Revision Date: 2023.09.29

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I. Description

This procedure describes the processes used by Sage Employees to initiate a request for an anonymous manuscript review and processes used by Sage Governance to assign anonymous manuscript reviewer accounts for external users. Steps in this process include:

• Request to set up data access for manuscript review

• Providing process acknowledgement to Researcher

• Assigning anonymous reviewer accounts

• Creating an anonymous reviewer team and setting up reviewer account access

• Emailing anonymous reviewer log-in credentials to the Journal Editor

• Review the status of in-use accounts quarterly

• Closing out anonymous reviewer accounts

• Decommissioning of anonymous reviewer Synapse Referee accounts (as needed)

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II. Objectives

The objective of this Reliable Method for Sage Employees is to understand the process for requesting an anonymous manuscript review, which includes:

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• Gathering necessary information for review setup, which includes communication with Sage Employees (as needed), Researchers, and Editors.

• Executing process acknowledgement with the Researcher

• Assigning accounts and distributing login credentials to the Editor

• Completing quarterly reviews, account close-outs and decommissioning of accounts

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III. Scope

This Reliable Method applies to all Sage Employees who are responsible for providing information for and the execution of the anonymous manuscript review process.

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IV. Definitions & Acronyms

• Editor: The journal editor in charge of the submitted manuscript

• Researcher: The primary researcher who is submitting the manuscript

• Reviewers: Anonymous reviewers managed by the editor

• Sage: Employees of Sage Bionetworks

• Synapse ACT: Synapse Access and Compliance Team

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V. Procedures

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A. Request to set up data access for manuscript review

1. Sage Employee files a Jira ticket in the Sage Governance (SG) project utilizing the component “Anonymous Reviewer Account Request”

2. Sage Employee comments the following information in the Jira issue (or as much as is known to them):

   1. Journal name

   2. Editor name and email

   3. Researcher name and email

   4. Manuscript name

   5. Links to Synapse entities (Syn IDs) required for manuscript review

3. Additional information that is helpful to Sage ACT that may be included in the Jira ticket:

   1. Do reviewer accounts need access to the full project or just to a specific folder?

   2. Do anonymous reviewer accounts require view or download access?

   3. Have the relevant folder(s) &/or entities been shared with ACT by giving the team “Administrator” access?

   4. Number of reviewer accounts required for the review?
      

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B. Process Acknowledgement

1. ACT sends anoverview of the anonymous manuscript review process via email to the Researcher.

2. Researcher replies with their acknowledgement

3. ACT copies and pastes acknowledgement reply in Jira issue
   

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C. Assigning Anonymous Reviewer Accounts

1. ACT will:

   1. In the ACT Zone Facilitating Anonymous Journal Reviews Wiki page, verify if the reviewer account is available by comparing the “List of Active Reviewer Accounts” table with the “In-Use Accounts” table

   2. Ensure the account has the proper qualifications for the respective dataset (i.e., validated, certified, etc.)

   3. Assign each reviewer their own account for the current review

   4. If all accounts are in use, follow instructions for creating a new reviewer account
      

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D. Creating a New Anonymous Reviewer Account

1. ACT will:

   1. Follow instructions in the Anonymous Reviewer Synapse Accounts page (managed by the Platform team). Use the synapse-service@sagebase.org distribution list to create a new, unique service account.

   2. Steps for creating a new account:

      1. Refer to the Synapse Referee Accounts team page and ACT Zone tables to choose a name for the service account that has not been used yet, e.g., synapse-referee-journalreview-26.

      2. Go to Synapse.org

      3. Click “Register Now”

      4. On the Create Synapse Account page, create an email address using the following naming convention:

         1. synapse-referee+$journal-0d@sagebase.org

         2. Example: synapse-referee+journalreview-26@sagebase.org

         3. Refer to the ACT Zone List of Active Reviewer Accounts table for the next number in the sequence.

      5. Click the “Send Registration Info” button

      6. Open Gmail and go to Google Groups Synapse Referee Accounts inbox

      7. In inbox, open the no-reply email to the newly created email account and click on the link to create the new account

      8. On the Register with Synapse page, enter the following information:

         1. Create username: synapse-referee-$journal-0d

         2. Example: synapse-referee-journalreview-26

         3. Create and confirm password. Save this password for entry under step 4.b.iii below.

      9. Click “Next”

      10. Review and complete Synapse Pledge

      11. Click “Next”

      12. Click the refresh button

      13. Log out of the new Synapse account
          

2. Add new account to the Synapse Referee Accounts team page, which is used to track and update accounts:

   1. You must be a Team Manager to add a new Synapse referee member account. If you are not a Team Manager, click “Join” to request to be added as a Manager to the team

   2. Log into Gmail Google Synapse Referee Accounts group, LastPass, and the Synapse Referee Accounts page

   3. Create an entry in the Notes section of LastPass for each new account, and enter the email, username and password. Choose the “Shared synapse referee” label from the drop-down menu.

   4. Log into Synapse with your personal account credentials

   5. Go to the Synapse Referee Team page and send an email invite to the new Synapse referee email account

   6. Log out of Synapse and log back in using the new Synapse Referee email and password from LastPass.

   7. Go to the Gmail Google Groups Synapse Referee Account inbox and accept the “Join” invitation for the new Synapse Referee Account. You will be automatically routed to the Synapse Referee Team page. Verify that the new account has been added.

