---
title: "Reviewing and approving | Trelice User Guide"
description: "The reviewer's side: reading a section, approving it, or asking the writer for changes."
canonical_url: "https://www.trelice.com/docs/reviewing-and-approving"
---

# Reviewing and approving

When a colleague sends a [protocol](/docs/glossary) [section](/docs/glossary) for review, you, the reviewer, read it and give one of two answers: approve it, or ask for changes. This guide shows you where to find your reviews, how to decide, and what happens after you click.

## How you find out it's your turn

You are told in two ways:

- The bell at the top of the screen shows a [notification](/docs/notifications), **Section submitted for review** when a writer submits a section you are assigned to, or **Section ready for your review** when an earlier review level finishes and yours begins. Being added as a reviewer also notifies you: **Assigned as section reviewer**.
- The section appears in [your approval queue](/docs/approval-queue), which collects everything waiting on *you*.

You can also come across the section in [Pending tasks](/docs/pending-tasks) or simply by opening it in the protocol editor, your reviewer buttons appear there too.

## Reviewing from the approval queue

1. Open **My Approval Queue** from the menu on the left.
2. Each waiting section is a white card: the section's name at the top, then its word count and when it was last updated, with a blue **In Review** badge on the right.
3. Below that, small colored dots show your fellow reviewers: green means *approved*, orange means *changes requested*, gray means *pending*.

**What you'll see when nothing is waiting:** a friendly card saying **All caught up!** with "No sections awaiting your review." underneath.

> **Note:** The queue is handy for a quick decision, but for a careful read click **View Section** on the card to open the full section in the editor first. Read everything, your approval says you did.

## Approving

1. Read the section.
2. Click the blue **Approve** button.

That's it. Your decision is recorded with your name, the date and time, and it becomes part of the permanent record, see [Electronic signatures](/docs/electronic-signatures) and [The audit trail](/docs/audit-trail).

### The consistency acknowledgment

Sometimes an amber **Golden Thread Alert** box sits above the buttons. It means a related section changed after this one was written, for example, the sample size was updated elsewhere, and the two might now disagree. Read more in [Golden threads](/docs/golden-threads).

When this alert is present, **Approve** stays gray until you tick the checkbox that says **I have verified cross-section consistency for this golden thread** (in the editor the checkbox reads **I've verified cross-section consistency**). Ticking it is a real statement: you checked that the sections still agree. If they don't agree, do not tick it, request changes instead.

> **Troubleshooting:** If **Approve** looks faded and does nothing, hover over it. The tooltip will say the golden thread acknowledgment box must be checked first.

## Requesting changes

1. Click **Request Changes**.
2. A text box opens. In the queue its hint reads "Describe what needs to change before approval…"; in the editor, "Describe what needs to change before this section can be approved…". Write clearly what the writer should fix, they will read exactly these words.
3. Click **Send Feedback** (or **Cancel** to back out).

**What you'll see:** the section leaves your queue. Its status becomes **Changes Requested**, the writer is notified, and your comments appear to them in an orange **Reviewer feedback:** box.

## How multi-level review works, in plain words

Your organization may use review workflows with levels, say, Level 1 is the Medical Writer and Biostatistician, Level 2 is the Medical Monitor.

- **Level 1 reviews first.** Only Level 1 reviewers can act; everyone else waits. Next to a waiting reviewer's name you'll see *waiting for level 2*.
- **When every required reviewer of a level approves, the next level activates.** Those reviewers get a **Section ready for your review** notification, and the purple badge on the section changes, for example from **Review level 1** to **Review level 2**.
- **A rejection at any level returns the section to the writer.** The chain stops, the section becomes **Changes Requested**, and after the writer fixes it, review starts again from level 1.

If you try to decide before your level is active, Trelice politely refuses with a message like *"Your review level (2) is not active yet, level 1 must finish first."* Nothing is lost, just wait for your notification.

## After the last level approves

When the final required reviewer approves, the section's status becomes **Approved**, shown as a green badge and a green tick in the section list. The writer is notified (**Section approved**). The section is now locked: opening it shows "This section has been approved. Create an amendment to edit it."

Approved content can only change through a formal amendment, see [Creating and editing an amendment](/docs/creating-and-editing-amendments). This lock is a feature, not an obstacle: it is what makes an approval mean something.

> **Note:** Approving is not just a click, it is a recorded professional statement, kept forever in the [audit trail](/docs/audit-trail) with your name and timestamp. If you are not sure, request changes and say why. Nobody was ever criticized for reading too carefully.