Revise Existing Paper Proposals
You may wish to make updates to your already-approved paper proposal. Based on the scope of the updates needed, your proposal may or may not need to go through another scientific review process.
Minor Updates - New Scientific Review Not Needed
The following changes to a paper proposal do not require that it go through a scientific review again:
- requesting new data sets - get information about requesting dataset
- adding co-authors - email topmed-pubs@westat.com your request
- adding participating studies (except when adding studies will change the proposal from single PI to multi PI, as noted below) - email topmed-pubs@westat.com your request
- changing the proposer or designated updater - email topmed-pubs@westat.com your request
- changing the primary Working Group and/or adding relevant Working Groups - email topmed-pubs@westat.com your request, forwarding/including approval from conveners of the Working Group(s) involved
Major Updates - New Scientific Review Required
Significantly changing or expanding the goals of a paper proposal does require that it go through another scientific review. Changing a "single PI" proposal to a “multi-PI” proposal is also considered a major revision that requires another scientific review. See "How to Submit a Revised Paper Proposal" instuctions below to make major paper proposal updates and initiate a new scientific review.
Unsure
If you are unsure if the changes warrant a new scientific review, please email topmed-pubs@westat.com your request. It will be forwarded as appropriate to the Publications Committee chairs for consideration.
You can submit a revised paper proposal using the same online form as the original submission. Alternatively if you are the submitter or designated updater for an existing paper proposal, you can clone the existing paper proposal by selecting "Clone content" at the top of the paper proposal page. The clone option may be helpful if most of the paper proposal content will remain the same, but be careful to review each field to ensure it's still accurate for the new version of the paper proposal.
- At the top of the form, select your original proposal from the drop-down menu under the heading “If you are resubmitting a proposal with changes”.
- Fill in / edit all of the fields with the revised information.
- If you are changing a proposal from “single PI” to “multi-PI” status, be sure to include additional author information and/or make new data set requests as appropriate.
Please review the complete paper proposal instructions for more information on the entire process, which also applies to submitted revisions. Submitting revisions will trigger a new scientific review process.
You may choose to make new data set requests to go with your revised proposal, or you can email topmed-pubs@westat.com and request that your old data set requests carry over to the new version of your proposal if the changes are minor or you receive permission from the P&P Committee chairs.
Your paper proposal receives “reconsider after revision” or “disapprove” comments in the Scientific Review process
When a multi-PI paper proposal receives a "reconsider after revision" or "disapprove" comment it is marked as "in revision". You may revise an "in revision" proposal according to reviewer comments and submit a revised proposal. If you have difficulty understanding the reviewer comments or if there is disagreement, please contact the P&P administrator at topmed-pubs@westat.com and they will put you in touch with the P&P Committee chairs .
Please submit the revised version of a paper proposal within six months of the proposal being marked as "in revision". Proposals that are "in revision" longer than six months may be marked as superseded, in line with TOPMed Publications Policy.
A study denies a request for a data set
If you would like to follow up, please contact the study’s PI(s) and Data Set Contact(s) to discuss the decision. Study and contact information are provided on the individual study pages.
If you are able to resolve the issue, please request that the study's Data Set Contacts update the "disapproved" data set request to "approved," which they can do at any time by going to the page for data set reviewers.
If the study deems it necessary for you to change your paper proposal, you may submit a revised proposal.
If you are unable to reach an agreement with the study, or you decide to not use that study's data, please cancel the data set request by viewing your specific paper proposal.
Examples where a data set contact might request modification are:
- the study wants to perform study-specific preliminary analyses before joining cross-study analyses
- the PI was not contacted previously and needs further information from the proposer
- issues related to consent, potential stigmatization, or harm to participants
See the Paper Proposal Instructions page for information about proposal progress reports.
