February 2015

The next release of updates to ESTR is scheduled to take place after 6:00pm on February 26. This release includes changes to simplify and align page navigation with vendor-provided updates and reduce page-load times, along with some minor updates to reports and determination letters. The ESTR design team would like to alert you to the following significant changes, that you will notice after this release:

When logging in to irb.harvard.edu, to simplify navigation, your personal page will only display a list of items which require attention. This list includes submissions that:
>Have been prepared and not yet submitted, 
>Need your review, or 
>Submissions where clarifications have been requested by the IRB and you have not yet responded.

Visit the IRB Submissions page to view all submissions in any stage of review, including links to active studies where you can create modification or continuing review submissions. For easy navigation, you get to this page in two ways:
>Click the “Submissions” link on the lower-left side of the screen, or
>Click the “IRB” text at the top of the page, on the red bar

The review-type indicator has been removed from all submission workspaces (i.e. the webpage which displays submission-specific details). This previously appeared just under the blue box on the upper-left side of the screen. Removing this indicator has decreased page-load times.

ESTR sends notifications to a certain set of default recipients. You can add to the default list of notice recipients by going to a study workspace and completing the “edit email list” activity. You can now view a report of all your studies and who is currently set to receive notifications, by navigating to Reports (linked on the lower-left side of the screen) > Custom Reports (linked in the center of the Reports screen) > Study Notification Recipients (second-from-the bottom on the list). 

As part of the next few updates to ESTR, you will see additional navigation and use changes. To learn more about what is planned for ESTR updates, please see the "ESTR Update Plan" section of this page.

Please visit the Job Aids page of this site for current ESTR job aids and training information.