Approving access

Overview

There are three types of mechanisms that users might use to apply for access, depending on the configuration of your datasets:

1. Membership approval

2. Requirement approval on a member

3. Requirement approval on a study

4. Direct access request on a dataset

Note that (1) (2) and (3) apply only to datasets managed by an organization. If a dataset belongs to you as a user, you will only need to respond to direct access requests.

When an access request is made, you will be notified through alerts on the organization administrator panel (or workspace, for user-managed datasets). You can also configure email alerts for access requests through the workspace or organization settings.

Membership statuses

When a membership application is submitted, it will have one of the following statuses:

Status	Description
Pending	The membership has been submitted for approval and an administrator now needs to respond.
Approved	The membership has been approved by an administrator or automatically approved.
Rejected	The membership was rejected on a previous submission
Revoked	The membership was rejected after being previously approved.
[status] with updates pending	The membership is currently [status], and the user has provided updated information that requires administrator approval. Any updated fields will be noted with a yellow alert icon.

Note that this is a subset of requirement statuses below, which also support expiration dates and user drafts.

Membership approval

To approve a membership application, double click any member with an alert next to their name. If they have a pending membership application, their Membership page will show an alert, which can be resolved by clicking Respond.

All membership submissions will have one of the statuses defined above. Additionally, if the user has added comments as part of their submission, an alert will be shown on the Comments section.

You can approve, reject, or revoke a membership and see the current status at the bottom of the membership modal. Note that you can configure an automated membership approval for certain identity providers – see Organization administration: Settings for more information.

Requirement statuses

When a requirement is submitted on behalf of a member or study, it will have one of the following statuses:

Status	Description
Unsubmitted	The user has saved a draft submission, but it hasn't been submitted yet.
Pending	The requirement has been submitted for approval and an administrator now needs to respond.
Approved	The requirement has been approved by an administrator.
Expired	The requirement was expired automatically when it reached its expiration date.
Rejected	The requirement was rejected on a previous submission
Revoked	The requirement was rejected after being previously approved.
[status] with updates pending	The requirement is currently [status], and the user has provided updated information that requires administrator approval. Any updated fields will be noted with a yellow alert icon.

Member requirement approvals

To approve a requirement for a member, double click any member with an alert next to their name. From this member's page, navigate to their requirements, identify any requirements with alerts, and double click the requirement to view and respond to their submission.

All submissions will have one of the statuses defined above. Additionally, if the user has provided any comments as part of their submission (potentially providing additional context or requesting clarification) the Comments section on the requirement will show an alert.

Study requirement approvals

Study requirement approvals behave almost identically to requirement approvals on a member. The only difference is that you will first navigate to the Studies tab of the organization administrator panel and double click on the study with a pending alert.

Remember that approval of a study requirement will apply to all members on that study. Studies allow you to simplify access controls and avoid duplication when you want to gather information about a collaborative effort between researchers — for example, approving an IRB protocol or collecting information about the study's funding grant.

Direct access approval

If you have configured access to your dataset via the direct access paradigm, whenever a user requests access to your dataset you will receive a corresponding alert on the datasets tab of your workspace and/or administrator panel.

To respond to the access request, double click on the dataset. If there are any pending requests, the dataset's Manage access interface will open, providing you with the ability to respond to all direct access requests. You can also enter this interface at any time via the Manage access button on the dataset editor, allowing you to view and potentially revoke all access approvals.