CATS IACUC Upgrade Fall 2021

The CATS IACUC upgrade, launched on September 21, 2021 largely focused on improving protocol form navigation and enhancing the review experience.  

Learn more: 

Upgrade overview for researchers and reviewers

Upgrade overview for reviewers

The following are highlights of the upgrade changes:

For researchers and reviewers

Redesigned Protocol FormIACUC Navigator (2).png

  • Instead of a "Jump To" menu, there will now be a "navigator" on the left side of the screen with helpful status icons
  • An integrated Compare feature replaces View Differences
  • Slide-in views replace pop-up windows

Ability to Copy Protocol from one Research Team to Another 

  • The Copy Submission activity on IACUC protocols is extended to enable copying a protocol to another research team.  When copying a protocol, a PI or protocol team member can optionally select the New research team. If the protocol references team procedures, which in turn reference team substances, these are copied to the new research team if they do not already exist.

Enhanced Reviewer Notes

  • Reviewer notes are now supported at the question and selection item (e.g., experiment) level as well as the page level; this allows reviewers to be more specific, give clearer direction, and get better clarifications 
  • Notes now support threaded discussions
  • Indicators on each question will show which items have reviewer notes and how many notes are present 
  • Notes can be designated as "response-required" on an individual basis and reviewer note threads can be marked by the reviewer as “resolved.”

Retained Reviewer Notes

  • Reviewer notes are now retained after the approval of a submission (available in the approved submission workspace and as an archived document on the Documents tab)

Improved Default Dashboard

  • The default dashboard (also known as My Inbox) is updated to show recently viewed items
  • “My Reviews” tab helps researchers who are also reviewers to differentiate submissions that require action as a reviewer

For reviewers

Review Tracker

A new purpose-built mode for reviewing protocols features:

  • a single-page view of the entire protocol form 
  • ability to mark sections as reviewed
  • inline comparison with previous versions
  • change indicators to narrow the scope of follow-up reviews