Benchling In Vivo’s review processes give administrators control over how and when studies are reviewed before execution. By creating configurable review processes, admins can ensure that only studies meeting specific criteria are flagged for review, while studies that don’t require oversight continue uninterrupted. This helps teams enforce consistency, capture the right information up front, and maintain quality across studies. Once a review is triggered, authors complete the required form and submit the review, and reviewers are automatically notified to approve or reject it.

Create review processes

The review feature can be configured by admins from the Studies submenu on the Manage teams page. The feature is used by teams who want to review study information prior to approving the study to commence. Reviews can be triggered for all studies, internal studies or external. In addition, reviews can be triggered based on study metadata conditions. 

Multiple review templates can be configured sequentially, in which case a review cannot be submitted until the first review template has been completed. 

When you create a new review process you must navigate through four parts:

• General: Name the review and set the criteria that trigger it
• Reviewers: Choose who can approve or reject the study
• Review form: Define the fields study authors must complete before submission
• Summary: Preview and confirm the setup before publishing

Create a new review template

1. In the Studies tab, navigate to Reviews
2. Click Create new review
3. In the General section, enter your Review name and specify which studies it will apply to:
   • All studies
   • Internal studies
   • External studies
4. If multiple review processes are configured, a Review dependency can be configured. Specify if there is a dependency to another review template, or if there is no dependency
5. If the reviews should be triggered based on study metadata, click Add condition to define the study metadata field and the value that needs to be entered by the user for the review process to trigger. You can add multiple conditions and specify if all or any need to match for the review to activate after the study is created
   • Note: This can only apply fields that are text or select values
6. Click Continue to proceed to Reviewers
7. In the Reviewers section, select the users who have the authority to approve this review process. If multiple reviewers are selected, customize the order of the review with the options below:
   • All reviews are required, but can be in any order 
     All of the selected users will have to approve the review before the study can be started. This can be done in any order
   • All reviews are required and in a specific order
     All of the selected users will have to approve the review before the study can be started This must be done in the order you define. To change the order, drag and drop the name of each user to the desired location
   • A minimum number of reviews are required
     A specific number of users must approve the review before the study can be started. Enter the number into the number field
8. Click Continue to proceed to Review form
9. Customize the  form that must be filled in by reviewers if the review process triggers in their study. You can use the following field types:
   • Group title - Use this to define a new section of fields
   • Text - A basic text field
   • Long text - A longer text field suitable for capturing lengthy responses
   • Select - A field that enables users to select from a list of provided options
   • Multi-select - A field that enables users to select multiple options
   • Date - A basic date field
10. Click Continue to proceed to Summary
11. In the Summary, test and confirm the details of the study review template. When complete, click Save and create

Note: New review processes only apply to future studies. They do not retroactively affect existing ones.

Edit a review template

1. In the Studies tab navigate to Reviews
2. Click the name of the review template to update, this will bring you to the configuration page
3. Make the necessary updates and click Continue
4. When the updates are complete, click Save and update

Note: Edits apply only to new studies created after the update.

Delete a review template

1. To delete a review template, navigate the Studies tab and open Reviews
2. Use the checkboxes to select the review template to delete
3. Click Actions, select Delete
4. Type DELETE into the field to confirm. Then click Delete review template

Note: You cannot delete a review process if it’s listed as a dependency for another review. Remove the dependency first, then delete.

Submit a study review

A study cannot be manually flagged as needing a review. When a study meets both the study type and metadata criteria defined in a review process, it is automatically flagged for review. 

A yellow Action required box appears on the study overview page to notify the author that at least one review is required before execution. The study is locked until all applicable reviews are submitted and completed. 

The study status is set to Awaiting review and the review status is set to Not submitted until the review is submitted. Once submitted, reviewers will receive an email notification. The study status remains Awaiting review, however the review status changes to Pending. 

Submit a study review

1. Go to the study overview page
2. Navigate to the Reviews subtab at the bottom of the page
3. Click the review name in the table
4. Complete the fields in the Review details subtab
5. (Optional) Upload any files pertinent to the review in the Attachments subtab
6. (Optional) Add miscellaneous comments to the reviewers in the Comments subtab
7. Click Submit

If a study is flagged for multiple reviews, all of them appear in the Reviews subtab. When a review depends on another, the dependent review can’t be submitted until the initial one is complete.

You can view these dependencies in the Review dependencies column of the Reviews subtab of the study.

Note: Study reviews are based on the metadata set at study creation. Updating metadata after creation will not change the reviews. To trigger a different set of reviews, clone the study with the correct metadata and delete the original study.

Complete a study review

Once a study review is submitted, reviewers can access it to review key details. From there, reviewers have two options:

• Complete the review: Accept the study and release it for subsequent review or execution.
• Reject the review: Permanently lock the study from being executed.

All reviewers must complete the review in order for the study to be unlocked for execution. Completing or rejecting a review is a permanent action and cannot be undone. Because rejection is permanent, reviewers should only use it when necessary. If a study needs minor adjustments, leave comments for the study author instead. The author can then update the study design and notify the reviewer when the updates are complete using comments. Comments are visible in real time, making it easy for authors and reviewers to communicate.

Reviewers can start a review either by clicking Review study in their email notification or by navigating to the Reviews page in Benchling In Vivo.

Complete a pending review

1. [Optional] In the Pending tab, select the study name. This opens the study in a new tab if you prefer to review the full study design instead of the summary in the Review tab
2. In the Pending tab, click the review name you want to complete
3. Go to the Review details tab to check team and study metadata
4. Go to the Group tab to review group design
5. Go to the Attachments tab to review uploaded files
6. Go to the Comments tab to read or leave comments for the submitter
7. Select Complete in the top right to accept the study or select Reject to reject the study
8. If performing the review on behalf of another reviewer, select their name in the complete on behalf of dropdown
9. Select complete review or reject review to accept the study or reject the study, respectively

Note: Rejecting a study is permanent and prevents the study from execution.

Add an additional reviewer to a pending review

1. Open the pending review
2. In the Review status box, select Add other reviewers
3. Select the desired users

Find previously completed reviews

After completion or rejection, the review moves to the Complete tab of the Reviews page. 

The Status column shows the review status, and the Reviewer column shows the reviewers of the review, with their icon color corresponding to their individual review option:

• Green = completed
• Red = rejected

Understand study and review statuses

If all reviews for a study are marked as complete by all reviewers, the study status is In progress and the review status is Completed. If a review is rejected by at least one reviewer, the study status is Rejected and the review status is Rejected.

Rejected studies cannot be executed, but you can still:

• Add, edit, or delete study information or metadata
• Add, edit, or delete tasks
• Add, edit, or delete alerts
• Add, edit, or delete attachments
• Complete, cancel, or delete the study

If a study is rejected, the study author should mark the study as canceled to remove it from the active studies dashboard.