# Monitors

In MLM-AI, a **Monitor** defines the product search and how results will be screened. In a monitor you define:

* The search terms to include in the query (ex: product name and relevant synonyms)
* What literature databases to search
* How often should results be produced (weekly, daily, or on demand)
* Permissions: what teams will perform reviews
* Notification and automation to be carried out by MLM-AI

Watch the walk through below to learn more about configuring search strategies in MLM-AI using Monitors:

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/KmV9S-yvYhA>" %}

{% hint style="info" %}
To configure monitors, users must be part of a team that grants one of the following [permissions](/configuration/team-and-user-management.md#role-based-permissions):

* System Administrator
* Monitor Management
  {% endhint %}

## Creating Monitors

To create a new monitor, click "**+ Add Monitor**" from the Monitors menu.

![Click - Add Monitor button](/files/n3pGE5KQKfBAKlRelqZC)

Alternatively chose to **Copy** the definitions from an existing monitor if you wish to replicate existing configuration settings.

Give your new monitor a name: **e.g. Oxytocin**

![A new setup page open once you click on Add Monitor](/files/qhp7aphh1e7gjc1OA7iG)

### **Search Terms**

To add search terms just enter the product name or compound in the keyword or compound field.&#x20;

This will auto-populate a list of synonyms to choose from in the box below titled Available synonyms.&#x20;

You can **select the synonyms** from the list or click on **select all**. After that click on **"Add Selected"**.&#x20;

<figure><img src="/files/bPSXb4GdwByySqcQ7GkY" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Your selected terms will appear in the "**Chosen Search Terms**" box. Items in this list will be searched as an OR-based search strategy.

{% hint style="info" %}
Click "🔍**Preview Results**" to run the search in the MLM-AI database. This will let you browse results and estimate the expected volume of hits.
{% endhint %}

### User Defined Keyterm Highlights

Additional relevant terms can be added to a monitor in the "User Defined Keyterms" section. Use this feature to create additional highlights that facilitate screening. For example: terms of interest (symptoms, concomitant medications) relevant to particular products

Select the "Apply user defined keyterms" checkbox to enable the keywords list. Terms can be added one at a time or by copy/pasting a list using "Multi-Line"

<figure><img src="/files/f14kVKqi6TWO5dz7dtuJ" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### **Sources and Search Schedule**

The MLM-AI Database ingests data from various literature sources daily, including repositories of global reach (PubMed, Crossref, DOAJ) complemented by various regional repositories.

Select which ones to use when searching with this monitor as shown below.

{% hint style="info" %}
Learn more about the repositories available in the MLM-AI Database in our [FAQ on data sources](/more-help/faq.md#data-sources-and-searching-abstracts).
{% endhint %}

You can also customize search schedule the Monitors to run periodically (weekly or daily) or on demand. When a monitor runs on a schedule, "**Day Zero**" is the weekday when results will be produced (if monitor runs weekly). "**ETA for Completion**" specifies a number of days expected for screening completion.

<figure><img src="/files/6gSTrk4cSm87uOAnFhbB" alt=""><figcaption><p>Monitor repositories and schedule configuration</p></figcaption></figure>

### **Team Assignment, Special Situations and Exclusions**

This section assigns teams to screening stages, giving users permissions to update decisions on incoming abstracts.

**Team Assignment**

Teams can be assigned the following roles in a monitor:

* Abstract Review - members of teams in this role can add screening decisions
* Quality Review - members in this role can add or update other user's decisions.

The Quality Review role is assigned to teams in charge of "QC" activities. Multiple teams can be assigned to either Abstract Review or Quality Review roles.&#x20;

![Team Assignment and Workflow - Review Settings](/files/CUtp4vUVdfEuJlPaDWkk)

{% hint style="info" %}
Learn more about team and user setup on: [Team and User Management](/configuration/team-and-user-management.md)
{% endhint %}

**Special Situations and Exclusions**

When users save decisions, they can select categories for exclusions and special situations. The selections are multi-choice and come pre-populated with values typical for ICSR screening.

