What is the Under Signing by Author status?
The requirement in any document approval workflow is that everyone signs off on the same version of a Document.
Scilife cannot control the changes made to the Document while editing in Word, what it can control is the version number and to ensure that everyone signs off on the same version.
The Under Signing by Author status ensures that when all Reviewers have signed off on a document that the Author(s) can sign off on the same version that all Reviewers have signed off on.
A document will go to the Under Signing by Author status if a Reviewer/ Reviewers have made changes to a document and when all reviewers have signed-off on the same version.
(In other words, the last Reviewer(s) will have signed off on a different version than what the Author signed off whilst the Document was in Draft status.)
When any Reviewer signs off on a Document the text will always read 'Set to Under Signing by Approver'.
In addition, if there has been any version increase during Under Review the Reviewers who signed off before the version update will need to sign off again as will the Document Author(s).
This is to ensure that the Document will only go to the Approver if no changes have been made and only once a Reviewer signs off, (unless you have configured that all Reviewers need to sign-off).
Documents will have the 'Under Signing by Author' status in the following scenarios:
- Edits have been made in Draft and/or Under Review by Author.
- In Under Review, Reviewer(s) does not make any edits and signs off.
- Document moves to Under Signing by Author status.
- Edits have been made in Draft and/or Under Review by Author.
- In Under Review, Reviewer(s) makes edits and signs off.
- Document moves to Under Signing by Author status.
It is also worth noting that if one Reviewer rejects any changes made, the item is sent back to Draft.
The Author can equally disagree with any changes made, reject the document, (which will send it back to Draft), then make further edits and set the Document to Under Review again.
What can an Author do at the Under Signing by Author Status?
- 'Set to Under Signing by Approver' - this means they agree with the changes made by the Reviewer(s) and sign off on the new version and the document moves forward to the Approver(s).
- 'Reject to Draft' - the Author does not agree with the version signed off by the Reviewer(s) and wishes to push the Document back to Draft where only Author(s) can work on it.
- 'Reject to Under Review' - the Author does not agree with the version signed off by the Reviewer(s) and wishes to push the Document back to Under Review where both the Author(s) and the Reviewer(s) can work on it.
This article explains what options are available to each role in a document's workflow?