Please note: A PDF version of this guide is available for download at the bottom of the article.

The basics of adding a study begin creating a Study Shell and filling out the Study Application.  Once the Study Shell, Study Application and supporting documents are attached, submit your new study to an IRB for pre-review. Depending on how your system is setup, your new application may first be submitted to other review boards, such as an SRB or Radiation Safety committee before being reviewed by the IRB.

This manual will guide you through the process of adding a new study to the system and submitting that study to the IRB. This manual will also show user’s how to respond to any corrections requested by the IRB.

Add a Study

To begin, click the Create a New Study button in the Study Assistant menu group on the homepage of your iRIS software or from the tab from the My Workspaces tab.  

Selecting an Application

If your system has more than one application type available, you will be directed to a page that lists each application out, allowing you to select the application you need to complete. The number of applications available here depends on the number of modules being used. The name and form descriptions will be contingent on your institution and may not look the examples in the screens below.

Select the desired application, then click the Start selected Application button. If you do not need to create a new study at this time, click the Cancel and Return button to return to your iRIS homepage.

Selecting an application brings you to the first of three sections of the application, known as the Study Shell.  After the first three initial screens of this application are complete, a new study record is created in the system.  You can exit the application at any time and the application will save a Draft.  Some of the fields in the application are required.  In order to progress to the next section of the application, data must be entered into these required fields.  Note that you may return to the application and edit these fields any time before submitting the form.  After an application has been submitted, it can be viewed but cannot be edited.

1.0 General Information

The first of the Study Shell screens is the General Information screen.  This section will capture the Study Title and Study Number.

If your system is using the Subject Management module, you will also be asked whether or not this study is going to be using Subject Management. If you indicate “Yes” you will have the ability to add subjects once the IRB approves your study.

Click Save and Continue to the Next Section button in the upper right corner of the screen after the Study Title and Study Number have been added to this section as shown in the above image. You can also click the Save Section button to save your work. The page will refresh and save, but not continue to the next section.

2.0 Add Department(s)

The second section of the Study Shell screens involves the setting up of departments that will have access to this study.   You want to select any department the study is involved with and note that the study will be linked to the department for report purposes.  Department Administrators will be able to pull data from the study into certain reports based on the Department(s) associated to the study.

The system will pull in your primary department as the potential primary department for the study. You can associate additional departments by clicking on the Add Department button.

When you add another department, the departments will display in a pop-up within your window, as seen in the image below.  Click the check box next to the desired department(s) and click the Save button when you are ready to add the selected departments to the study.  You can also search for a particular department by entering all or part of the Department Name, Institution Name, Department Code and/or School Code and clicking the Search button.

If you do not need to add additional Departments, click the Cancel button to close the pop-up.

Any added department(s) will now show in the department table.  To remove a department, click the checkbox next to the appropriate department name then click the Remove button. You can change the primary department, if necessary.  To do this, click the radio button for the department under the Primary Dept. column.  Only one primary department can be selected at one time.

After adding the necessary departments, click the Save and Continue to the Next Section button, as seen in the image below.

3.0 Assign key study personnel (KSP) access to the study

The third section of the Study Shell Screens involves assigning Key Study Personnel (KSP) to the study. The page will list the different roles available to assign a user to. Your system may or may not display all the roles, depending on how your system is configured.

In this version, users are also able to add Non-Study Personnel, if the property has been turned on from your System Administrator.

Any user added to the study will have the ability to access the study in iRIS.

To add any user to any role, click the Setup Study Personnel button next to the Section Title. Another screen will display in a pop-up within your window with the study personnel list and the roles.

Under the “User Search” tab, it will allow you to search the user directory by First name, Last name, or Department.  Enter all or part of the criteria and click the Find User/Search Directory button, as seen in the image below.

To select a user to add, click the icon under Select. This selects the user and another window will pop-up to assign the user to their role.

You may or may not see the same role options as presented in this manual, depending on your system configuration. When some of the roles are chosen, an option to make the role a Contact appears.

Some of the roles available in this section include the following:

Principal Investigator – All study records must have a Principal Investigator. If you do not add a PI to this screen, you will not be able to progress to the next section. Also note that you can only have one Principal Investigator listed on the study. If additional PIs are needed on the study, you may add them in the Additional Investigator’s section, if available.

Additional Investigators – Any investigator roles for the study, aside from the Principal Investigator, can be listed here. You may have any number of Additional Investigator’s and after you add a user to this group, you will be able to specify which role they have.

Research Support Staff – This section is for any non-investigator users you need to list on the study. You may have any number of research support staff listed here and after you add a user to this group, you will be able to specify which role they have.

Contact – The user you add as the Principal Investigator will default to the Study Contact. You may add additional Study Contacts as needed. A Study Contact is a user on the study who will receive study related notifications from the system, such as Continuing Review notifications, Submission Correction notifications, Review Response notifications, etc. The Study Contact is usually also another role on the study, like a Research Coordinator, PI, etc.

Department Administrator – The users in the section will populate under the Designated Department Approval section in the form. You can add a user to Designated Department Approvals if you need to route your application to a department reviewer before the IRB will accept your submission. You can have any number of users listed here. At the end of your application process, you will have the ability to select this user for submission routing. More will be discussed later.

Under the tab “Study Personnel Pool”, users are able to select an existing pool from the drop-down menu. After a Pool has been selected, the personnel who are in that Pool will populate into the table below. Pools are groups of Personnel who are grouped together to save the user time, if the same team of people will be on studies together.

