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Take Required Review Integrity & Bias Awareness Training

For Reviewers Using IAR 

Background and instructions for reviewers to complete mandatory training before accessing applications in IAR.

For review meetings since early 2024, NIH reviewers are required to take the following two trainings before accessing their assigned applications in the Internet Assisted Review (IAR) module. 

  1. “Review Integrity” module — raises awareness of actions that breach review integrity and provides tools to prevent and report them.
  2. “Bias Awareness and Mitigation” module — raises awareness of potential biases in the peer review process and provides strategies to mitigate them.

Reviewers who have not completed these trainings cannot access their applications for meetings.

Link to Training

Customized links to the two training modules are available only in IAR and in email notifications sent to reviewers when added to a roster. If reviewers do not complete the training before being invited to the optional Recruitment phase or the Submit phase in IAR, they will again be presented with the training link in the email notifications. The link is customized for the reviewer and therefore not transferable.

Goal

To raise awareness of the potential for bias in review and to ensure integrity of peer review (See NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-23-156 and Open Mike blog).

Timing

  • This requirement is effective for reviewers invited to most review meetings*. Reviewers who need to take the trainings will receive links to the trainings once they have been added to a roster for a meeting.
  • Reviewers who have already taken the two trainings do not need to take the training for another three years.
  • Each training is 30 minutes. 

*Non-FACA meetings are exempt from this requirement.

Notifications & Process to Take Training

Email Notifications

Reviewers who have not completed the training receive a system-generated email:

  • When added to a roster. The email will come from nihreviewertraining@mail.nih.gov with a customized link to the NIH Reviewer Training site.
  • When invited to the Recruitment phase or Submit phase in IAR. The email will come from Peer Review and/or IAR.

If a reviewer needs to complete one or both of the trainings and tries to access their assigned applications, they see the message below on the List of Meetings screen in IAR that they have to complete the training before they can access the applications.

“You may not access your assigned applications until you complete the NIH-required training on the <NIH Reviewer Training site link>.”

Process

Accessing the NIH Reviewer Training site: Reviewers will need to have the Login.gov credentials that they use to log in to eRA Commons/IAR, as well as their Commons User ID to access the portal. 

Reviewers are required to use two-factor authentication as soon as they are enabled for a review meeting. The process involves creating a Login.gov account from the Commons home screen (or using an existing Login.gov account) and then associating the Login.gov account with their Commons account (a one-time process). See Login.gov Instructions for Reviewers, 2FA flyer and webpage. 

Need Help?

 

Resources 

NIH Reviewer Training site (managed by the NIH Center for Scientific Review)

Figure 1: Screenshot of the NIH Reviewer Training site


Figure 1: Screenshot of the NIH Reviewer Training site