This topic covers the process for reviewing and providing feedback to the authors on a notebook. Iteration of review and comment cycles will continue until all reviewers are satisfied with the contents of the notebook.

• Review Notebook
• Manage Reviewers
• Suggest Changes and Return (Reject this Version)
• Authors Respond to Feedback
• Approve Notebook
• Review History

Review Notebook

When you are assigned as a reviewer for a notebook, you will receive a notification and see an alert in the For You section, i.e. # Awaiting your review. Click the link to see the notebook(s) awaiting your review.

Click a notebook name to open it. You'll see the notebook contents, including details, entries, references, and a timeline of both review and edit history. When ready to begin, click Start Review.

In review mode, you can check the contents of the notebook, adding Comments to specific entries if you like, viewing attachments, checking the linked references, etc. Hover over a color coded reference lozenge to see details, open the reference page, or step through multiple instances of the same reference in one notebook

Once you have reviewed the contents of the notebook, there are three actions available:

• Close and go home: Conclude this session of review without making any decision. This notebook will remain the same status awaiting your review.
• Suggest changes and return: Click to "reject" this notebook, returning it to the submitters with suggestions of changes.
• Go to signature: Click to "approve" this notebook and proceed to the signature page.

Manage Reviewers

Any user or group assigned the Editor role or above can be assigned as the reviewer of a notebook when an author originally submits it for review. When a group is assigned as a reviewer, all group members will be notified and see the task on their dashboard. Any member of that group has the ability to complete the review.

As the reviewer of a notebook, you also have the ability to add other reviewers, or remove yourself from the reviewer list (as long as at least one reviewer remains assigned). Open the notebook (but do not enter 'review' mode) and click the icon next to the reviewer usernames.

Add reviewers by selecting them from the dropdown. Remove a reviewer by clicking the 'X' (at least one reviewer is required). Click Update Reviewers when finished.

Suggest Changes and Return (Reject this Version)

While in review mode, if you are not ready to approve the notebook, click Suggest changes and return. Provide comments and requests for changes in the popup, then click Yes, return notebook.

The authors will be notified of your request for changes. Your review comments will be shown in a new Review details panel at the top of the notebook.

This phase of your review is now complete. The notebook will be in a "returned for changes" state, and co-authors will be expected to address your comments before resubmitting for review.

Authors Respond to Feedback

When a notebook is returned for changes, the author(s) will see the Review details and be able to Unlock and update the notebook to address them.

After updating the notebook, the author(s) can again click Submit for Review and follow the same procedure as when they originally submitted the notebook.

Approve Notebook

As a reviewer in "review mode", when you are ready to approve the notebook, click Go to signature.

The signature page offers a space for any comments, and a Signature panel. Verify your identity by entering your email address and password, then check the box to certify that the data contained in this notebook and all attachments are accurate. Click Sign and approve.

The authors will be notified of the approval, and be able to view or export the signed notebook. The notebook will now be in the Approved state.

Approved notebooks may be used to generate templates for new notebooks.

Once a notebook has been approved, if an error is noticed or some new information is learned that should be included, an author could create a new notebook referencing the original work, or amend the existing notebook. Learn about amending a notebook in this topic:

• Notebook Amendments

Review History

At the bottom of the expanded details panel, you'll see the Review History showing actions like submission for review, return for comments, and eventual approval. On a second tab, you can access the Edit History for the notebook.

Related Topics

• Author a Notebook
• Notebook Templates
• Export Notebook
• LabKey ELN
• Notebook Amendments