Under the tab “Study Personnel Pool”, users are able to select an existing pool from the drop-down menu. After a Pool has been selected, the personnel who are in that Pool will populate into the table below. Pools are groups of Personnel who are grouped together to save the user time, if the same team of people will be on studies together.

In this general pool, John Investigator and Jane Doe are in this Pool names “General Pool”.

Under the “Create My Personnel Pool” tab, the user will be able to create a Pool of study Personnel, based off of the current KSP that have been chosen for this study. All the users who are chosen under the section “Selected Study Personnel” will be added to this Pool.

Here, the user can fill out the section Reference name of the Pool you are creating, which will be the name of the group you are creating. Click Save to finish.

In this case, Abby Ack, Jane Investigator, John Researcher and the others (not seen in the screenshot), will be added to this new Pool, along with their roles assigned. These are KSPs that have been added under the “User Search” tab. They will be added into the new Pool, “2019 General Pool – Cardiology Dept.”.

Under the “Update My Personnel Pool” tab, the user can update the name of an existing Pool. Select the Pool you wish to update, and another section will appear below.

Change the name of the Pool as desired and click Save to save the new Pool name. In this case, the user is editing “2019 Anesthesiology Dept,” into “2019 Anesthesiology Dept.”.

Under the “Delete My Personnel Pool” tab, the user can delete pre-existing Pools. Click on the icon to remove the Pool.

You can remove any user from the study by clicking the icon next to their name. If you want to clear the whole list, you can click the button Clear Key Study Personnel to remove all users. If you need to remove the PI, you will have to select a new user to take the PI’s place because a study record cannot be created without this information. When you have added all the Study Personnel, click the Close Setup of Study Personnel at the bottom to close the window.

After all of the necessary users have been associated to the study, the information from the window will populate into the Study Shell Section 3.0.

Designated Department Approvals – You can add a user to Designated Department Approvals if you need to route your application to a department reviewer before the IRB will accept your submission. You can have any number of users listed here. At the end of your application process, you will have the ability to select this user for submission routing. More will be discussed later.

Click the Save and Continue to the Next Section button to continue the application.

Assign User(s) to Sections

After granting KSP access to the study, depending on the application form’s configuration, you may see the Assign User(s) to Sections button.

Click the button to open the Define Study Access screen. On this screen, you will see a list of the sections of the application and an option to assign users to complete each section. As you proceed through more sections of the application, you will see more sections listed on the page.

Select the user that you would like to assign to each section of the application and click Save Section Assignments to return to the application.

Upon returning to the application, if a section has been assigned to a user other than yourself, you will see the name of the assigned KSP in the corner of the screen. The section will be read-only for anyone other than that user, and he or she will receive a Form Section Assignment task.

The screen above is in read-only because the user who was not assigned the section has the section open. In the screen below, the user can edit and fill out the form because the section was not assigned to anyone.

Custom Application Sections

The sections in the application following the initial three sections are customizable, based on the configuration of your Study Application.

When you complete a section, click the Save and Continue to Next Section button. If a required field is left blank and you try to save and continue you will get an error message alerting you to the missing field.

Correct the missing field to save and continue, below is an example of a possible error message within the form.

Throughout the application you may be asked to provide details for different aspects of the Study. Unique data values that capture this information are detailed below. These data values are defined in the form in the System Forms Designer by your System Administrator and may or may not be present in your form.

Notes regarding forms navigation

Back Button: When constructing the Study Application, it is important to remember that if you need to return to the previous section, DO NOT hit the Back button on your Internet Browser. To properly navigate to the previous section, click on the link for that section in the navigation pane.

Navigation Pane: On the left side of the screen, a navigation pane builds as you progress through the application. Click on the link of a section at any time to move to that section.  The section you are in will appear blue, while the other sections will appear gray.

Help Icons: Some of the sections will contain help icons.  Click or hover your mouse over the icon to open a window or see a small pop-up. This will list available information about a certain question.

Study Drugs

The Study Drug data value will allow you to search the iRIS database for a study drug to add to your study. You can have any number of drugs on the study. Follow the process described below to add each record.

Begin by clicking on the Add a New Drug to the Study button, as seen in the image below.

A pop-up window will open within your browser, as seen in the image below, allowing you to search the system for the drug you would like to add to the study. You can enter in all or part of the Drug Name or leave that field blank and click the Find Drug button to return all drugs in the system.

Once your search returns results, you can choose the drug you need to add by clicking on the icon in the Select column, as seen in the image below.

If the drug you need to add to the study is not in the list, you can add a drug to the master list by clicking on the Add a New Drug button.

After you choose to add a new drug, the window will update, allowing you to specify the Trade Drug Name, Generic Name and/or Investigational Drug Name. You can enter the name for one or all of the fields. When you are finished, click the Save Drug Info button.

When you click Save Drug Info, the drug is added to the master list.

Whether you chose an existing drug by clicking on the icon in the Select column, or by adding a new drug to the master list, the next screen will be the Study Drug Details.

This screen allows you to enter the study-specific information for the drug. You may or may not see the same information listed on this page, depending on your system configuration.

Enter in the appropriate information and click on the Save Drug Info button.

You will be returned to the Study Application and the drug you added will appear in the table below the Add a New Drug to the Study button.

You can delete the drug by clicking the icon in the Delete Drug column. To edit the study-specific drug information, click the icon in the Edit column. You can also view the study-specific details by clicking the icon in the View Details column, as seen in the image below.

You can add additional drugs by clicking the Add a New Drug to the Study button and follow the steps listed above.

Study Devices

The Study Device data value will allow you to search iRIS’ database for a study device to add to your study. You can have any number of devices on the study. Follow the process described below to add each record.

