What's New

Recent changes to Archie

12 January 2012, v. 3.8

Latest minor update is 3.8.2

Checkboxes for selecting records

Records are now added to/removed from your selection set using checkboxes (instead of using the context menu options, which have been removed). This is both in Resources and Search results. The selection set is used when exporting data and for performing refined searches (using search terms listed under ‘Relative to Selection’).

Shorter context menu for reviews

The menu displayed when right-clicking a review had grown quite long, and is now made shorter and more logical by moving some options (e.g. ‘Download RM5’ into the View sub-menu, ‘Review Citation Wizard’ into Tools menu) and removing other options (Refresh, Select, Deselect, and Print options).

Preview of published PDF

A review is undergoing a number of transformations when Wiley converts it to PDF, e.g. the figures are displayed in line with the text, and it may be difficult to anticipate how a particular review will look when published. The View sub-menu for a review now contains a Preview Published PDF option that allows you preview the PDF exactly as it will appear. Note that the option is only available for reviews with drafts, and that it may take a while to generate a PDF. A document with tips to improve the appearance of a PDF is available here.

Published View removed

The Published View, which used to emulate how the published HTML (web browser) version of a review would look like, has been removed since it was out of date, and with the new tabbed view in The Cochrane Library it would be difficult to bring it up-to-date.

Viewing reviews in The Cochrane Library

A shortcut for viewing the latest version of a published review has been added to the context menu for reviews (View > View in The Cochrane Library).

Improvements to the online editor for reviews

• The editor is no longer marked as a beta version and we are now encouraging CRGs to use it in their daily work. However, to allow editorial bases to become familiar with the tool bfeore supporting authors, the use of the editor has been restricted to users with ‘High’ permission level for reviews, which excludes most authors.
• In-text tables can now be created and edited in the editor
• The Edit Online option in the context menu is now greyed out if a review has been checked out by another user
• Groups of symbols are ordered alphabetically
• Various bugs have been fixed
• Note: the editor is still limited to editing the main text of reviews only

Review Files folder

Each review now has a folder (with potential sub-folders) where files related to the review can be stored. Permission to see and access folders and sub-folders can be controlled by document roles as well as entity roles. For instance, it is possible to have a folder that is accessible to the Co-ordinating Editor and Editors but not to authors on a particular review.

The Review Files folder is accessed by expanding the parent folder for a review, e.g. ‘Full Reviews’, in the Resource folder tree view by clicking on the + icon (instead of just clicking the folder name). This will show the reviews as folders in the tree view. You can then further expand the folder for a review to see the Review Files folder.

Workflows folder and Workflow Files folder for review

In addition to the Review Files folder, two more folders are shown under each review: Workflows and Workflows Files. These folders are functionally very similar to the Workflows tab of a Review Properties screen.

All permissions shown on Folder Properties

On the Properties screen/Security tab for a generic folder (under Files or Review Files) you can specify the roles that have access to a specific folder, but some roles already have permission via entity roles to all the entity's folders. These roles/permissions are now shown to provide a better overview of who has access to the folder. However, the entity-wide permissions are not editable here, which is indicated by the light grey colour. A number of other minor improvements to the Security tab have also been implemented, including adding an Edit button.

Note Types

Notes for people or documents (including reviews) are now categorised into types. For people the possible types are General, Training, Interest and Tag. For documents the options are General and Tag. Existing notes have all been assigned the General type. The Tag type is intended for recording keyword-like information.

Training notes for people are including a set of additional fields (displayed on a separate tab) for recording details about the training, e.g. when it took place. CRG Super Users can choose (using Edit Notifications) to be notified when a training note is created for one of their authors.

Remove and re-order search rows in Advanced Search

An Advanced Search is built from a number of rows of search terms, but previously you could only add or remove terms at the end of the list. Now it is possible to delete any row by clicking the X icon, and also to reorder rows by dragging, using the icon next to the X icon as your handle.

Note search

Notes now have their own section under Advanced Search, which allows more focussed searches to be run compared to the People or Documents note search options. The result of a Notes search is a set of notes (as opposed to a set of persons or documents) that can be selected and exported. Tip: if you want to find the people associated with a selected set of notes you can select the notes and then run a People search for People for Selected Notes (under Relative to Selection) - and likewise for documents.

