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Synapse Anonymous Manuscript Review Process for ACT

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Note: This process is new as of May 2021. Some reviews are still in progress that utilize this older SOP.

Audience: Sage ACT should follow this SOP to facilitate the anonymous manuscript review process within Synapse. Note that Sage ACT specific instructions are included in the Appendix.

Table of Contents:

Personas:

  • 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

  • Sage ACT: Sage Bionetworks Access and Compliance Team (act@sagebionetworks.org)

Process Overview: 

Process Details for Anonymous Review via Synapse

Part A: Process Acknowledgement

  1. Sage ACT will send an overview of the anonymous manuscript review process to the researcher, and the researcher will reply via email with their acknowledgement.

***By acknowledging this process, researchers agree to release data anonymously to reviewers that agree to terms and conditions of data access. 

Note: If authors are hesitant to use this click-wrap approach, ACT can recommend using the older version of the SOP, which relies on physical reviewer and editor agreements.

Part B: Review Details & Sage ACT Access

  1. The researcher will send the following information to Sage ACT:

    1. Links to the Synapse entities required for the manuscript review

    2. The number of anonymous accounts required for the review

    3. Whether the anonymous accounts require view or download access to the data

  2. The researcher or Sage community liaison (if applicable) will share the data folder(s) with the ACT Team, giving the Team “Administrator” access.

Part C: Anonymous Account Distribution

  1. The Sage ACT will provide the editor with the anonymous account credentials and the link to the Synapse entities associated with the review. Each reviewer will have their own anonymous account.

  2. The editor will provide the reviewers with the Synapse account credentials and the link to the data being reviewed. Each reviewer should be sent credentials for one of the anonymous accounts. 

***The editor should not click on the username/password links before sending them to the reviewers. Each link will be inaccessible after it is clicked once!

Sage ACT: Please refer to Appendix 2 to assign accounts, Appendix 3 to set up the team and grant account access, Appendix 4 to set up the click-wrap, and Appendix 5 to send account information to the editor.

Part D: Agreement & Anonymous Review

  1. To access the data anonymously, reviewers must:

    1. Sign into their assigned account

    2. Join the Anonymous Review “Team” for the manuscript. Reviewers can do this by clicking on their profile icon and going to the “Team” dropdown.

    3. Agree to terms and conditions for data access when prompted

  2. By default, reviewers will lose account access after 6 months, and the editor will need to email the Sage ACT to extend access if necessary.

Part E: Account Close-Out

  1. The Editor emails the researcher and the Sage ACT once the review is concluded.

  2. The Sage ACT removes the reviewers’ access to the reviewed content. 

Sage ACT: Please refer to Appendix 6 for account close-out

Appendices

This appendix provides useful information for Sage ACT in facilitating anonymous reviews.

Appendix 1: ACT Zone Tables Relevant to the Anonymous Reviewer Process

  • In-Use Accounts Table: This table lists all of the reviewer accounts currently being used and should be updated anytime a new account is assigned to a review and anytime a review is completed.

  • List of Active Reviewer Accounts and their Access Levels Table: This table lists all of the reviewer accounts that exist, regardless of if they are being used or not. This table should be updated when a new reviewer account is created and when a reviewer account’s access level is changed (i.e., if an account becomes certified or validated). 

  • Previous Assignments of Accounts Table: This table lists previous uses of the referee accounts. This table should be updated when a review concludes. Information from the ‘In-Use Accounts’ Table should be moved to this table at the end of any review.

  • List of Decommissioned Reviewer Accounts and their Access Levels Table: This table lists old accounts that should no longer be used and is only for reference.

Appendix 2: How to Designate Reviewer Accounts

  • Sage ACT verifies whether reviewer accounts are available by checking ACT Zone: Journal Editors-Reviewers - Anonymous Access.

  • Compare the “List of Active Reviewer Accounts” table with the “In-Use Accounts” table to find active accounts for the journal that are not currently in use. See information regarding Reviewer Account Tables in Appendix 2

    • Reviewer accounts cannot be reused across journals (the Reviewer account names specify the journal name).

    • Each reviewer should be assigned their own account for the current review.

    • Ensure the accounts you use have the proper qualifications for the respective dataset (i.e. verified account, certified account, etc).