The values can be configured per your workflow: existing entries can be removed and customized as needed.

![Workflow - Review Settings](/files/CWqvLfZY4W3gzjSBTRRZ)

## **Monitor Options**

Additional settings control monitor behavior on automatic screening and date searches

### **Tag-based Screening**

For high volume screening workloads, users can configure [automated screening based on AI tags](/topics/ai-enabled-screening-workflows.md#options-for-screening-workflows-with-ai-tags). Pre-screened results receive a corresponding exclusion and are always available in MLM-AI Review details for inspection.

<figure><img src="/files/6iItQEmB8K9qwlSKaKhM" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

| Setting                                                            | Description                                                                                                                      |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Automatic EXCLUSION of tag: Animal/In Vitro                        | Results with the tag "Animal/In-Vitro" are automatically screened with Animal/In-Vitro study as the exclusion criteria.          |
| Automatic INCLUSION of tag: Suspect AE                             | All results except the ones with the tag "Suspect AE" are automatically screened with exclusion "Missing adverse event"          |
| Automatic INCLUSION of tag: Suspected Case or Identifiable Patient | All results except the ones with tags "Patient" and "Suspected Case" are automatically screened with exclusion "Missing patient" |

#### **Combining Settings**

* When more than one INCLUSION setting is used together, MLM-AI will accept any of the chosen criteria for inclusion.

### Duplicate Handling

Selecting "Automatic Exclusion of duplicate articles" will automatically [screen duplicates](#duplicate-handling) with the corresponding exclusion. This option is on by default.

<figure><img src="/files/qHyDw1aoqMz9jIi6Ajjl" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="info" %}
Learn more about how the techniques used in automated duplicate detection on: [**Feature  spotlight: Duplicate Detection in Biologit MLM-AI**](https://www.biologit.com/post/feature-spotlight-duplicate-detection-in-biologit-mlm-ai)
{% endhint %}

### **Date Search Criteria**

The following settings control how dates are applied on search results:

<figure><img src="/files/7EA9KaKmZpKiEUv5Sjad" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

* **Include abstracts found by publication date** - retrieve abstracts where the publication date matches the selected date range of the review. This option is on by default and helps maintain correspondence to existing manual search strategies
* **Discard old publication dates** - if the publication date is older than a number of days from the search start date, results are discarded. It is possible to select the "cut off" point for old publication dates (e.g. 60, 90 or 120 days). This option is useful to avoid spurious results from re-publication of journals going back many years that can cause duplication in assessments
* **Postpone weekend searches** - when selected, schedule for daily searches will adjust accordingly:
  * The following searches will not be created: Friday (runs on Saturday), Saturday (runs on Sunday), Sunday (runs on Monday)
  * One consolidated search will be created: Friday-Sunday (runs on Monday)

{% hint style="info" %}
See also [**Handling Article Dates**](/topics/handling-article-dates.md) to learn more about how MLM-AI uses dates effectively.&#x20;
{% endhint %}

### Notifications

Monitors support a number of notification options that let users:

* Be notified when a review is ready for screening, or when its status changes (ex: from *In Progress* to *Completed*)
* Be notified of any assessment updates, when they are part of an assessment (per the article audit log)
* Send the details of an abstract and its assessments to a pre-configured list of recipients

<figure><img src="/files/9bqIyvZJ2egEgHnAqApd" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

For further details, visit the [**guide to configuring Notifications**](/configuration/notifications.md) in MLM-AI.&#x20;

### Filters

#### Query Filters

Monitors can be configured with pre-defined query filters. Pre-defined filters use the same options available on the [results search box](/application/review-details/searching-abstracts-inside-a-review.md) and appear as shortcuts to speed up common queries.

In the example below, the monitor is configured with one pre-defined filters matching conditions of interest and one for author country affiliation.

