Research Capsule Review System

Project Overview

The Research Capsule Management System is a web-based platform designed to improve the process of submitting, reviewing, and managing research proposals within a university environment.

The system provides a centralized workflow connecting faculty members, research coordinators, and reviewers to improve efficiency, transparency, and collaboration during the research proposal evaluation process.

User Roles

The system consists of three main user roles:

Faculty Members

Faculty members can:

• Create and manage their profiles.
• Submit research capsules.
• Upload research documents.
• Re-submit revised capsules when requested.
• Track the progress of submitted proposals.

Research Coordinator (Admin)

The administrator manages the overall research workflow.

Admin capabilities include:

• Approving registered faculty accounts.
• Assigning faculty members as reviewers.
• Managing submitted research capsules.
• Assigning proposals to reviewers.
• Monitoring grades and reviewer feedback.

version: "3.8"

services:

  linkstack:
    hostname: 'linkstack'
    image: 'linkstackorg/linkstack:latest'
    environment:
      TZ: 'Europe/Berlin'
      SERVER_ADMIN: 'admin@example.com'
      HTTP_SERVER_NAME: 'example.com'
      HTTPS_SERVER_NAME: 'example.com'
      LOG_LEVEL: 'info'
      PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT: '256M'
      UPLOAD_MAX_FILESIZE: '8M'
    volumes:
      - 'linkstack_data:/htdocs'
    ports:
      - '8188:80'
      - '8190:443'
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  linkstack_data:

Reviewers

Selected faculty reviewers are responsible for evaluating assigned research capsules.

Reviewers can:

• View assigned research proposals.
• Provide evaluations and comments.
• Submit grades based on provided review criteria.

Key Features

Research Capsule Management

The system allows faculty members to submit research capsules and manage revisions throughout the review process.

Research proposals can be tracked through different statuses:

• Unassigned
• Under Revision
• Completed

Document Submission

Faculty members can upload research capsule documents in supported formats for review and evaluation.

Review and Evaluation Workflow

The platform supports a structured review process where administrators assign proposals to reviewers and reviewers provide feedback and assessments.

This improves organization and accountability throughout the research evaluation process.

Account Management

The system includes authentication features such as:

• Faculty registration.
• Login functionality.
• Password recovery.
• Account approval workflow.

Additional protection is implemented through Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA.

Results and Outcomes

The Research Capsule Management System provides several improvements:

• Faster research proposal submission and review processes.
• Better tracking of research capsule progress.
• Improved communication between faculty members, reviewers, and administrators.
• Reduced manual paperwork and administrative workload.
• Increased transparency in proposal evaluation.

Challenges

During development, the project focused on solving challenges such as:

• Designing a multi-role workflow system.
• Managing document submissions and revisions.
• Creating an organized review and approval process.
• Implementing secure user authentication and account management.

Future Improvements

Possible enhancements include:

• Automated email notifications.
• Advanced research analytics and reporting.
• Improved document version management.
• Integration with existing university research platforms.