Other searching improvements

• Search within selection set only, e.g. using Documents search/Relative to Selection/Selected Documents search term
• New Modified By search term for People and Documents searches
• New search term for limiting Review Versions search to selected documents only
• The results table of a Tasks search now has a Role column

Favourites as Resources folder

Favourite resources have existed in Archie for a while; however, until now the use of favourites was limited to providing quick access to the Properties screen for the resource, and not to all the options in the context menu. To improve the usefulness of favourites, a Favourites folder has now been added to the top of the Resource tree with subfolders for each resource type.

Favourites button on Select Person

The Select Person screen that is used all over Archie for selecting people for various reasons now includes an option to choose among the user’s Favourites.

Copy link to Archie resource

To improve the usefulness of Archie for document sharing, it is now possible (using the context menu) to copy a link to a file to the clipboard that can be included in an email. When the recipient clicks the link, s/he is first asked to log in and is then taken directly to the file (displayed as a search result). In the same way it is also possible to create a direct link to a person record.

Export to Excel for all resource types

An 'Excel file' option is now available when exporting resources of any type (person, document, task etc.).

Quick export button on Search Results

As a short cut to opening the Export Wizard, a pick list of exports formats and an Export button are now shown on the search Results and Selection tabs. When the Export button is clicked, the Export Wizard opens with the chosen export format pre-selected, and in some cases (if no more input is required) it even jumps directly to providing the export file.

Easy way to email all authors on a review

An option to email all authors (or actually to create a blank email with the To line completed) has been added to the context menu for a review. This even works with popular webmail system provided this has been set up under Preferences.

Super Users can mark any person record as a duplicate

Super Users can now mark any person record as a duplicate, including records with another primary entity.

Document Report highlights people without user accounts

If someone with a document role is not an Archie user, the text ‘(Not user)’ is displayed next to the person’s name in the Document Report. This is an easy way to check that all authors are users before marking a review for publication that requires LfP forms to be completed.

Validation check of the accuracy of citations to other Cochrane reviews

This validation check looks for references to other Cochrane reviews within a review and tries to match them up with a review version stored in Archie. The DOI/CD number is checked first, and if this can be found in Archie it moves on to check that the issue number and year corresponds to a published version and that the title is matching. If a problem is found a warning is displayed. Note: this is an Archie validation check only that is not performed by RevMan.

Review number in 'review checked in' messages

The review number is included in the message received by Super Users when an author checks in a review.

Warning in Publication Wizard if update is not a citation version

This check has been added to remind MEs about the new policy that all updates should have a new citation.

Warning when inserting task that will get a start date in the past

When inserting a workflow task before the currently active task and the active task has a start date in the past, the new task inherits the start date of the active task. The user is now warned that this will happen with a suggestion to insert a parallel task instead.

Exact start time for workflow

When you set up a workflow to start in the future, it is now possible to specify the exact start time and not only the date.

Workflows folder summary

When the Workflows folder is selected in the Resource tree, the number of items in each subfolder is displayed in the Resource view.

Monitoring form for Centres and Fields

For use during the first half of 2012. Accessed through the Reports context menu for Centres and Fields.

Download 'translation documents' for new and updated reviews

This is the first step towards managing review translations in Archie. The new function can be accessed from the Tools menu (Download Translation Documents) by Super Users only. It returns a zip file of 'translation documents' in the XML format agreed by the Translation Working Group, but does not modify any data in Archie. The issue of publication and the choice of whether to return new or updated reviews can be specified by the user. Note: this function is not intended for general use.

Bug fixes

• Permission to List Contents should not be required for viewing sub-folders
• Changing protocol status from Inactive should not cause old, withdrawn version to be republished
• CoI forms should be updated when a person's name is changed
• CoI form will not open if an author is replaced by another one and then deleted
• Workflow Status Report always defaults to 'Show active tasks only'
• Previous person properties should not re-open when searching for a new person
• Buttons in Export wizard in Chrome are not properly aligned
• Error message shown when attempting to assign a Super User role to a non-user should be more specific
• When resending a task email, the To field does not include the original recipient
• Workflows column for review resource view cannot be used for sorting

Fixed in Archie 3.8.1 (13 January 2012):

• CoI forms not created for new publishing cycle: If a set of CoI form already exists for a previous version then system does not create a new set for the new publishing cycle.

