• understand what HORTUS is before and after sign-in
• register, sign in, or choose an identity route
• activate the contributor role you need to work on the platform
• understand the moderated publication lifecycle before you contribute

• Visitor
• signed-in user
• contributor

Related chapters

• Navigate the interface
• Build your public profile
• Create and publish content

HORTUS is the integrated digital collaboration environment developed in the ITSERR context for Religious Studies. It combines a moderated marketplace of research outputs, project pages, event and news publishing, expert discovery, social interaction, workspace storage, metadata management, and dissemination routes into one user-facing platform.

As a public-first environment, HORTUS lets you read a large amount of content before authentication. After sign-in, the platform adds personal tools such as notifications, messaging, favourites, workspace access, contribution flows, and role-dependent creation actions

• Use the top navigation to move between Projects, Events, News, Experts, Marketplace, Support, Social, and other public sections.
• Use the global search field when you are not yet sure whether the thing you need is a person, a project, a news item, or a resource
• Open public detail pages to understand a project, inspect a resource, or evaluate an expert profile before deciding whether to sign in.
• understand the moderated publication lifecycle before you contribute
• Use public support content if you need a manual or a short answer before you start contributing