IMS Bulletin #95 (25 March 2010)

Index

For all CRGs

1. Stage 3 of the workflow pilot launches today
2. Next Archie release: 7 April
3. Support for improving figures in reviews
4. Question of the week: Why is my Archie view different from my colleague's?

For workflow pilot Groups
5. New workflow templates
6. User Guide for workflow pilot CRGs updated
7. Revised suggestion form for template changes
8. Tips from Stage 2 users

For all CRGs

1. Stage 3 of the workflow pilot launches today

25 March marks the official launch of Stage 3 of the workflow pilot.
If you are not yet involved in the workflow pilot, but would like to be, please contact your IMS Support person.

2. Next Archie release: 7 April

Version 3.1 of Archie is scheduled for 7 April. Some of the new features will be:

  • 'Verify contact details' - A function to send persons listed in Archie an overview of their contact information, with options to edit it. This will be carefully piloted by a few groups before we recommend wide use.
  • Publication report speed boost - The publication report will run more than 10 times faster than before!
  • Workflows:  Improved Workflow Status Report - New filter options and more compact formatting.

The full list of changes will become available under 'What's new' soon.

3. Support for improving figures in reviews

Jacob Riis (IMS Team) is launching a pilot project to improve the quality of review figures generated outside RevMan. The service is being offered to authors, but CRGs are also welcome to contact Jacob for advice, and to encourage authors to seek his assistance. Note that with limited resources, processing time will be slow, so this cannot be relied on for last-minute fixes just before a deadline.

See how to use the service at the 'Review Figures Clinic' page.

4. Question of the week: Why is my Archie view different from my colleague's?

Answer: There are a number of ways that you can customize the way that information is presented in Archie's Resources tab, for example, whether to group the Reviews folder by stage, type or status. Each user can specify this using Tools > Preferences.

For workflow pilot Groups

5. New workflow templates

All workflow templates have been updated to version 1.3. See the new workflow templates at the 'Workflow template definitions' page.

Remember that:

  • This won't affect workflows that are already running.
  • But new workflows started must use latest template.
  • So if you have created customized templates for your CRG, you will need to redo this.

Tip - to make it easier to reproduce the changes you introduced in your previous customized templates, you can view these changes and export them in HTML format as follows:

To view earlier (now inactive) versions of your customized templates:

  1. Go to Tools > Edit Workflow Templates...
  2. Tick the ‘Show previous customised entity templates’ box to the right of the workflow template pull-down list at the top of the window.
  3. Select the workflow template you want to view from the pull-down list.

To export the information displayed on the Tasks tab of the Edit Workflow Templates window to a plain HTML table:

  1. Click the ‘Export to plain HTML table’ button in the upper right corner of the Tasks tab.
  2. The plain HTML table may be saved as an HTML file or copied and pasted into other applications, as desired.

6. User Guide for workflow pilot CRGs updated

The user guide 'Workflows in Archie: A Guide for Stage 3 Pilot Groups' has been updated - get it at: http://www.ims.cochrane.org/archie/workflows/Stage_3_User_Guide_to_Workflows.pdf

7. User Guide for workflow pilot CRGs updated

The form for suggesting changes to Archie now contains extra fields for suggestions relating to workflow templates. It is now required for submitters to have clarified their suggestion through discussion with their IMS Support person.

8. Tips from Stage 2 users

The following tips from Stage 2 users were collected at the recent workshop in Cardiff:

  • Consider who will/could be your CRG Advisors before setting up workflows
  • Always start a new workflow after you have registered a title or released a protocol/review for publication
  • If you have a review already underway, you can start a workflow at the stage that you are at and use it to manage the rest of the process
  • Check your review task end dates
  • Consider how to use workflows to work towards a paper-free editorial base