Fixed in Archie 3.8.2 (27 January 2012):

• Workflow terminates unexpectedly after removing inserted task
• Review Development workflow not automatically started
  
• Update workflow template should work from customised CRG template to customised CRG template
  
• Remove 'beta' from top of online editor window
• Validation check of Cochrane review references should work without permission to view published versions
  
• Validation check of Cochrane review references should not consider a trailing space a difference
  
• Login button disabled in Firefox after failed login
  
• Title missing from DTA/Non standard title registration notification
  
• Prevent deadlocks during lengthy searches
  

11 October 2011, v. 3.7

Workflow specific changes

• Updated workflow templates
  All templates have been updated to version 1.4. The primary difference from the old templates is that they no longer loop back to previous tasks when a decision is negative but move on to 'Resolve issues' tasks, in front of which custom tasks may be inserted (see next). Several other changes have been included to simplify the workflows and provide a better model of the editorial process, e.g. with regard to CoI and LfP forms. See http://ims.cochrane.org/archie/workflows/templates
• Add custom tasks to workflows
  New tasks may be inserted into workflows before or in parallel with the selected tasks (use right-click menu from the Tasks list). The set of tasks that can be inserted includes copies of tasks existing in the workflow, a limited set of custom tasks (e.g ' Provide advice to editorial base'), and a Pause task (see next).
• Pause task
  The Pause task is a system task that completes automatically at the specified due date. It is not assigned to anyone and cannot be 'performed'. It can be used to model planned idle periods in the workflow.
• Editorial Base 2 and 3 roles available when inserting tasks
  These extra-roles were previously only available after customising templates, but they are now included in the default role list when inserting new tasks.
• Add custom tasks to CRG customised workflow templates
  As for running workflows, tasks may also be inserted at the template level.
• Delete inserted tasks
  Inserted custom tasks may be deleted again (before they become In Progress).
• Editable task descriptions
  Task descriptions (not task names) may be edited at both the CRG template and running workflow level.
• Assign people to role sets during workflow template editing
  It is now possible to choose the default CRG advisors when customising a template.
• Update to latest template function
  This tool, available from the right-click menu for a workflow, facilitates the task of switching a workflow over to a new template.  The old workflow is aborted and a new workflow, based on the latest template version, is created (but not started). Role assignments, workflow history and files are copied from the old workflow. The Properties screen of the new workflow opens, preset to skip to the task that best matches the active task of the old workflow once you press Start.
• Multiple simultaneous workflow instances for a review
  It is now possible to have more than one active workflow for a review, but each workflow must be of a separate type, i.e. it is possible to run 'Review Update' and 'Review Amendment' together, but not two 'Review Update' workflows.
• Automatic start of the next workflow
  When one workflow ends, the next logical workflow starts automatically with role assignments copied from the completed workflow. The order of workflows execution is Title Registration, Protocol Development, Review Development, Review Update [repeated]. Review Update workflows are set up as Pending with a start date one year in the future.
• Persistent task email messages
  The actual subject and message body of task emails are stored together with the number of attachments (but not the actual attachments). Sent messages may later be opened and resent.
• Re-sent ticket emails do not replace the original email
  Both copies of the task email are held in the Emails tab in order not to lose the record of the content and date the message was first sent and to provide a true representation of the communication with the task recipient.
• Workflow Properties shows if emails has been sent for tasks
  A column with an Email flag has been added to the Tasks list.
• Attach workflow file to task email
  On the Attachments tab of the Create (task) Email screen it is now possible to attach files directly from the workflow instead of having to download the files and attach them as local files.
• Number of attachments shown on Attachments tab
  On the Attachments tab of the Create (task) Email screen, the number of included attachments is shown. If you later try resending the email without the same number of attachments, a warning is displayed.
• Task-related workflow files linked to tasks
  If a file is uploaded when a task is completed, e.g. through a ticket, this information is shown on the Files tab of Workflow Properties. A flag is also shown in the Tasks list if the task is linked to one or more files. Note that this information is not retrospectively available.
• Task comments stored as text file
  Short comments added through tickets are stored as workflow text files instead of as history notes. This makes it possible to see all comments in one location.
• Rename workflow files
  Files linked to workflows can now be renamed.
• Workflows files sorted by date by default
  This shows the files in chronological order.
• Prevent unwanted deletion of workflow files when deleting workflow
  An alert is shown when you attempt to delete a workflow with files.
• Only active tasks show 'days left' in red when overdue
  If the active task is overdue, subsequent tasks that are dependent on the current task's completion are no longer shown highlighted in red.
• Default detail level in workflow history set to Simple
  The Full level often has too much information to provide a clear overview.
• Improved Gantt charts
  Gantt charts can be limited to show tasks belonging to a single milestone. The default is to show the tasks belonging to the milestone in progress. A Gantt Chart tab has also been added to the template editing screen.
• Number of pending workflows shown for reviews
  In the resource view for reviews, the column showing the number of active workflows has been expanded also to show pending workflows, i.e. [active] / [pending].
• Ordered Workflow list in the Workflow tab of Review Properties
  The latest In Progress workflow now appears at the top of the list.
• Task search by workflow role
  It is now possible to search for all tasks assigned to a specific role, e.g. CRG Advisor.
• Improved Workflow Status report
  • An option for choosing the 'end milestone' has been added, e.g. Show workflows that have reached milestone: A and have not yet reached milestone: B.
  • Contact Editor, Date of Search, and date last milestone reached has been added to the information returned for each workflow.
  • The options area may be hidden.
  • Four one-click customised versions of the report have been added: Protocols in editorial process, Reviews in editorial process, Overdue Protocols in editorial process, Overdue Reviews in editorial process.
• Workflow Role Report
  A new report, like the Document Role Report, but based on workflow roles. For each person with the selected role it lists the number of Not Started, In Progress, Completed, and Overdue tasks. This will help determine the workload of the person.
• Workflow Roles Workload Report
  This report draws a pie chart of the time taken to complete workflow tasks, grouped by role. It allows you to select the workflows, milestones and roles to include.
• Notification of task assignee or workflow manager when a task is due in [n] days
  This is an optional notification that can be selected on Task Properties for specific tasks.
• Notification of workflow manager when the due date of a task changes
  This is an optional notification that can be selected on Task Properties for specific tasks.
• Tasks list in Organizer shows all active tasks
  The list is no longer limited to 25 tasks. 

