For program administrators who create and manage a Training Application Form in Research Logix. It covers the settings that most often cause problems and the order to set things up in. It describes how the system works as of October 2026.
1. What a form is made of
A training application form is a set of pages you configure, then open to applicants:
| Page | What you set there |
|---|---|
| Application Form Information | The form title, a short description and the Point of Contact people see if they have questions |
| Important Dates | Public portal visibility, Registration Open and Close, Application Lock Date, Reviews Due Date |
| Application Settings | References and mentors (how many, required or not, instructions) and Allow Bulk Document Download |
| Content Settings | Welcome page, confirmation page and the mentor declaration text |
| Documents | What applicants, mentors and references must upload |
| Questionnaires | The questions asked of applicants, mentors and references, and the evaluation questions for reviewers |
| Emails | The invitation, reminder, confirmation and decision emails |
| Reviewers Pool, Results, Outcomes | Assigning reviewers, viewing evaluation results, deciding and notifying |
A new form starts unapproved and cannot collect applications until it has been approved.
2. Suggested order
- Application Form Information.
- Application Settings (decide references and mentors first; the Documents page depends on them).
- Documents, for applicants, then mentors, then references.
- Questionnaires and Content Settings.
- Emails.
- Important Dates, last, once the rest is final.
- Get the form approved, then check it as an applicant would (see the checklist in section 9).
3. Letters of recommendation: one document type, several references
This is the most common set-up mistake.
How it works. On the references Documents page, every document type you add is requested from every reference the applicant names. The number of references is a different setting, on the Application Settings page.
To collect two letters of recommendation (one from each of two references):
- Application Settings, References: tick Include references, set Minimum References to 2 (and Maximum to the most you accept), and tick References Required? if the applicant must name them. Write Instructions to Applicant for Reference Selection: who may serve as a reference and what you expect.
- Documents, references page, Add a New Document Type: create one type, for example "Letter of Recommendation", mark it Required, and add a short description and an optional template file.
The mistake to avoid. Creating "Reference Letter 1" and "Reference Letter 2" and marking both required. Each of the applicant's references is then asked for both letters, so every reference has to upload two documents. Use one document type and let the minimum number of references produce the two letters.
Check it before you open the form. Open the form as an applicant, name two references, and look at what each reference is asked to upload: it must be one document each.
Notes:
- References Required? controls whether the applicant can submit without naming the minimum number of references. The applicant sees the minimum on the references page and on the dashboard step "Identify Reference(s)".
- A template file you attach is shown to every reference.
4. Mentors
Mentors work the same way. Application Settings has Minimum Mentors, Maximum Mentors, instructions for the applicant, and Require Mentor Certification? (mentors confirm their compliance with the program; if you use it, set the Mentor Declaration text under Content Settings). Document types added on the mentor Documents page are requested from every mentor, so use one type per document you need.
5. Important dates
| Date | What it does |
|---|---|
| Time Zone | One time zone for the whole form (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Arizona, Pacific, Alaska or Hawaii). Every date below happens at the time you set, in this zone. Applicants see the zone (for example "5:00 PM PST") next to each date. Eastern is the default. |
| Show on Public Portal | Lists the opportunity on the public Training Opportunities portal, but only between Registration Open and Registration Close. Untick to hide it regardless of the dates. |
| Registration Open | From this date and time you accept new applications. The default time is 12:00 AM. |
| Registration Close | New applications stop at this date and time. Applicants who already started can keep editing until the Application Lock Date. The default time is 11:59 PM. |
| Application Lock Date | After this date and time applicants can no longer edit: every section page of the application is replaced by a read-only Your application is locked page (their answers and the names of their documents), uploads are refused, and the opportunity page tells them when it was locked. A form without a lock date never locks. The Important Dates page warns you when the lock date is before Registration Opens or Closes. Set it before the Reviews Due Date. The default time is 11:59 PM. To let ONE applicant keep editing after it, open the applicant (Applicants > Actions > Actions) and use Extend Lock Date: the date you set replaces the form's lock date for that applicant only (the form's lock time and time zone still apply), the applicant sees the new date, the Applicants list shows it in Lock Extended Until, and the History tab records who changed it. Remove extension puts the form's date back. |
| Reviews Due Date | The date reviewers should finish their evaluations. It is a reminder date only: it is not shown to applicants and it does not lock the evaluation forms. Tell reviewers the date in the reviewer invitation. |
Forms created before the time zone existed keep working as before: Eastern time, open at 12:00 AM, close and lock at 11:59 PM. When you change the time zone, check the times again, because the times are kept and only the zone changes.
6. Uploads
- Accepted file types: PDF, Word (.doc, .docx), Excel (.xls, .xlsx, .csv), PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx), plain text and RTF, OpenDocument (.odt, .ods, .odp), and PNG or JPEG images. Any other type is refused with a message when it is uploaded.
- Password-protected or encrypted files are refused. A protected file would upload but would not open when someone downloads it, so the upload stops it and shows a message: "The file ... is password-protected or encrypted ... Please remove the password or protection in the program that created the file, save it, and upload it again." This applies to PDF, Word and Excel files, including a PDF that only restricts editing or printing. Tell applicants, mentors and references to remove the protection before they upload.