  • If all reviewer Accounts are already in use or if not enough exist for the journal, create new reviewer accounts using the directions listed here: Setting up Anonymous Reviewer Accounts.

    • If a new account is created, log the information in the “List of Active Reviewer Accounts” and ensure that the LastPass information is in the LastPass shared folder ‘Shared-Synapse-Referee-Accounts’.

    • To create a new certified reviewer account, take the certification quiz on the reviewers’ behalf. To create a new validated reviewer account, you will need to create a new dummy ORCID account using Christine’s information and submit “test” validation docs within Synapse.

Appendix 3: How to Create an Anonymous Review Team & Set Up Reviewer Account Access

  1. Go to the Teams tab in Synapse and create a new team. Ensure the manuscript name, journal name, and year are included within the team name.

    1. Ensure the following options are unchecked so that users can join the team by invite-only.

    2. Add the respective click-wrap to the team. Refer to Appendix #4 for details.

  2. Sage ACT grants each reviewer account access to the content under review in Synapse 

    1. Go to the sharing settings under the entities being reviewed and add the appropriate reviewer Team. You should select either view permissions OR download permissions based on the researcher’s preference.

    2. If the content has a managed access requirement, discuss next steps with Christine. The Sage ACT must either request access on each reviewer’s behalf and approve the requests for each reviewer account username, or must grant manual data access to the account (if possible) since the author is agreeing to give unrestricted anonymous access to the reviewers. 

    3. Do not accept the click wrap on behalf of the reviewers! The reviewers need to agree to the click-wrap themselves to conduct the anonymous review. 

  3. Sage ACT logs the following information in the “In-Use Accounts” table on the ACT Zone:

    1. Reviewer account Name, Reviewer ProfileID, Reviewer #, Date added, Author, Synapse Project Name, Project SynID, Journal, Access level, Account Type

Appendix 4: Setting up the Click-Wrap

Add the following click-wrap to the Anonymous Reviewer Team: 

####**Before conducting the manuscript review, please agree to the following terms and conditions for anonymous data access:**

**You agree to only access and use the data necessary for the purpose of reviewing the submitted manuscript, and to delete any data downloaded immediately after submitting your review if applicable.**

Appendix 5: Template for emailing account information to an Editor:

The purpose of this email is to relay Synapse anonymous reviewer account information to the journal editor. 

Dear X,

Synapse accounts have been assigned for the review of the manuscript "[MANUSCRIPT NAME]" by [FIRST AUTHOR]. Each link below contains account login information. One unique account and credentials link has been generated for each manuscript reviewer. 

Please note that the links will expire once they are clicked once, so please forward each link directly to each reviewer without clicking on it yourself. All reviewers associated with this manuscript review should log into a unique Synapse account.

Login information link for Reviewer 1: [Link created from https://onetimesecret.com/ ]

Login information link for Reviewer 2: [Link created from https://onetimesecret.com/ ]

Login information link for Reviewer 3: [Link created from https://onetimesecret.com/ ]

Please instruct each reviewer to: 

(tick) Log into https://www.synapse.org using the account credentials provided

(tick) Join the [insert team name] by clicking on the “Teams” tab and selecting “Join” for the pending invitation

(tick) Access the data here [INSERT LINK TO DATA BEING REVIEWED]. 

Once the reviewers have completed their review, please reply to myself and the Sage Bionetworks ACT (act@sagebionetworks.org), and we will remove reviewer access to each respective account.

Note that by default, reviewers will lose access to their accounts after 6 months. If you need to extend reviewer access, please let me know via email before [date].

Please let me know if you or the reviewers have any questions. As a reminder, reviewers must remain anonymous, so any account or data access questions they may have should go through you and can be directed towards the researcher and the Sage ACT (act@sagebionetworks.org).

Thank you,

X

Appendix 6: Account Close-Out

  1. Once the review is concluded, the editor should email the researcher and Sage ACT. Sage ACT should then revoke anonymous account access by unsharing any projects or folders with the reviewer team associated with the manuscript. Sage ACT should also revoke access to any ACT-managed Access Requirements.

    • Log into the accounts and double check that you can no longer access the data

    • Revoke user access to controlled data and reset the account passwords after 6 months if the Sage ACT has not heard back from the editor. Note that this may be automated in the future.

  2. Sage ACT will close out the reviewer account for this manuscript review.

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