Other changes

• Starred reviews
  Reviews can be tagged with a star on Review Properties. The original use case is to star priority reviews, but CRGs may use the star for any purpose. The star is shown on the Reviews resource view, the Workflow Status Report and the Task In Progress list on the Organizer. There are several grouping or filtering options based on starred reviews, and also a document search field.
• Notification of Contact Person when all LfP forms are completed
  An automatic email is being sent to the Contact Person when all Licence for Publication forms are completed and the review is going to be published. The message includes information about how to activate your complimentary subscription. Super Users may receive a copy of the message by subscribing to the notification 'All LfP forms have been submitted for review in the [entity]' (not selected by default). Note: The notification is only sent when LfP forms are required, i.e. for citation versions.
• Collapse groups in tables
  The table component used throughout Archie now allows groups of rows to be collapsed and expanded. The number of rows in each group is also shown.
• Notification about reverted documents removed
  The notification 'Documents in the [entity] are reverted' has been removed because it was not found to be useful.
• Contact Persons have access to view CoI and LfP forms of co-authors
  From the 'Conflicts of Interest Forms' and 'Licence for Publication Forms' reports, Contact Persons now have access to view (but not modify) the forms of co-authors.
• Title Registered date added to export list for Review Versions Search
  It is now possible to export the 'Title Registered' date after running a Review Versions Search.
• Warning in module editor when Internet Explorer is not used
  Other browsers may corrupt the fixed headings when pasting is used.
• Online text editor – beta version
  The new online editor for reviews is currently a beta version, but you can try it out on minor changes to the main text. Accessed through the right-click menu for a review.