Begin by clicking on the Add a New Device to the Study button.

A pop-up window will open within your browser allowing you to search the system for the device you would like to add to the study. You can enter in all or part of the Device Name, Device Mode and/or Device Serial Number or leave these fields blank and click the Find Device button to return all devices in the system.

Once your search returns results, you can choose the device you need to add by clicking on the icon in the Select column.

If the device you need to add to the study is not in the list, you can add a device to the master list by clicking on the Add a New Device button.

After you choose to add a new device, the window will update, allowing you to specify the Device Name (required field), Device Mode and Device Serial Number. When you are finished, click the Save Device Info button.

When you click Save Device Info, the device is added to the master list.

Whether you chose an existing device by clicking on the icon in the Select column, or by adding a new device to the master list, the next screen will be the Study Device Details.

This screen allows you to enter the study-specific information for the device. You may or may not see the same information listed on this page, depending on your system configuration.

Enter in the appropriate information and click on the Save Device Info button.

You will be returned to the Study Application and the device you added will appear in the table below the Add a New Device to the Study button.

You can delete the device by clicking the icon in the Delete Device column. To edit the study-specific device information, click the icon in the Edit column. You can also view the study-specific details by clicking the icon in the View Details column.

You can add additional devices by clicking the Add a New Device to the Study button and follow the steps listed above.

Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria

The Inclusion Criteria and Exclusion Criteria data values allow you to enter your inclusion/exclusion criteria for potential subjects on the study. You can add the criteria to your Study Application for IRB review, and later, when you begin to enroll subjects on the study you will be able to flag which criteria the subject meets or does not meet.

Adding criteria works the same way for both Inclusion Criteria and Exclusion Criteria and is described below using Inclusion Criteria as an example.

Begin by clicking on the Add a New Inclusion Criteria to the Study button.

A pop-up window will open within your browser allowing you to specify the Inclusion Criteria Order Number and the wording for the Criteria. The Order Number will default to 1. You can change the Order Number if you have more than one Inclusion Criteria listed and would like to change the order the criteria presented in the data value.

The required Criteria field allows you to copy and paste or type in the text for your criteria.

When you are finished, click the Save Criteria Info button. You will return to the Study Application and the Inclusion Criteria will be listed in the table.

You can have additional Inclusion Criteria, as needed. Click the Add a New Inclusion Criteria to the Study button and repeat the steps above. You can delete an Inclusion Criteria record by clicking the icon in the Delete column. You can modify existing records by clicking the icon in the Edit column.

Sponsor

The Sponsor data value will allow you to search iRIS’ database for a sponsor to add to your study. Depending on your system settings, you may be able to list more than one sponsor or only one sponsor. Follow the process described below to add a sponsor record.

Begin by clicking on the Add a New Sponsor to the Study button.

A pop-up window will open within your browser allowing you to search the system for the sponsor you would like to add to the study. You can enter in all or part of the Sponsor Name, Familiar Name and/or Legal Name, or leave these fields blank and click the Find Sponsor button to return all sponsors in the system.

If you cannot find the sponsor in the master list, you can add a new sponsor by clicking on the Add a New Sponsor to   the Master List button.

After you choose to add a new sponsor, the window will update, allowing you to specify the Sponsor Abbreviation, Sponsor Name (required field), Sponsor Type (required field) and information for the sponsor’s location. When you are finished, click the Save Sponsor and Add to Study button.

Whether you chose an existing sponsor by clicking on the icon in the Select column, or by adding a new sponsor to the master list, the next screen will be the Study Sponsor Details screen.

This screen allows you to enter the study-specific information for the sponsor. You may or may not see the same information listed on this page, depending on your system configuration.

The Sponsor Role field allows you to indicate what this sponsor’s role is for this study. If you indicate this is the Funding sponsor and you are using the Finance portion of iRIS with Subject Management, later in the project you will be able to generate invoices to the sponsor when study events and milestones are triggered.

Enter in the appropriate information and click on the Save button.

When you select a sponsor to add them to a study, the table for Sponsor Information will populate with that sponsor and any additional details available for the sponsor. You can delete the sponsor from the study by clicking on the icon in the Delete column. If your system is setup to allow only one sponsor per study, the button to add sponsors to the study will not appear, as seen in the image below. If you delete the sponsor, the button will reappear, allowing you to add a different sponsor.

If your system does not restrict the number of sponsors allowed per study, you can add additional sponsors to the study by clicking on the Add a New Sponsor to the Study button and following the same steps above.

You can view additional details related to the sponsor by clicking on the expand icon in the View Details column.

Sponsor Contact

After adding a Sponsor to a study, you will also be able to specify contacts associated to the sponsor.

The data value for Sponsor Contacts will allow you to add as many contacts to the study for the sponsor as necessary. Click on the Add a New Contact(s) to the Study button.

A new pop-up will display within the browser allowing you to search for existing sponsor contacts. Any contact already associated to the Sponsor can be searched using the Last Name, First Name and/or Division search fields. You can enter all or partial information in any of these fields or leave these fields blank and click the Find Sponsor Contact button to return all sponsor contacts associated to the sponsor you added to the study.

If you cannot find the sponsor contact in the list, you can add a new sponsor by clicking on the Add a new Contact to the Master List button.

After you choose to add a new contact, the window will update, allowing you to specify the Contact Category, Division (required field), First Name (required field), Middle Initial, Last Name (required field) and information for the sponsor contact. When you are finished, click the Save Sponsor and Contact Info button.