- Put the instruction in each document type's Brief Description, for example "PDF only, no password".
7. Downloading documents
- On Application Settings, tick Allow Bulk Document Download. A Download All Documents (ZIP) button then appears on the Submitted Applications page, and downloads every submitted document, organised by applicant. It is off by default; if administrators say they cannot download documents, check this box first.
- Reviewers do not get a download button or a ZIP, by design: documents stay with the administrator and are not saved on reviewers' computers. If reviewers need the files, download the ZIP yourself and share it. Reviewers can still open each document in the page (the Documents tab of the application they are scoring) with View.
8. Reviewers: assigning them and tracking progress
Who can be a reviewer. Add the person as an administrator of the form with the Reviewer permission. They then appear on the Reviewers and Assign Reviewers pages.
Assigning reviewers. Open Reviewers, then Assign Reviewers.
- Pick the applicants. Only submitted applications are listed by default; tick Include applications not yet submitted to see the rest. Use the search box and the filters Needs reviewers and Has reviewers, and Select all shown to pick everyone you can see.
- Pick the reviewers. Each shows how many applicants they already have.
- A line under the buttons tells you what will happen, for example "Assign 3 reviewers to 12 applicants: 30 new assignments, 6 already assigned and skipped." Select Assign and confirm.
- A reviewer is never added twice to the same applicant.
- Under each applicant you see their reviewers. To take a reviewer off an applicant, select the x next to their name. Anything the reviewer already answered is kept.
Tracking progress. The Reviewers page shows, at the top, the number of reviewers, assigned reviews, reviewed, in progress and not started, and how many submitted applications have no reviewer yet. Each reviewer has a progress bar ("3 of 5 reviewed"). View applicants opens a panel with the names of that reviewer's applicants, each with a status, a link to the application, a status filter and a Remove button.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Reviewed | The reviewer answered every required evaluation question |
| In progress | Some questions answered |
| Not started | Nothing answered yet |
Hiding a questionnaire from reviewers. Open the questionnaire (Questionnaires > Actions > Information) and turn Visible to reviewers off. Reviewers then do not see that questionnaire's answers on the Application tab of the application they score; the Questionnaires list shows Hidden in its Reviewers column. Use it for demographic or background questions: put them in their own questionnaire and hide it. Administrators still see every answer on the Applicants page. Copying a questionnaire or duplicating a form keeps the setting. Reviewers have no download button or ZIP for documents either: you download the ZIP (Allow bulk download, Applicants page) and share it if reviewers need the files.
So mark the questions that must be answered as required in the evaluation questionnaire: that is what "reviewed" is based on. If an evaluation has no required questions, it counts as reviewed once the reviewer has answered at least one.
Other things to know.
- Give reviewers the Reviews Due Date in their invitation, and send a reminder before it. Use Send Invitation to Selected on the Reviewers page.
- In My Reviews, a reviewer's green check appears once at least one answer is saved; it does not mean the evaluation is complete. Use the Reviewers page for completion.
- Assignments created before duplicates were prevented may still exist twice in the database. They are shown and counted once, and removing the reviewer from the applicant removes both.
Seeing and exporting your applicants' references and mentors. Under Applicants in the sidebar, References and Mentors each open a page listing everyone your applicants identified, with what each has done so far.
- Columns: applicant and their email, whether the application is submitted and when, the reference's or mentor's name and email, the relationship the applicant entered, required documents uploaded ("1 of 2"), required questions answered, a status, and the date of the last upload.
- Status: Complete means they uploaded every required document and answered every required question the form asks of them (or none is required); In progress means they have done something; Not started means nothing yet.
- Only submitted applications are listed by default; tick Include applications not yet submitted to see the rest. Use the Status list and the search box to narrow the rows, and Export to Excel to download exactly the rows shown. Selecting an applicant's name opens their Contacts tab, where you can send a reminder.
9. How applicants submit
Filling in every section is not enough: the applicant must also select Submit Application on the Dashboard. Until they do, the application is not available for review.
- Every page of the application form shows a banner until the application is submitted: "Your application has not been submitted. It will not be available for review until you select Submit Application." While sections are incomplete, the banner lists what is still to do (documents uploaded, questionnaires, references, mentors, profile) with links.
- Each tile on the Dashboard shows a green check when its section is complete.
- When every section is complete, the Dashboard shows a Ready to Submit? panel with the Submit Application button, and the banner on the other pages becomes a Go to Submit Application button.
- After submitting, the Dashboard shows Application submitted on (the date). The applicant can keep editing until the lock date.
- References and mentors who have not finished (documents not uploaded, questions not answered) do not stop the applicant from submitting, but a red notice lists them by name and what each still has to do, with a Send a reminder link to the References or Mentors page. The notice stays, before and after submitting, until they have finished: it is the applicant's responsibility to stay on top of their references and mentors.
- Tell applicants in your welcome text and emails that they must select Submit Application at the end.
10. Before you open the form: checklist
11. Reusing a form
You can duplicate an existing form on the Training Program's Application Forms tab. The copy keeps the settings, content, emails, questionnaires and document requirements. It does not copy user permissions, applications, uploaded documents or reviewer assignments, and it starts unapproved. Start from a form that already works and change the dates and the text.