   8. Log out of Synapse, LastPass and Google Group email accounts.
      

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E. Creating an Anonymous Reviewer Team & Set up Reviewer Account Access

1. Log in to your Synapse account

2. Go to the Teams tab in Synapse. Click “Create a New Team”

3. Create Team name in the following format: manuscript name_year

4. Add Reviewer team to Synapse entity/entities under Project Sharing Settings or Folder Sharing Settings:

   1. Grant the team access at the Project OR Folder level as determined by Researcher

   2. Give Reviewers either View OR Download permissions based on the Researcher’s preference

5. Under the newly created Team, click Team Actions menu, click Edit Team.

   1. Ensure the following

   options are unchecked so that users can join the team by invite only:

   1. “Users can join this team without manager authorization”

   2. option is checked: “Users must be authorized by a team manager to join this team”

   3. Ensure the following option is unchecked: “Any Synapse user can send messages to this team”

   4. Click “Save”

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6. Under the Team Actions menu, click ACT Manage Access Requirements

   1. Click “Create a New Access Requirement”

   2. Choose the “Click-wrap” radio button

   3. Click “Next”

   4. Add the Click-wrap template provided in Figure 1 and click Save

7. Under the Team Actions menu, click Invite User

   1. Invite the Synapse Referee reviewer accounts to join the team

   2. Note: Do not accept the clickwrap on behalf of the reviewers! The reviewers need to agree to the clickwrap to conduct the anonymous manuscript review.

8. ACT logs the following information for each Synapse Referee Account in the “In-Use Accounts table in the ACT Zone Facilitating Anonymous Journal Reviews Wiki.

   1. Reviewer Account Name

   2. Account ProfileID

   3. Date Added

   4. Date of Expiry

   5. Researcher

   6. Project Name

   7. Project SynID

   8. Access Level

   9. Account Type

   10. Jira Issue

9. Anonymous Manuscript Review click-wrap template:

Figure 1: Clickwrap Template

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F. Email the Anonymous Reviewer’s log-in information to the Editor

1. ACT will use email template in Figure 2 to provide Synapse Anonymous Reviewer account information to the journal editor.

2. ACT will use One Time Secret Password to generate a secret password link for each anonymous reviewer account by copying the Synapse login credentials from the LastPass Shared Synapse Referee Account (username, email and password), generating a secret password and copying the password into the email template.

3. Using the template insert:

   1. Manuscript name

   2. Author

   3. Link to Synapse entities

   4. One Time Secret Password (Note: Each reviewer should have individual accounts and login credentials)

4. ACT will email the template to the Editor and update the Jira to indicate that the credentials have been sent. (Note: Do not put the login credentials for the anonymous reviewer accounts in the Jira)

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G. Quarterly Review the Status of In-Use Accounts

1. ACT emails the Researcher for status of the manuscript review

2. If Researcher requests an extension, ACT will update the ACT Zone “In-Use” Table and maintain the Reviewer’s access.

3. If Researcher needs to provide access to new Reviewers, follow the process in Section C for assigning reviewer accounts and extend access to all in-use reviewers.

4. If review is complete, ACT will revoke access to assigned Reviewer(s).

5. If ACT is unable to reach the Researcher, ACT may also reach out to the Editor to confirm the status of the review.

6. Remove anonymous reviewer account access after 6 months if the Researcher hasn’t requested an extension (or is lost to follow up).

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H. Account Close-Out

1. Once the review is concluded, ACT should revoke access to entities used for the anonymous manuscript review accounts by removing the Anonymous Manuscript Team from the entities and deleting the Reviewer Accounts from the team.

2. ACT will reset all reviewer account passwords by:

   1. Logging into the anonymous reviewer Synapse account and changing the password.

   2. Update the new account password in LastPass under the Shared-Synapse-Referee-Accounts in the Notes section.

   3. Note: ACT members will need to be invited to this Note in order to have access to passwords and be able to update passwords. This does not apply to the Gmail Google Group account that is tied to the Synapse account.

3. ACT will update the ACT Zone by moving the information from the “In-Use Accounts” table to the “Previous Assignment of Accounts” table.

4. ACT will comment on Jira when the account close-out process has been completed and resolve the Jira issue.

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I. Decommissioning Synapse Referee Accounts

1. ACT will check the ACT Zone In-Use Accounts table to ensure the account isn’t currently being used. If the account is listed in the Previous Assignment of Accounts table, then the account close-out process has been completed and Sage ACT can proceed with the decommissioning process.

2. Refer to the IT Confluence /wiki/spaces/IT/pages/1200816129 instructions, step #7.

3. Create a Jira issue under the IT Operations Project and request removal of the Synapse account. Provide the user Profile ID and Synapse Referee email address in the description.

4. Once IT has confirmed removal of the account:

   1. Move the account to the “List of Decommissioned Reviewer Accounts and their Access Level” table.

   2. Delete the account information in LastPass.

   3. Delete the account from the Synapse Referee Accounts page.

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VI. Revision History

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