Whether you chose an existing sponsor contact by clicking on the icon in the Select column, or by adding a new sponsor contact to the master list, the contact will be added to the study and you will return to the Study Application. Any sponsor contact you added will display in the table for Sponsor Contacts section.

You can add any number of contacts, so to add another, click on the Add a New Sponsor Contact(s) to the Study button again. You can delete a contact from the study by clicking on the icon in the Delete column.

You can view additional details related to the sponsor contact by clicking on the expand icon in the View Details column. Your system may or may not have the fields shown in the screenshot below, depending on system settings.

Key Personnel Bulk Addition

Another submission data value has been added that is a Dynamic Table. If the first column has the KSP Personnel Selection data value, then the Dynamic Table will show the button “Load Initial Personnel from Study” in the form.

When Load Initial Personal from Study is clicked, a pop-up window will display when the user clicks the button. The window will show the list of Personnel on Study Selection previously inputted from the Study Shell.

For example, five personnel will add five rows to the dynamic table because five KSP were added from the study shell.

Initial Review Transition

When you are finished filling out the Study Application, the system will transition into the Initial Review Submission Form.

You will have transitioned to the next section when the screen appears that is shown in the image below. An informative message between completing the study application and moving onto the submission form has been added for clarity.

Once the user has completed confirmed, the Submission Form will open indicating that the user is moving on from the Study Application.

Note: The screen above is an example of a form, not all forms will have a section like this at the end of the study application. This screen’s purpose is to only depict the end of the study application. 

This does not mean the Study Application has reset, rather, you have been placed into a new form.

The Initial Review serves as the actual submission form that will go to the review board when submitted. The Study Application will be attached to this form, along with any other Informed consents and supporting study documents.

The Initial Review functions the same way as the Study Application, in regard to navigating and completing sections by adding information into the fields within each section. Complete this form by completing each section, attaching the necessary documentation and clicking the Save and Continue button to proceed.

The first section will contain information related to the study, based on your input from the Study Shell screens. Unique data values that capture this information are detailed below. These data values are defined in the form in the System Forms Designer by your System Administrator and may or may not be present in your form.

Lay Summary

The Lay Summary data value is a required field, as highlighted in the image below, and allows you to capture the Master Lay Summary for your study. The information you enter into this field will transfer to the study’s master lay summary field for the review board of record.

You can enter the study Lay Summary by clicking the Click here to access the text editor button.

A small pop-up will display, allowing you to copy and paste or type in the text of your Lay Summary. When you are finished, click the Apply button.

The pop-up will close, returning you to the Initial Review Submission packet and the Lay Summary text will populate underneath the Lay Summary section.

Application Attachment

The purpose of the Initial Review Submission Form is to bring the Study Application to a board for review. One of the sections of the Initial Review will present the ability to attach the application. Because the Study Application has already been completed and you transitioned in to the Initial Review Submission Form, the Study Application will auto-attach.

The Application Attachment value will display the Study Application, as shown in the screenshot below. If the application is attached, you will not need to do anything at this point. Later, if the review board returns the submission for correction, you may need to navigate to this section to make changes, depending on the nature of the change.

If the Study Application is not attached, the data value will indicate that “No Application has been associated with this submission.” You can attach the application by clicking on the Click here to attach the application button.

A window will open within the browser, listing the available Study Application you can attach.

Later, when revisions of the application are created, more information will populate in this window. Currently, as a new study, there will only be one version of the application available, and because it has not been submitted, there is no need to create a revision.

Make sure the application is selected and click the Save Attachment button.

You will return to the Initial Review, with the attached application listed in the Application section. Click the Save and Continue button.

Informed Consent Attachments

You may be directed to attach any necessary Informed Consent documents. Any consent document you upload to the Initial Review will be attached to the form and will be submitted for review. The document(s) you upload will also be stored in the Informed Consent document library in the study record. When the review board approves the document, the approval information will update the document stored in the library, which can also be accessed and printed. If your system is using Subject Management, you will also be able to update consent information for subjects on the study.

Click the Add a New Consent button.

A small window will open within the window, asking for input on how you will upload the Consent document, as seen in the image below.

Depending on your system settings, you may or may not have the same options as described for adding an Informed Consent.

Each possible selection is described below. Choose the appropriate action then click the Next Screen button.

1. Add an informed consent from the list of Informed Consent Template Documents?

Review boards may make consent templates available for you to download, modify, and then upload to the study. If you would like to download a copy and use the review board’s consent template, choose this option.

Selecting this option will present you with the ability to select the desired template from a drop-down list. Select the template and then click the Download Template button.

Depending on your Internet Browser, version and settings, you may or may not be prompted with the file download information.

In this example, Google Chrome is used. The browser asks if you would like to open or save the consent document.

It is best to choose to Save the document, so you can be sure of saving the document in a known location.

The Initial Review will update with information regarding the informed consent you chose. The system will wait for you to open the consent form in Microsoft Word for any edits. The asterisked fields are required.

2. Add an informed consent from an existing document you already have?

If you already have a consent document ready to upload, choose this option.

A new popup will open within the browser. Here you will specify the name of the document in the Consent Title field. Then you will need to browse for the document on your computer by clicking on the Browse button. This will open another window allowing you to navigate the folders on your computer so you can locate your Consent document.

The version number can be any character or number. After the editable version number is a hard coded ‘.0’. This is iRIS version number for the Consent document. Any new document you upload to the system will begin with the ‘.0’ affixed to your manually entered version number. Anytime a revision is made to the document through the system, iRIS will change the ‘.0’ to ‘.1’ and will continue to increment the numbers each time a revision is made. This is how the system tracks the number of revisions to the document in iRIS. You will always be able to revise your manually entered version number, but you are unable to revise the iRIS version number.

