The three most important things to decide upon before setting up your SiteDocs Portal are:
Document naming conventions
The electronic Investigator Site File (eISF) Table of Contents (if applicable)
Will you save any documents on your internal network drive as well as in SiteDocs Portal?
Document Naming Conventions
It is extremely important that you designate a strict naming convention within SiteDocs Portal, in all modules. The more consistent your document naming is, the easier it is for both site and sponsors to locate and/or file documents within the system. The system does come with an automated naming option, which links the document to the file location within the portal, however, the actual document name should be considered carefully. If you wish to be able to search your documents by date, or produce a chronological list of documents uploaded, we recommend the following format:
路 Long date in reverse (i.e. 2021-05-19)
路 What the document is (i.e. RGO ack, HREC sub, Sponsor Letter)
路 What the document is about (i.e. Protocol amendment, new PICFs, safety update)
路 Version of the document (if it is version-controlled)
eISF Table of Contents
The next big consideration if you intend to use the Collaboration Module for your eISF is the table of contents. It is essential that your table of contents order is set in stone before even thinking about setting up studies within the system. We recommend using a numeric coded table of contents, which allows for shorter document indexing in file names. This means when you download documents, the file name will be much shorter, but will still tell you exactly where the document came from within the portal. An example of the numeric table of contents is attached below.
Duplication of files on your network drives
Many sites retain a copy of some or all documents on their network drives as well as in SiteDocs Portal. Study-specific templates, latest PICFs, HREC & RGO approvals and manuals are the most commonly duplicated documents as they are normally required for quick reference or are constantly in use. Determining up front, which documents you wish to retain copies of locally will allow you to create a site filing map to provide to staff. This map shows staff how to name documents, where to store them in SiteDocs Portal based on your table of contents, whether or not the document should be retained on your network drive and if so, where it should be stored. An example of a site file mapping guide is attached below.