Harvard Medical School has a guest account process that allows visitors and guests (non-HMS and HSDM employees) to access various School systems when requested by a sponsor. Sponsors must be Harvard Medical faculty or staff and have a valid Harvard ID number.  

Note – A Harvard Sponsored Role (HSR) is required before an HMS accounts for guests can be requested. 

An HMS account for guests may initially be requested for up to one year, though they may be extended for additional time if approved by a sponsor. Due to the licensing agreements with electronic journals, HMS accounts for guest roles will not have access to the Digital Library.

For guests to access HMS digital resources, HMS accounts (formerly eCommons accounts) are required. A sponsor needs to request an HMS account for individuals with a legitimate role who are not automatically provisioned an HMS account. 

Sponsor a guest

  1. Setup the guest with a Harvard Sponsored Role (HSR)
  2. Fill out the HMS Guest User Request Form
  3. The guest will activate their HMS account from a link in an automated message sent to their personal email address used during onboarding. This automated message will be titled Activate your HMS account and contain their HMS account ID, activation code, and the link required to activate their new HMS account. A copy of this message will also be sent to the sponsor.  

Extend an existing guest user 

To extend access for guests, fill out the form to extend HMS accounts for guests. 

If you are a Wyss Institute staff member or Wyss affiliate requesting a guest account, you must submit a request through email to Wyss HR and Academic Affairs by emailing AcademicAffairs@wyss.harvard.edu.