Consent Title – This is the title of the consent you wish to upload.

Select the consent to upload – This is the where you can upload your consent form.

Version Date – This is the date of the manually entered version number. This is typically the date the Consent document was uploaded to the system.

Category – This configurable drop-down list allows you to group documents into certain categories.

Language – This configurable drop-down list allows you to select which language the consent is written in.

Description – A description of the document.

Comments – Any comments regarding the consent document you feel necessary to add for the reviewing board to see.

Enter the required information including the document itself then click the Save Consent button.

The Consent document will be uploaded to the study, and it will appear as attached to the Initial Review Submission Packet in the Consent Attachment section.

Information you added to the Consent record will display in the table, including fields reserved for the review board, Expiration Date and Review Outcome. This information will populate when the review board gives the Consent form an outcome. There is a column called Checked Out. This column only populates if the Consent is checked out for edits.

You can remove the attached consent by clicking the icon in the Detach column. When you detach the Consent, you are removing it from the submission. If the record needs to be deleted, you will need to navigate to the study Submissions page and open the Informed Consent library. Once a document is submitted it cannot be deleted from the study.

Once a Consent document is uploaded, an additional button will populate within the Informed Consent data value, called Select or Revise Existing. This button is available whenever you have documents in the Informed Consent library and allows you to select from the existing Consent documents on the study. You can also make any edits to the attached Consent, if needed, by clicking this button.

A new window will open, listing any existing Consent documents. Because only one record has been created for the study, only one record will display. It is already attached to the Initial Review Submission Packet, so you will not be able to re-attach it. To make changes to the document, click the icon in the Edit column.

This triggers the Study Consent Revision window to open. From here you can make any changes to the Consent details (Consent Title, Version Number, Version Date, Category, Language, Description, Check-out the document to your workstation for editing, and Comments).

Depending on your Internet browser, the download may require a few steps, but after it is downloaded you can edit it outside of the iRIS system. You will return to the Study Consent Revision. The page will indicate the document is checked out and you will have the ability to Check-in Document or Undo Check-out Document.

Anywhere you can view the Consent form, in the Informed Consent library or within the Initial Review Submission Form you will see that the document is checked out.

When you have made changes to the document in Microsoft Word, you can check it back in by navigating to the consent section in the Initial Review. Click Select or Revise Existing, as shown in the image below.

Click the icon in the Edit column.

Click the Check-in Document button.

A popup window will open allowing you to browse your computer for the Consent document you would like to upload. Click the Save selected file button once you specify the document location. If you do not want to upload the document, click on the Cancel button.

Depending on the file size, you may see a message from the system indicating iRIS is uploading the document.

You will then be returned to the Study Consent Revision window, with the document successfully checked in and associated to the study. Click the Save Consent to apply the changes to the Initial Review.

Study Document Attachments

You may be directed to attach other supporting Study Documents. Any document you upload to the Initial Review Submission Packet will be attached to the form and will be submitted for review. The document(s) you upload will also be stored in the Other Study Document library in the study record. When the review board approves the document, the approval information will update the document stored in the library, which can also be accessed and printed.

You can add as many documents as needed to the Document attachment data value. You can choose to add one document at a time, or if you have multiple documents, you can add them all at once, by the Add Multiple Documents button.

Add a New Document

To add one document to the Document attachment data value, click Add a New Document.

A new pop-up will open within the browser. Here you will specify the name of the document in the Document Title field. Then you will need to browse for the document on your computer by clicking on the Browse button. This will open another window, allowing you to navigate the folders on your compute so you can locate your document.

You must also specify the Version Number.

Version Number allows you to specify the version number. This can be any character or number. After the editable version number is a hard coded ‘.0’. This is iRIS version number for the document. Any new document you upload to the system will begin with the ‘.0’ affixed to your manually entered version number. Anytime a revision is made to the document through the system, iRIS will change the ‘.0’ to ‘.1’ and will continue to increment the numbers each time a revision is made. This is how the system tracks the number of revisions to the document in iRIS. You will always be able to revise your manually entered version number, but you are unable to revise the iRIS version number.

Select the Document to Upload and Version Number are required fields and you cannot upload a document without providing these details. Depending on your system configuration, you may also be required to enter the Document Title here.

The remaining fields are optional and can be filled out as needed.

Version Date – Enter the date of the manually entered version number. This is typically the date the document was uploaded to the system.

Category – Select from a configurable drop-down list to group documents into certain categories.

Description – Enter a description of the document.

Comments – Enter any comments regarding the document you feel necessary to add for the reviewing board to see.

Click the Save Document button after adding the necessary details.

The study document will be uploaded to the study, and it will appear as attached to the Initial Review in the Other Study Documents Attachment section.

Information you added to the study document will display in the table, including fields reserved for the review board, Expiration Date and Review Outcome. This information will populate when the review board gives the study document an outcome.

You can remove the attached document by clicking the icon in the Detach column. When you detach a study document you are removing it from the submission. If the record needs to be deleted entirely, you will need to navigate to the study Submissions page and open the Other Study Document library. Also, once a document is submitted it cannot be deleted from the study.

Once a document is uploaded, an additional button will populate in the Other Study Document data value: Select or Revise Existing. This button is available when you have documents in the Other Study Documents library and allows you to select from existing documents on the study. You can also make any edits to the attached document by clicking this button.

Study Documents- Additional Document Category Validation

The Study Documents Data value will allow you to Add a New Document within a submission.  When adding a new document, the system will use the selected category to verify that the document uploaded is not a document that was previously uploaded.

