Image source:CSR/iStockphoto, Fradu

Curious about where your application might be reviewed, and want to have a look at those study sections and their rosters to see if you have a preference for review in one group over another?

The new online Assisted Referral Tool (ART) will make a potential match between the science in your application and an appropriate CSR study section(s). After you enter your application summary or specific aims, ART will show you both strong and potential matches, and provide you with direct links to descriptions of those study sections and their rosters of reviewers.

Your query is confidential. No input text from your application or the fingerprint generated during the search will be retained after your query is completed.

The NIH Center for Scientific Review developed ART in partnership with the NIH Center for Information Technology.

User Feedback Has Been Very Positive
 
ART replaces the old “browse and wonder” method of finding a study section, where investigators have to manually look through study section descriptions and sometimes make a best guess as to where their application might fit. ART makes fact-based recommendations by matching a fingerprint of your application information with a database of applications actually reviewed in each study section. User feedback has been very positive, including comments such as “ART was easy to use, worked well, and returned results quickly” and “the tool appears to be accurate and robust.”

How to Suggest a Study Section

Requests for study section or Institute assignments should be submitted on the optional PHS Assignment Review Request form, which is found with the other optional forms in each application packet. CSR endeavors to honor requests whenever possible, dependent upon funding opportunity announcement participation and locus of review agreements within NIH and other PHS agencies.