can be easily corrected. Please consider the following:
- A Progress Report covers the calendar year; a Termination Report covers the life of the project.
- There is a tendency to tell what the researchers did rather than report research results. Please make every attempt to summarize the significant findings and accomplishments of the past year's activities.
- Many of you list and describe publications as part of the Progress Report when they should be simply listed under Publications. Also, unless a publication deals specifically and in a major way with more than one project, it should be reported only under the major project.
- Publications — Citations in the Publications must be issued. We will allow "accepted for publication" or "in press" for a termination report only. Please do not use "forthcoming" as it is an ambiguous term. Include only publications for the current reporting period, and only published works (journal articles, published abstracts, books, book chapters, and theses — NO talks, NO presentations, NO newsletter or magazine articles). Do NOT enter authors in all capital letters and do NOT number the citations.
- Do not restate the goals and objectives or describe the focus of your project in the Progress Report. The objectives, approach and other information from the AD-416 and AD-417 forms are already entered into the CRIS database and can be accessed by anyone seeking this information.
- Do not state "work in progress on" or "we studied this" or "we examined that" without reporting at what stage the work is or how much progress has been made. Please avoid statements like the above.
- For projects that contribute to Multistate Committees (NC-, W-, S-, NE-, NRSP-), discuss only the work that was performed in Iowa. DO NOT report on the Multistate Committee, as the committee has its own, separate annual reporting requirements. DO talk about accomplishments at ISU.
- An Impact is required (by IAHEES administration). 2-3 sentences should be sufficient. Summarize your project's economic, environmental, and/or social IMPACT. Use full sentences and NON-TECHNICAL language. Project summaries that demonstrate impact answer the question "So what?" (What difference does it make, to whom? What's the benefit?)
Examples:
- Specific information on the influence of cold temperatures on adelgid survival will help define geographic areas to anticipate infestations of economic importance in the state. By monitoring the population dynamics of the mites over the growing season researchers will get a clearer picture of the interaction between predator and prey. The expectation is that T. pyri will eliminate the need for miticides at most locations.
- Modifying the composition of sauce and/or cheese can prevent movement of chemical components between the cheese and pizza sauce. These findings will enable manufacturers of refrigerated pizza to produce better quality products that use real cheese as an ingredient.
We will be printing off a "Confirmation Screen" for the Department Chair's review and will confirm the Department Chair's review and approval of the AD-421 projects with the Ag Experiment Station.