To add a new document, click the Add a New Document button. This will cause a pop-up window to display. The pop-up window will ask you to select a category for the document being uploaded.

If the category you have chosen matched the category selected previously for another document uploaded, then the pop-up window will display a list of existing documents for that specific category selected. If the you choose a category that was not previously selected, then the system will prompt you with a new option titled “I want to add new Document that has not been uploaded for this Study” (see image below).

Once you have selected the option to add a new document, click the Proceed with Document Upload button. The pop-up window will display the Study Document Add screen where you can upload the new document.

If you chose the same category as previously uploaded, then the system will prompt you to either select the existing document or the “I want to add new Document that has not been uploaded for this Study” option.  

If the option selected is the previous document uploaded, then the Study Document Revision screen will display within the pop-up window.

Note: By selecting a previous document, you are validating that the document you are uploading is the same document but a different version of the one selected.

Add Multiple Documents

You can add multiple documents to the Document attachment field at once. Click on the Add Multiple Documents button.

This will open a pop-up within the browser. Here you will be able to specify details for multiple documents at a time.

Version, Category and File Path are all required fields. If necessary, you can also add the Version Date.

If you need to add more than five documents at a time, click on the Add New Record(s) button and an additional five rows will populate in the window.

Once you enter the needed number of documents and the needed details, click on the Save Documents button.

Any document you uploaded will now display in the table.

The document details will display in the Other Study Documents attachment data value.

After you upload one document, one more button at the top of the table is available: Select or Revise Existing. This will be addressed below.

Select or Revise Existing

Anytime you see this button available in the Other Study Documents attachment data value, it means that your study already has documents uploaded and you can select an existing document to add to the Initial Review Submission Form.

Clicking the Select or Revise Existing button will open a pop-up within the browser. Listed in the window will be any Other Study Document associated to the study.

Attaching the Document:

You can attach any document to the form by clicking on the icon in the Select column. This will associate the document to the form. Note: If a document is already associated to the form, no icon will display in this column. Also, you cannot delete a document that is associated to the form. If no icon displays in the Delete column, the document needs to be removed from the submission before it can be deleted (provided the document has not been submitted for review).

Checkout the Document for Editing:

You can also edit the details of the document prior to attaching to the form by clicking on the icon in the Edit Details column.

This will cause the Study Document Revision window to open. From here you can make any changes to the document details (Document Title, Version Number, Version Date, Category, Description and Comments), or if you need to modify the content of the document itself, you can check out the document.

You will return to the Study Document Revision page. The page will indicate the document is checked out and you will have the ability to Check-in Document or Undo Check-out Document.

Anywhere you can view the Other Study Document, in the Other Study Documents library or within the Initial Review you will see that the document is checked out.

When you have made changes to the document in Microsoft Word, you can check it back in by navigating to the Other Study Document section in the Initial Review. Click Select or Revise Existing.

Click the icon in the Edit column.

Click the Check-in Document button.

A pop-up window will open allowing you to browse your computer for the document you would like to upload. Click the Save selected file button once you specify the document location. If you do not want to upload the document, click on the Cancel button.

Depending on the file size, you may see a message from the system indicating iRIS is uploading the document.

You will then be returned to the Study Document Revision window, with the document successfully checked in and associated to the study. Click the Save Document to apply the changes to the Initial Review Submission Packet.

When the document is checked out, the page will read that the document is checked out and display the name of the user and the date the document was checked out.

Viewing the Document

To view any document prior to attaching it to a form, click on the icon in the View the Document column.

Depending on your Internet Browser settings you may need to allow the download and you may also receive a pop-up window asking if you want to Open or Save the file. In the example below, the user is using Google Chrome, and the downloaded file automatically downloads and is located at the bottom of the browser.

Create Revision

You also have the ability to choose to revise a document. The system will version the document to the next version number, changing the version number from x.0 to x.1 when you choose to create a revision.

Signoff and Submit

Once the Study Application is complete and the required documents are attached the form is ready to send to the Review Board.

You will be presented with a section in the form notifying you that the form is complete. Depending on your role on the study, and your systems signoff requirements you may see different buttons on this page or a different notification.

If you are not the Principal Investigator on this study and the form requires a PI signature, the buttons on this page will be Exit Form and Notify PI to Signoff.

If your role on the study does not allow submission of forms, when you reach this page, you will only have the Exit Form button option. You will exit the form, and the Principal Investigator and Study Contact will be notified that a submission is waiting to be sent.

To initiate the signoff process, click the Signoff and Submit or Notify PI to signoff button, depending on which is available to you.

You may be prompted to route for additional signatures.

You may choose to route for additional signatures if you need to have other personnel on the study review the form before it reaches the review board and if you need department approval. Make your selection and click the Save and Continue button.

If you opted to route for additional signatures, you will be brought to a page that will list Key Personnel that you can include to signoff. If you chose not to route, you would immediately transition to a signoff page.

If the Principal Investigator signature is required on this form, that user will be pre-selected, and you will not be able to deselect the PI from the signoff process.

Select the name(s) of the any additional personnel you would like to include in the signoff process. Click the Save – Add to Routing List button when you are ready to proceed.

The next screen in the signoff process is for reviewers who need to approve the submission, but they are not listed as Key Personnel on the study.

The user in the screenshot above was added in Designated Department Approvals in the Grant Key Personnel section of the Study Application.

You can also add reviewers from iRIS by clicking the Add Additional Personnel to the Routing List button, as shown in the previous screen.

This will open a new page allowing you to search the database for a user. Use the Last Name, First Name, Department search filters to find the user you wish to add then click the icon in the Select User column.

