You’ve probably seen our previous blog items about “stacking” documents in CLARA. Briefly, all versions of a single document should be stacked atop one another in chronological order, with the most recent version on top. Please note that the clean and tracked-changes versions should be stacked separately, with all of the clean copies in one stack, and all of the tracked-changes copies in another stack. So after you’ve uploaded your revised documents, please open up the stack to make sure everything is stacked correctly. If you see clean and tracked-changes copies uploaded in a single stack, something has gone wrong, and you will need to correct the stacking before sending your submission to the IRB. While the IRB office staff has corrected stacking on submissions in the past, we are more likely now to send them back to you for correction before reviewing your submission.
Complete stacking instructions can also be found in CLARA. Click on “Help” in the black bar at the top, and then on “Managing Documents” under “Protocols.”
To check the stacking, highlight the document you’re interested in and click “versions” at the top of the screen (red arrow in the illustration below). [As an aside, while you can also click on the highlighted “v” in the “versions” column (green arrow below) to pull up a stack, please remember to disregard the number next to this highlighted “v”; it is autogenerated by CLARA and does NOT need to match the version number that’s listed on your document.]
And here is what pops up when you click on Versions. Here’s where you’ll see all the items in the stack, and you’ll be able to verify that your stack contains only clean copies, or only tracked-changes copies, as appropriate.