New Ethics enhancements released

Since our experimentation development work has started to slow down for the academic year, it has been opportunity to work on a number of small projects and work items which have been bubbling away on the work backlog.  As a result, we have implemented a number of new features and enhancements to the Psychology Ethics system.

A summary can be found below of the key changes:

Declaration approval overhaul

The application declaration process has been completely reworked, with more intuitive display and links to aid the process.   Non-staff submissions now require approval from a supervisor as part of the process.

File and link copying for application copies

Creating a new application based on a pre-existing application will now copy over all the attached files and links.   These are set up to separately copy over in small batches, so within an hour at most, all of your files should copy across successfully.   A message will appear on your new copied application to indicate if there are any files pending copy.

Application copy from co-researcher applications

Applications that have been approved and where you are set as a co-researcher, can now be copied as part of a new application (with relation links applied).

Then the following bug fixes and minor improvements were also made:

  • Expiry date fixes – dates which were incorrectly set from the old system roll-over have been set to a more sensible value.
  • Ethics ID changes – a more reliable and robust Ethics ID is now generated for every approved application, due to potential issues that were foreseen with the current format.
  • Reminder improvements – extra reminders added to aid the review process, including overdue reminders added which were missed out originally.
  • Review withdrawal – applications submitted accidentally for review, can now be withdrawn from the process by the Chair of Ethics.
  • Application visibility improvements – Reviewers and supervisors should now be able to see any related applications linked within new submissions.
  • Review comments to supervisor – As part of the review panel process, reviewers can now add feedback which is directed confidentially to just the supervisor.
  • DBS administration re-design – improvements to the DBS administration page layout to aid the administration process.
  • Manual reviewer assignment – option to now add reviewers who are not part of the automated pool assignment process, but can have applications manually assigned by the Chair for review.
  • DBS bypass option – applications that flag for a DBS check, but are already covered elsewhere can be set to bypass the DBS requirement at the School by the Chair of Ethics.

Back-end upgrades to the system will be occurring over the summer period, which will not offer any visual change – but include security updates that are crucial for the continued running of the system.  There should be minimal disruption when this occurs, but any disruption will be communicated accordingly.

If you spot any problems with any of the new features, please contact us at psychsupport@kent.ac.uk

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