The user you selected will add to the list. Make sure you check the checkbox next to users you want to include in the signoff process. You can also set the Order in which the users will receive their signoff task. iRIS will default each user to the order of 1, which means they will all receive their task at the same time. You can change this if one reviewer should receive the task before another. Click the Save and Continue button when you are ready to proceed.

The next page is a summary page, displaying all the users you selected for the signoff process. If you need to add any more signoffs, click the grey button to the left of the Key Study Personnel and Additional Personnel groups. This will open the screen in the second image below, .and allows you to remove or add users to the signoff process.

When you are ready to initiate the signoffs, ensure you have selected Yes underneath the question ‘Have you completed your selection of required signatures?’ (highlighted in green), then click on the Save and Continue button. If you are not ready to send signature tasks to the users, click No before clicking Save and Continue.

If you choose “No” and click the Save and Continue button, you will be brought to the Workflow Submission Tracking page. This page displays the steps your Study Application has taken to date. There is a record on this page ‘Assign Department Personnel for Signoff’ listed at the top of the page. You can click on the icon in the View Details column to return to the Signoff Submission Routing pages.

If you choose “Yes” and click the Save and Continue button, and you are assigned to sign off on the application, you will be brought to the Signoff Page.

If you choose “Yes” and click the Save and Continue button, and you are NOT assigned to sign off on the application, you will be brought to the Workflow Submission Tracking page and the users assigned to sign off will receive notifications from iRIS regarding their new assignments.

A user who is assigned to sign off on the Initial Review Submission Form/Study Application will receive a notification sent to the email address stored in their user account information. They will also receive a Submission Routing Signoff task on their homepage. This task will remain on their homepage until the user opens the task and completes the sign off.

When the task is opened, the Submission Routing Signoff Sheet will display. At the top of the page, the Study Title and Submission Reference Number are listed. iRIS assigns a unique reference number to each form created in the system. The Reference Number displayed here is the number assigned to the Initial Review Submission.

Also listed on this page is a link to the Submission Components. This table contains a link to the Initial Review Submission Form and the Study Application and any Consent and Other Study Document that has been associated to the form. This is the package that is being submitted to the review board for review. Before applying your signature, you can review any of the attachments and make any necessary changes.

Some of the attachments are available to print. If a document can be printed, a check box will populate next to the document in the Include in PDF Packet column. You can select any of these items then click the Create PDF Packet button at the top of the table.

A pop-up window will display the items selected. You can drag the items to reorder them, then click the Generate PDF Packet button.

While the system prepares your documents, the screen will be grayed out. Once the system is done preparing your document, a new window will display in a PDF format. You will have the ability to view your submission packet.

After the PDF is created, it will open in a new window. You can save this PDF or print it. When you are finished, click the Close button.

Below Submission Components table you might be prompted to enter your electronic signature. You must indicate whether you Approve or Deny the submission then enter your User ID and Password then click on the Save Signoff button. Below the electronic signature portion of the page you will be able to see any other Key Personnel listed for signoff. If any of the additional signoffs have been completed, their approval or denial information will populate on this page.

If you select Approve iRIS will assign the next user in the list their user assignment task and the submission will continue in the workflow. If you select Deny any other sign off task will cancel.

The Principal Investigator and Study Contact on the study will also receive a Submission Signoff Denied task. This will allow the PI to make any needed corrections and then resubmit the application.

Once all assigned users have completed their sign off tasks and they have indicated approval of the submission, the form will go to the review board’s submission queue for processing.

At any time during the sign off process, or while the review board is processing your submission, you can check the status of the form and where it is currently located. Open your study record in My Studies and navigate to the Submissions page. Your submission will display in the Outstanding Submission(s) queue. You can click on the icon in the Track Location column.

This will open the same Workflow Submission Tracking screen after completing a signoff task. The workflow will update as the submission moves forward in its processing. The screenshot above shows that the submission successfully passed required signoffs and is currently sitting in the IRB submission queue.

If users you have assigned have not completed their signatures, the Workflow would show that they are still in process. The Principal Investigator and the Study Contact would also receive notifications from the system to alert them that a certain user has not completed signoff yet.

Responding to Corrections

The review board may return items to you for correction. When a submission is returned for corrections, the Principal Investigator and any Study Contacts listed on the study will receive a notification from iRIS alerting of the request. They will also receive a task on the homepage called Submission Correction or, if a review board has met on your submission and returned it for corrections based on the review, the task will be called Review Response.

The screenshot below shows a task for Pre-Review Changes, called a Submission Correction. This task will remain on your homepage until you respond to the corrections and resubmit the form to the review board. Click the icon in the Open column to open the Pre-Review Corrections form.

When you open the task, a Pre-Review Correction or a Review Response Form will open. This form works similar to other forms in the system, where you navigate through the form using the Save and Continue button on the top right and the navigation pane on the left side of the page.

Responding to Stipulations

Stipulations Linked to Forms or Documents

The Review Board will post Stipulations to the form. These Stipulations will detail out what they are requesting to be changed, and some stipulations may direct you to a document or form that needs to be changed.

Any stipulations added by the review board will populate within the Pre-Review Corrections form. The Description at the top of the stipulation will detail what the review board is requesting for the change.

The Stipulation Type will display either “Stipulation must be addressed,” “Comment must be addressed,” or “Comments.”

Links to Components section of the stipulation will list the details about the linked component(s).

For each linked component, as seen above, you will be given the following:

Operations – A Read-only icon used to distinguish the modification request type.

Action Status – This is the current state of the requested change as it pertains to the linked component.