Bug fixes

• Advanced Document Title search should behave like quick search
• Email adress of a previous recipient wss used when trying to send an email to a second person (using Email from the context menu of a person)
• Permissions associated with roles were not transferred when resolving a duplicate user
• It was not possible to send emails for not started tasks from Task Properties
• Unable to download or delete workflow files with non-english characters
• In Task Properties > Emails, when clicking 'Notify assignee when task begins' the 'Notify manager when task begins' option wss checked instead
• Change of Contact Person was not reflected in CoI form
• CRG Advisor workflow role should map to Editor entity role
• Person wizard last screen displayed an error when user had insufficient permissions

Fixed in Archie 3.7.1 (14 October 2011):

• Inserted tasks may appear out of order on the Edit Workflow Templates screen
• Error when starring a review that is checked out
• Searches using 'Does not contain' return unexpected results
• Task search may return tasks belonging to base templates

Fixed in Archie 3.7.2 (17 October 2011):

• Organizer Tasks list takes too long time to load for some users
• Star function apparently available for all documents and users

Fixed in Archie 3.7.3 (9 November 2011):

• CoI Forms report does not open when the person who created the forms has been removed from Archie
• 'Tasks in Progress' list wrongly displayed on Firefox

Fixed in Archie 3.7.4 (18 November 2011):

• Entity file picker not working in Internet Explorer
• Date-time input fails to accept valid time
• Unable to attach a file to a task email template in IE

Fixed in Archie 3.7.5 (2 December 2011):

• Workflow terminates unexpectedly when inserted task follows decision task
• Next due date is not updated after inserting a task before the task in progress

1 June 2011, v. 3.6

• Declaration of potential Conflicts of Interests (CoI) forms
  New format, based on the ICMJE form, that allows authors to sign the CoI form electronically in Archie. Being introduced gradually, so it is not mandatory to use the new forms.
• Easy User creation from the License for Publication (LfP) forms report
  When the LfP Forms report lists authors who are not users, a link can take you straight to User creation.
• Clearer instructions on Request User Account
  The Request User Account page now explains that only Cochrane contributors can get an account, and what to do if email of the person requesting the acount cannot be found.
• Protocol and Review distinction on the License for Publication email
  The email asking authors to sign the electronic LfP form now distinguishes between Protocol and Review.
• 'Checked in by' shown in Review's history
  The 'Checked in by' information is now shown as a table column in a Review's history.
• Message on check-in if RevMan is outdated
  If a RevMan 5.1 beta or any version older that 5.0.25 is used for checking in a review, a message encouraging the user to update is displayed.
• Consolidated terminology in LfP and CoI reports
  The 'Inform' wording has replaced 'Remind' in the LfP report, to make it consistent across the two reports.

Bug fixes:

• Export to RevMan files zip archive does not work
• Moving between rows in a table using the up/down arrow keys does not work in Chrome browser
• Double-clicking in the resource tree does not work in Internet Explorer
• Review development statistics shows incorrect graphs for individual CRG
• Saving of window sizes doesn't work

Fixed in Archie 3.6.1 (23 June 2011): 

• LfP forms report is not accessible if author record deleted by resolving duplicate
• CoI report should not show "CoI Statement" until form has been submitted
• Performance improvement of CoI forms
• Clear indication in CoI form email that replies should be sent to MEs
• Updated validation rules for length of review Abstract: A warning if longer than 700 words, and an error if longer than 1000 words.

Fixed in Archie 3.6.2 (30 June 2011):

• Review validation time increased when Archie had been running a long time without being restarted
• Archie should never open on j_security_check page
• No OK and Cancel buttons for some workflows when sending task emails
• Milestone tasks should not have properties
• Email validation script crashes for long emails
• Post Publication Notifications: error when referencing a review with no Contact Person

Fixed in Archie 3.6.3 (10 September 2011):

• Validation check for length of plain language summary title
• Web service to undo review check-out
• Review validation wrongly reports missing links

Fixed in Archie 3.6.4 (14 September 2011):

• System problem assigning CRS permissions.

