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Project Groups and Permissions

SyRF supports custom permission groups within projects, giving administrators fine-grained control over who can do what on each stage. Instead of a simple admin/member distinction, you create named groups -- such as "Screeners", "Annotators", or "Reconciliation Panel" -- and assign specific activities to each group on a per-stage basis.

Why Groups Matter

In a systematic review team, different people have different responsibilities. A junior researcher might screen studies but should not reconcile disagreements. A senior reviewer might reconcile annotations but should not screen. Groups let you model these roles explicitly, so every team member sees only the work they are authorised to do.

The most important new capability is the Reconcile permission. Before anyone can resolve disagreements between annotators (see Reconciliation Workflow), the project needs designated reconcilers. Groups make this possible.

Managing Groups

Viewing Your Groups

Navigate to Project Settings > Groups. You see a list of all groups in the project, including the built-in Administrators group. Each group card shows its name, description, and member count.

The Administrators group is created automatically when the project is created. It cannot be deleted or renamed. Members of this group have full permissions on every stage.

Creating a New Group

  1. Click Create Group.
  2. Enter a name (e.g., "Senior Reviewers") and an optional description (e.g., "Experienced reviewers who reconcile annotation disagreements").
  3. Click Save.

The group is now available for member assignment and stage permission configuration.

Adding Members to a Group

  1. Open the group by clicking its name.
  2. Click Add Members.
  3. Search for users by name or email. You can add multiple users at once.
  4. Click Confirm.

A user can belong to multiple groups. Their effective permissions on any stage are the union of all their groups' permissions for that stage.

Editing and Deleting Groups

  • To rename a group or update its description, open the group and click Edit.
  • To remove a member, open the group, find the member, and click Remove.
  • To delete a group entirely, click Delete Group. This removes the group and its permission assignments. Members are not removed from the project -- they simply lose the permissions that came from this group.

You cannot delete the built-in Administrators group.

Configuring Stage Permissions

Each stage has its own permission configuration. Navigate to a stage's Settings > Permissions to control what each group can do on that stage.

For each group, you configure the following activities:

Activity What It Allows
Screen Members can screen studies (include or exclude)
Annotate Members can annotate studies (answer questions)
Reconcile Members can resolve disagreements between annotators or screeners

Toggle each activity on or off for each group. Changes take effect immediately.

How Permissions Combine

A user's permissions on a stage are the union of all their groups' permissions. For example:

  • If a user belongs to "Screeners" (Screen only) and "Annotators" (Annotate only), they can both screen and annotate on stages where those groups have those permissions.
  • If a user belongs to the Administrators group, they have all permissions on every stage, regardless of other group memberships.

Common Configurations

Here are typical group setups for systematic review projects:

Standard Three-Role Setup

Group Screen Annotate Reconcile Description
Screeners Yes No No Junior researchers who screen studies
Annotators No Yes No Researchers who extract data from studies
Senior Reviewers No Yes Yes Experienced reviewers who also reconcile disagreements
Administrators Yes Yes Yes Project leads with full access (built-in)

Minimal Two-Role Setup

Group Screen Annotate Reconcile Description
Reviewers Yes Yes No All team members screen and annotate
Administrators Yes Yes Yes Project leads reconcile and manage (built-in)

Tips

  • Create groups based on roles, not individuals. "Screeners" is better than "Alice and Bob". When team membership changes, you update the group rather than reconfiguring every stage.
  • Keep the number of groups small. Most projects need 2-4 groups. Complex permission matrices are hard to maintain.
  • Use the Administrators group for reconciliation in small projects where the project lead also reconciles.

What Stays the Same

Existing projects continue to work exactly as they do today. The permission model is additive -- your current admin/member distinctions are preserved through the built-in Administrators group. You only need to create additional groups if you want finer-grained control.