What is Prisma?
Prisma is the new application and case management system used by the Swedish Research Council. The system has been developed jointly by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte) and the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas). One important goal of Prisma is to make it easier for applicants, reviewers and organizations to perform the tasks that are linked to applications for funding.
For you as a reviewer, Prisma has many advantages. All information, meeting dates and other functions related to the review process are collected in a single place in Prisma. You can access the system online at https://prisma.research.se/. A short guide to using Prisma is provided below, however the most recently updated and complete version of the guide can be found via this link.
How do you work in Prisma?
To be able to do your review work, you need to have a personal account in Prisma. Below you find brief information regarding the different steps you will perform as a reviewer, rapporteur or panel chair through the whole review process, from creating an account to writing the final written statements.
1. How to create an account and login
In order to create an account in Prisma, you need to have a valid ORCID number. If you don’t have such number, please go to: https://orcid.org/register.
After obtaining the ORCID number, go to https://prisma.research.se/. Create an account by clicking on . After you have created the account you will be able to log in through .
You can login with SWAMID (Swedish Academic Identity) as well. Please see the figure below.
2. Payment information
Before you can start performing your review tasks you will need to either add your payment information, or state that you decline remuneration for your review work. Both you can do under the tab “Review”, page “Payment Information”. If you wish to decline remuneration, click the button “Decline remuneration”. If you wish to change your mind, you can do so by navigating to the page “Payment information” and click “Undo”. To add your payment information, click on the button “Specify payment information”. Fill in the information on how you wish your remuneration to be paid and then click “Save and accept payment”. For reviewers resident outside of Sweden, please also upload a copy of your passport (as JPG-format), to enable the Swedish Research Council to transfer the remuneration.
3. Panel page with meeting dates and other important information
Here you can find all relevant information related to your panel work such as the handbook, policies etc.
Under the tab “Review” you can find on the left-hand side menu a list of the panel(s) you are assigned to. Click on the panel name and the panel’s starting page opens. On the right-hand side you find the
“Bulletin board”, where you will find the documents that have been uploaded to the panel.
On the right-hand side of the “Starting page“ for the review panel, you will find the button “Meeting documentation”. When you click this button, a list showing all applications that will be assessed in the panel will open in a new window. Please see the figure below.
On the right-hand side on the starting page for the review panel, you will find the button “Download”.
Click the button to access the “Download manager”. It can be used to download applications, fact sheets, assessments, external assessments, preliminary statements and final statements for all applications associated with the panel. To change the view settings on the screen, click “Columns” and select the columns that you want to make visible. Then click “Show/Hide”. Before you can download the documents associated with the panel, you need to read and approve the “Download policy”. The download policy is saved and can be read at any time during the review process.
4. Report conflict of interest
Before you can start your review work, you must register whether you have a conflict of interest regarding one or more applications associated with the panel. Click on “Conflict of interest and competence”.
Please note, as a review panel member of the Swedish Research Council you do not report your competence in Prisma.
Before you start to report conflict of interest for each application, you need to read and approve the
“Conflict of interest policy” and then click the buttons “Save” and “Submit”. The “Due date” shows the deadline for completing the conflict of interest. The conflict of interest policy will be available for reading throughout the review process. Please see the figure below.
When you have read and approved the conflict of interest policy, you need to report conflicts of interest for all applications associated with the panel. To see more information, you can either open the application form by clicking the registration number in the column “Reg no”, or click the button
“Details”. Please note that you have to register “Yes” or “No” for all applications. This can be done either in the column “Conflict” or in the “Details” view. In the window that is opened when you click on the button “Details”, you can see more information about the application. Report your conflict of interest and then click “Next”. The information is saved automatically when you click either “Next” or “Close”.
When you are finished, you must click “Save” and then “Submit” in order to proceed with the review work. Please see the figure below.
5. Review work
To read, grade and write assessments or preliminary statements go to the page “Review tasks”, where you can view a list of all applications that you have been assigned to review.
Beside the column headings on this page, you can filter or sort the information in each column. Select from the options in the drop-down menu. In the column “Assignment” you can see which type of assignment (assessment/preliminary statement/external assessment/final statement) you have to perform.
To open the review form, click the button “Write”. Please see the figure below.
Fill out the information in the form, see the figure below. Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk
*. Click “Save” and “Close” to close the form and return to the list. If you want to make changes to your review, open the form by clicking the button “Write” in the list. When you are finished writing your assessment click “Submit”. Please note that once you have submitted your assessment, you cannot make any further changes in the form!
By clicking “Select”, you have the possibility to download the application, the fact sheet and the review form in PDF-format.
To comment on an application (visible only for you). To open an application in a mode where you can comment on it, click the registration number in the column “Reg no”. This action can be performed regardless of which page you are on, and you may open the application and comment on it throughout the review period. The application form has several pages and you can use the menu on the left-hand side to navigate between them. In the application form you can add comments that are only visible to you (not to the applicant or other reviewers in the panel). After having entered your comments, click
“Save”.
Ranking applications (not applicable for all review panels). The panel chair can perform this task for all the applications in the panel on the page “All applications”. As a panel member you can perform this task on the page “Review tasks” for the applications you have been assigned to review. Click on the button “Ranking”. To place the applications in the desired order, click, drag and drop the applications to the correct place in the list and then click “Save and close”. Finally, click “Submit”. Please note that once your ranking has been submitted no further changes can be made!
6. Write the final statement (only for rapporteurs)
If you are assigned as a rapporteur you can access the final statement form by clicking the button ”Write”
next to ”Final statement” on the page “Review tasks”.
You can choose to copy the entire preliminary statement to the final statement by clicking “Copy all from preliminary statement”, but please note that as a rapporteur you are responsible for the grades and comments reflecting the decisions made by the panel as a whole. You can also choose to copy only selected portions of the preliminary statement by clicking “Copy”. The window “Preliminary statement” is displayed. To read the assessments written by other panel members click on
“Assessments”. When you wish to close the final statement form, click “Save” and then “Close”. Once your final statement is finished, click “Submit” to submit the completed review task. Please note that once you have submitted the final statement form, you cannot make any further changes!
7. Approve final statement (only for panel chairs)
Once the deadline for the final statements has passed, the panel chair can read the final statements. Go to the page “All applications”, click the button “Select” and then “Read assessment”. Make the necessary adjustments (if any) and mark the statements as “Done”. Please see the figure below.
Afterwards, the final statements can be approved by the senior research officer at the Swedish Research Council. Once the final statements have been approved, the chair and the senior research officer can see this status in the table on the page “All applications”, in the column “Final statement” as “Approved”.