Ethics Pre-screening, Screening and Assessment
Ethics review task functionalities in the SEP evaluation tool are identical to the scientific review task functionalities.
The Ethics evaluation process is completely independent of the main evaluation process.
The Ethics evaluation process consists of two phases:
- Pre-screening: during this phase, two evaluators are assigned to the Ethics Pre-screening Report (EthPR). If one of the evaluators finds that there are ethics issues, the proposal moves to the Screening phase. If the first evaluator submits the EthPR form with no ethics issues, the second evaluator will need to also review the proposal. If one of the two ethics evaluators finds that there are ethics issues, the proposal goes to Screening.
- Screening: during this phase, the evaluators are assigned to the Ethics Individual Reports (EthIR).
After the Evaluators have completed the Ethics Pre-screening Report (EthPR) and the Ethics Individual Report (EthIR), an Ethics Consensus session will take place and the evaluators will have to approve the outcome of the Ethics Consensus Report (EthCR).
The tasks for the experts can be found under the following tabs :
As for the related documents, they are visible under the Documents tab.
EthPR taskIn the Pre-screening phase, you receive your tasks in their Active Tasks page. They are also visible in the Dashboard as well as in the All Tasks tab
Click on view to open the task. Then fill in the questions accordingly, and enter your overall comments at the bottom of the page:
At the bottom of the page, you will find the following buttons:
- Edit (on behalf) : confirm work on behalf
- Decline (on behalf) : decline task due to a COI or other reason (on behalf)
- Cancel : cancel task
- Reassign : reassign task
EthIR task
In the screening phase, you complete the EthIR task. Your tasks will be visible in the Active Tasks page, in the Dashboard and All Tasks tab:
Click on view to open the task. Then fill in the questions accordingly, and enter your overall comments at the bottom of the page:
At the bottom of the page, you will find the following buttons:
- Edit (on behalf) : confirm work on behalf
- Decline (on behalf) : decline task due to a COI or other reason (on behalf)
- Cancel : cancel task
- Reassign : reassign task
To fill in the form, click on the different sections. Additional information can be put in the comments box:
Once all EthIR forms are submitted, the EthCR phase begins. After the Approve EthCR tasks are submitted by the evaluators, the officer in charge of the ethics review process can submit the Review EthSR and Finalise EthSR tasks.
How to conditionally clear
Scrolling down in the same section, click on the Ethics Opinion tab:
How to select Ethics issues (EthPR & EthIR)
Still in the Ethics opinion section, after the recommendations box, you see the Ethics requirement box:
Depending on the selected category, you need to choose a predefined text, which can be of course edited. After the Reason(s) box, you need to enter the number of months. Basically, what you have to do here is to evaluate by which month the requirement has to be fulfilled (for example by month 18). Kindly note that this field is mandatory.
Here below the Assessment 2 form screen shot – the only difference is the Opinion now has Not Cleared:
