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Implementation Options

There are five major modes of protocol implementation.

Supervised implementation 
Supervised implementation applies to most conventional research, where the principle investigator, project manager or a project staff member is present to take the survey, administer the treatment and take measurements, or whatever is required to implement the research.  This research may be implemented in a single local setting or be implemented in multiple-locations. In this situation, the permission to run the program is provided by the principle investigator in the 
Designated User List that is attached to the protocol.  See also, Protocol Security and Data Protection. Supervised implementation may be local or in many location. 

Supervised Local Implementation  
In this mode, protocols are executed in or from a single local laboratory or field setting.  The authors of the protocols automatically have the necessary permissions to execute the program (and if necessary to modify it).  If assistants or other professionals will supervise the implementation, then the principle investigator must either be present to log-in and open the appropriate protocol or provide run-only access to the implementors in the Designated User List that is attached to the protocol.  See also, Levels of Protocol Access.

Supervised Multiple-Location Implementation  
Studies are often implemented simultaneously in a number of geographic areas.  For example, a survey of entertainment preferences might be conducted in a number of major cities across the country.  In these cases, project managers are often assigned to each city.  These project managers require the permissions necessary to meet their responsibilities in the project.  This is done by the principle investigator by adding their names to the designated user list and specifying there what level of access they have.  In larger projects, project managers in other cities might need to enlist a number of general staff people to implement the research and needs the authority to give them run-only access to the protocol.  The principle investigator can give this authority to project managers by giving them the title of Project Manager (PM) in the designated user list.

Self-Administered Implementation 
Self-administered implementation applies to research made possible by the Internet, including on-line surveys and even more recently on-line experiments.  Protocol access for unsupervised implementation, as in on-line surveys, is provided for by Direct Access URLs that takes a remote subject or respondent directly to the execution of the protocol.  The option to randomly assign anonymous subjects to groups at run-time can be used, if desired.  See Randomized Event. 

Testing and Demonstration Modes
The testing of ProtoGenie protocols is done in several ways.  It may be done by persons who are given permissions enabling them to make changes.  In other cases, testers may be given only the permission status to Run a protocol.  See Levels of Access and Special Access Permissions.  In certain situations, the primary author may want to enable another researcher to execute a protocol in order to demonstrate some feature or to get expert feedback on the suitability of the process for certain population groups.  In those situations, you can "make" a special URL that can be run only in execution mode, which you can send to the intended user.  See Direct Access URLs.