<figure><img src="/files/0LWWzukfGzyWpMzaPqNP" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

👉 Learn more about querying review results in : [**Searching Inside a Review**](/application/review-details/searching-abstracts-inside-a-review.md)

#### Filter by Publication

When assessment workflows require the monitoring of only a subset of publications (ex: for a given coutry or region) the Monitor can be configured to automatically filter based on a list. Biologit will automatically filters articles based on the list.&#x20;

Source filters are available inside the Filter tab of monitor configuration and allow users to create a pre-defined list of relevant sources:

<figure><img src="/files/yWt5d6iSR1uOJd8HoFpk" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Relevance of an article is defined based on the ISSN of the publication, and an article is considered relevant if ISSN is present in the configuration list. Otherwise, article is marked as non-relevant and is automatically excluded.&#x20;

If source filters are configured for a monitor used inside a review, relevant articles would will stay in "In Queue" tab, while non-relevant ones will be moved to "Reviewed" tab and marked with a respective comment:

<figure><img src="/files/eNMbPIGbNW0HgSmQrl35" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Learn more about tabs used in MLM-AI reviews in [**Review Details - Tabs**](/application/review-details.md#tabs).

### Annotations

If additional data entry fields are required to complete the assessment, they can be configured as Annotations:

* Annotations are shown to users under the "Annotations" tab in Article Details. Saving a decision will also save any entered annotation data
* Annotations are visible as additional columns in the Excel export and the Article summary in HTML
* Annotations allow for free text or drop down (single or multiple choice)

Example:

<figure><img src="/files/uyL0CAai3yP2L1Es3E3E" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Custom Workflows

Custom screening workflows can be configured at monitor level. See the [**Custom Workflows**](/configuration/custom-workflows.md) page for more details.

### 1-Click Decision

For workflows where many assessments result in a straightforward action (ex: a rejection), it is possible to configure a visual shortcut to allow users to complete the action with one click.

In the workflow section users can add up to three 1-click decisions that will appear as shortcuts in the Article Screening page:

<figure><img src="/files/ZrGVH8556QkOUni4QhXZ" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

For each shortcut, it is possible to configure the label, decision and any additional annotations, exclusions or special situatios to be pre-filled:

<figure><img src="/files/bCt4UEJTRowm10pVFp1a" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

It is also possible to select the color of the shortcut button.

Once configured, this option will become visible from the Article Screening page. Clicking the shortcut will:

* Populate decision and annotations according to the 1-click configuration
* Save the decision and automatically navigate to the next article

<figure><img src="/files/idMTNc80dvoI42d7xT0k" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Updating Monitors in Batch

When managing a large collection of monitors, it is sometimes useful to consistently update the same settings to all monitors at once. Monitors can be selected and updated in batch in a single operation.

* From the Monitors screen, select relevant monitors
* Then from the ". . ." menu (top right) choose "Batch Update"

<figure><img src="/files/qtZwHt8S2pISUz7UN46B" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

You will be asked to select a reference monitor from the chosen ones. The details of the selected reference monitor will be populated for editing and can be used as the starting point for batch update.

### How Batch Updates Work

* When in batch mode, only certain aspects of monitors can be updated. Individual data items such as monitor title and query string details can not be updated in batch
* Additional checkboxes will appear in batch mode, representing areas that will be updated. Only selected areas will be applied when saving the batch operation

<figure><img src="/files/q96OPNMAn06F2KHnPd9H" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

* Selecting a specific area enables it for editing. This means this area is now marked for batch update.

<figure><img src="/files/ffOSVmIjAjtBRIHPy046" alt=""><figcaption><p>Once selected, the "Database Sources" area became editable and will be updated when batch-saving</p></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="info" %}
Any configuration area "checked" during batch review will save its content as they appear on the screen to all selected monitors
{% endhint %}

#### Confirm Save

A confirmation dialog will inform users what sections of the monitor configuration will update.

Ex:

<figure><img src="/files/EkMlVUQ7qBX4QhgaPICi" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>


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