Component Name – The component the link is associated to.

Action –This is the available corrective action that can be taken on the component.

Add and Remove Components

If the stipulation is requesting a document to be added and / or removed from the submission, the stipulation will appear similar to this example.

Note: Removing a document from a submission will not delete the document. The document will still be located in the document library for the study.

The operation is to add a new attachment (Study Documents, Consent Forms, Sub/Attachment forms) to the Initial Review form. For this operation you are given multiple options to respond to the request. You can choose to Select/Revise Existing or Add a New Document. The Select/Revise Existing action button will retrieve the study document library where you can select to attach or create a revision of an existing document. The Add a New Document action button will allow you to search your local machine for a document that can be uploaded.

After you have completed the actions associated to each operation the status of those items will move to complete. The Action column of the component will also update as the action is completed. If you need to view or make any other changes to the document, you may open the document from the edit/view icon in the Component Name column.

Revise Components – Consents and Other Study Documents

If the submission component is requesting a change to a Consent or Other Study Document already attached, you will be given the ability to modify the details about the document and you can replace the document with your revised document you have saved to your computer or you can associate a completely new document.

Revise Existing – Select this option to revise the already attached document. You will be given the ability to Create Revision and check out the document for modifications.

If the stipulation asks the user to revise a document, the system will create the next version of the revised document when the user clicks, Revise Existing. An example of a revised Consent form is shown below. You are able to edit any of the fields. The version number updates from 1.0 to 1.1 and you are able to check out the document for edits. Click Save Changes to return to the Pre-Review Corrections form.

After revising the document or adding a new one, the previous document and the current document will display in the Component Name column. You can view the previous document by clicking the link to the document. You can modify the current document by clicking the link to the current document. The Status column will update to reflect the action is complete.

Revise Components – Study Application or Submission Forms

If the submission component is requesting a revision to a Submission Form or a Study Application, the system will create a revision of that form and open the new version for you to make your changes.

For this operation you are given multiple options to respond to the request. You can choose to Select Already prepared or Revise Existing. The Select Already prepared action button will retrieve the study application library where you can select to attach a newer version of the application. The Revise Existing action button will allow you to create a new, editable, version of the application where the changes can be made.

An example of revising the Study Application is shown below. The form being viewed is version 1.1 of the Study Application. You would make any necessary changes then click on the Back button to return to the Pre-Review Corrections Form.

After revising the form or selecting an already prepared form, both versions will display in the Component Name column. You can view either item by clicking on their names. The Status column will update to reflect the action is complete.

After you make the requested changes based on the stipulation, you then indicate how you accept the stipulation by answering N/A, Yes or No to Do you accept this Stipulation? You can also add an explanation to how the stipulation was addressed in the text editor.

Stipulations Not Linked to Forms or Documents

Some stipulations from the review board may ask you to upload a document that was not originally submitted. If this is the case, the stipulation will be listed with other stipulations within the form, but there will be no associated item to revise.

You can respond to the stipulation by indicating “N/A”, “Yes”, or “No” and adding your explanation, then you can locate the Submission Components data value within the form to upload the item requested by the review board.

Submission Components  

Listed in this form will be a list of your current submission components. You can modify or remove items from this screen as needed. This table will update with any revisions made to components through the stipulations.

If you need to make corrections or add items to the submission that were not included in the Stipulations, you could revise the Initial Review form and make any necessary changes. To initiate this process, you must first revise the Initial Review so that you can add attachments or modify existing items.

Note: This functionality is only available if the property “system.use_response_wizard_window” within System Administration > System Configuration > System Signoff and Submission Settings is set to “Yes”.

Click the Revise Submission button located above the submission components.

You will be asked to confirm adding a revision. Select the Confirm button.

You will be able to navigate to any section within the submission, to access the Application, Consents, and Other Study Document attachments. From each section you can add or revise associated items, just as you did when you initially completed the Initial Review form.

Note: Once the Initial Review has been revised, the button revise icon will disappear and the unattached icon will display.

Depending on your system’s configuration, you might or might not be able to create another submission form when another has been created and submitted through the workflow but has not yet been completed. Contact your System Administrator for more details.

If this property is on, when there is a submission form that has been started with the data value to attach a study application, users will not be able to start another submission until the first submission has completed the workflow and has been fully processed.

Note: Users will not be able to start another submission even if there is no study application attached to the submission form. As long as the data vale exists in the form, uses will not be able to start a new submission form.

In the Study Management section on the study side, when the users clicks into the details of the form, in this case the Initial Submission Review Form, and the property is set to “Yes”, the option to Add a New Application Type or Delete Selected Version will not be available.

When the property is set to “No”, the user will have the buttons to Add a New Application Type or Delete Selected Version will become available.

Users will also not be able to add a form from the home screen under the Actions Tab.

When the user click on the Forms button and the property is set to “Yes”, all submission forms with the application data value will be unavailable for use, as long as there is a submission that has not yet been completed and exited the workflow.

Users will receive a message stating that another form cannot be created until the form referenced has completed the workflow process.

Return the Form to the Review Board

When you are finished modifying items and responding to stipulations, and you save and continue through the rest of the form, the system will alert you that the form has been completed.

At this point you can choose to Exit Form and return later to finish any additional corrections (if you do this, the Submission Correction task will stay on your homepage) or you can click the Signoff and Submit button to initiate the signoff. Once you complete the signoff, the Submission Correction task will remove from your incomplete tasks on your homepage. The review board will receive your corrections and will further process your submission. If any additional changes are requested, the review board will return the submission for another round of changes. At that point, you would receive a new Submission Correction task and notification from the system.