24 February 2011, v. 3.5

• Electronic Licence for Publication forms
  This new feature allows/encourages authors to sign the Licence to Publish form electronically - see Project.
  See also instructions on how to use the electronic Licence for Publication form on the Archie documentation page.
• Search for people that has not yet verified their person data
  It is now possible to find people who have not yet verified their data.
• Simple interface for communicating with other online users
  Ability to see (on Organizer) which other users are online, and to send one a simple message via Archie. Also possible to contact them via Email and Skype. Users can set their own visibility, too.
• Country-Role-Gender report for a Review Group (available only to Managing Editors)
  Among a Review Group's reports, this new report displays the number of contributors grouped by Country, Role and Gender.
• Link to Cochrane Intranet
  It is possible to access the Collaboration Intranet from within Archie via a link next to the 'Log Out' button.
• Removed 'submitted for publication' status
  Since we switched to monthly deadlines, the blue 'submitted for publication' icon was almost always shown because there is only one day between publication of an issue and the next deadline where the 'normal' black icon is used. Hence, the blue icon has been replaced by the black icon.
• Setup which mail client to use in Archie (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, local mail)
  In Tools > Preferences > Organizer, it is possible to specify what e-mail client to use when creating emails via Archie. Possible choices: Yahoo, GMail, Hotmail, Default system email client.
• Workflow status 'Not started' renamed to 'Pending'
  Workflows that are actually not started should be deleted.

Bug fixes:

• Help only works in some browsers
• Export function does not work in Review Citation Wizard if select more than 20 citations
• Empty search returns -1 object(s) found
• Program error when submitting for publication
• Details for an author in Compare Contact Details report are presented as for two separate authors
• Moving review deletes topics
• Scrollbars appears in Chrome in some pop-up windows
• 'Select all' not working in Chrome
• TSC role missing from task B7 when editing protocol workflow templates
• Decision not recorded in history when task is completed using a ticket

Fixed in Archie 3.5.1 (25 February 2011):

• On the Organizer tab under User online, people listed in the table were selected while typing in the Message field
• The number of results from the last search was not cleared when a new search was started

Fixed in Archie 3.5.2 (26 February 2011):

• Workflow status search term should be renamed from 'Not started' to 'Pending'
• Reviews folder should be refreshed when LfP form is submitted on behalf of author

Fixed in Archie 3.5.3 (3 March 2011):

• Licence for Publication form cannot be submitted if author's name contains a trailing space
• Contact person not notified about minor changes to review
• Licence for Publication forms report incorrectly formatted when forms from several versions exist

 Fixed in Archie 3.5.4 (5 March 2011):

• Licence for Publication form cannot be submitted if author's name contains non-English characters

 Fixed in Archie 3.5.5 (22 March 2011):

• [New feature] In the 'Notes Management Tool', now it is possible to select all notes with a click
• Link to 'How to show your Skype status...' is not correct
• Cannot save workflow report in HTML format
• Milestones listed before associated tasks on Edit Workflow Templates
• Cannot select search results and child nodes of the resource tree in Internet Explorer 9
• Erratic behaviour of Resource tree in Internet Explorer 9

Fixed in Archie 3.5.6 (31 March 2011):

• Disallow submission of Licence for Publication forms while module is pending validation
• Licence for Publication email to authors should include submission deadline
• References with IDs containing non-English characters are reported as not being linked

24 January 2011, v. 3.4

• CRG Monitoring forms
  A new Report that allows CRGs (for now)  to fill in adn submit their annual monirtorng form.
• Split submitted and published notification
  The notification for when documents in a group are 'submitted or marked for publication' has been split into 4 separate notifications: submitted, marked for publication, reverted and created.
• IMS Support person shown for entity
  On the Entity Properties; Info tab.
• Number of search results retreived
  The search results tab now displays the number of search results both as the total hits, which may include hits that the user does not have permission to view, and the number currently retrieved.
• Search on date role assigned
  When using Advanced Search for People.
• Prevention of creating of Not Started workflows
  If you close the window of an unstarted workflow using the X, a dialog prompts: "Do you want to cancel the workflow?".

Bug fixes:

• Verify Contact Details tool not working when selecting many people
• Deleting entity may leave broken topic links
• User preference for Time Zone cannot be reset to 'Not specified'
• Search error
• Publication report fails for issue 1, 1995
• Search for 'Version is Amended' fails
• Error when deleting messages
• New workflow cannot be created if 'Not started' workflow exists