Approving and Unapproving VTAs

If a verbatim term assignment (VTA) is approved, the classification is immediately available for derivation and Autoclassification. Once a VTA is approved, no new occurrences of the same verbatim term show up as omissions.

If a VTA is not approved, the user must manually classify each new occurrence of the verbatim term, but TMS proposes the unapproved VTA's dictionary term as the only Candidate Term. The user must either accept the Candidate Term or reclassify the verbatim term (see Global and Domain VTAs). Working with Nonapproved VTAs gives you an opportunity to review classifications that TMS would otherwise create automatically, may give you a better feel for the data and help you catch mistakes.

You can approve Nonapproved VTAs when you are satisfied that the classification is correct and no longer want to approve each occurrence of the verbatim term (see Autoclassification). You can also undo a VTA's approval to change the assignment of new occurrences of a verbatim term.

The reference codelist TMS_CONFIGURATION contains a setting that determines whether Nonapproved VTAs are or are not be used for derivation to the external system. If Nonapproved VTAs are derived, the external system sees no difference between derivations based on approved and Nonapproved VTAs.

For details on creating VTAs, promoting them to global status or demoting them to domain-specific status, see VTA and VTI Maintenance.

This section includes:

• Understanding the Approve VTAs Window
  
• Changing the Subtype and Adding Comments
  
• Approving a Nonapproved VTA
  
• Declassifying a VTA
  
• Browsing the Audit Trail
  

Understanding the Approve VTAs Window

You start to change the approval status of a VTA by querying for it in the upper part of the Approve VTAs window. There are two blocks in this part of the window:

• The Distinct Verbatim Term Assignments block shows the unique verbatim terms from this database that have been to terms in the selected dictionary. This block also displays information about the dictionary term to which this verbatim term is currently mapped.

• By contrast, the All Verbatim Term Assignments block shows verbatim term information for each instance of each verbatim term introduced to TMS by the selected database, and provides information from the external system about these verbatim terms.

For each VTA they describe, the Distinct and All Verbatim Term Assignments blocks display the following information about a VTA.

• Appr?: If selected, the VTA is approved for use in Autoclassification and manual classification. If not selected, TMS proposes the VTA as a Candidate Term but manual approval is required for each occurrence.

• Glb?: (Global?) If selected, the VTA is available in all domains.

• Subtype: The VTA is either Misspelled or Accepted (correctly spelled).

• Origin: How this term was introduced to this TMS dictionary.

• Dictionary Term: (Distinct block only) By default, this field shows the dictionary term to which the verbatim term is assigned, if any.

  The remaining blocks on the Distinct Verbatim Term Assignments block provide read-only information about the term displayed in the Dictionary Term field. For details on any of these fields, see Current Level and Term.

• Value 1 - 8 Fields: (All VTA blocks only) When an external system is fully integrated with TMS, the Approve VTAs window displays column information for verbatim terms originating in that external system. You define these columns in the Define External Systems window as the Value 1 through Value 8 fields for that external system. In addition, when you define detail information for a column, TMS displays the text in the field corresponding to the column in blue. The user can then use the drill-down function to see detail information. See Defining External System Information in TMS.

• Filter: Click the Filter button to change the filter settings to refine query results from this window. You can save filter settings as an activity list for future use. See Setting Filters and Creating Activity Lists for more information.

• Above Current VTA: The system displays dictionary terms related to the current term in the levels above the current term. The tree is displayed upside-down: the VTA is displayed at the top, with the related terms in the next higher level displayed just below it, and the related terms in higher levels below those terms.

• Declassify: To declassify a VTA rather than approve it, select the nonapproved VTA and click Declassify; see Declassifying a VTA for more information.

  Note:

  You must have either TMS_CLASSIFY_PRIV or TMS_RECLASSIFY_PRIV to be able to declassify a VTA. Users with TMS_RECLASSIFY_PRIV can declassify any VTA at any time.

  Users with TMS_CLASSIFY_PRIV, can declassify only terms they have personally classified, and only within a limited (configurable) time period. This functionality allows users who classify a term to an Unapproved VTA and then decide they have made a mistake, to query for the term in this window and undo the mistake by declassifying the term.

• Declassify and Action: To declassify a VTA and add an Action to the term at the same time, click Declassify and Action. See Apply an Action to a Term for more information.

• Comment: (Distinct block only) Further user-defined information about the VTA. See Changing the Subtype and Adding Comments.

• Status/Notes: (Click the Status/Notes button to see the history of all statuses the term has had in TMS and all notes ever assigned to the term. You can also add a new note to the term. See Using the Status/Notes Pop-up Window for more information.

Changing the Subtype and Adding Comments

You can change a VTA's subtype or add a comment about it at any time, even if you are not changing that VTA's approval status. The Verbatim Term Assignments block displays the most recent comment about a VTA in that VTA's Comment field, on the right side.

You can change a VTA's subtype from Misspelled to Accepted or vice versa from the Verbatim Term Assignments block. In the VTA's row, change the value in the Subtype field, then save. An LOV is provided.

To enter a comment for a VTA, type the desired text in the Comment field for that VTA's row, and save. TMS retains your comment in the field, and updates the Audit Trail with your change.

Approving a Nonapproved VTA

To change a Nonapproved VTA to Approved status:

1. From the Omission Management menu, select Approve VTAs to reach the Approve VTAs window.

   If this is your first visit to one of the windows Approve VTAs, Classify VT Omissions, or Reclassify Verbatim Terms, the Filter window opens. Choose your Filter criteria by following the instructions in Setting Filters and Creating Activity Lists, and click OK.

2. Query for the VTA in either of the upper tab windows. If you use the Distinct Verbatim Term Assignments window, select the Not Approved option before entering your query criteria.

   The window returns all of the VTAs that match your query and Filter settings.

3. Click the Appr? box for the VTA you want to approve.
4. (Optional) Enter additional information about this change in VTA approval status. The Approve VTAs window provides two methods for adding context to these types of changes:

   • In the Verbatim Term Assignments block, scroll to the right and enter a comment about this change to the VTA's approval status in the Comment field in that VTA's row. These comments can be helpful when you audit changes to a VTA in the Audit Trail tab window.

   • Define one or more Informative Notes for this transaction. See Using the Status/Notes Pop-up Window for more information.

5. Save.

Changing an Approved VTA to nonapproved status works the same way; query for the appropriate term and deselect the Appr? box to set it to nonapproved.

Declassifying a VTA

If you do not want to approve a nonapproved VTA, you can declassify it in the Approve VTAs window. The term becomes an omission and can be classified to a different dictionary term in the Classify VT Omissions window.

You can add an Action to a term as you declassify it. If the term itself is flawed and you need more information from the source system where the term was collected, you can assign an answerable external Action to the term and send its text to the external system; see Apply an Action to a Term for information about actions.

To declassify a term without assigning an Action to the term, click Declassify or select Declassify from the Options menu.

To declassify a term and assign an Action to it, do the following:

1. Select the VTA you want to declassify.
2. Click Declassify and Action or select Declassify and Action from the Options menu. The Action pop-up window opens with information about the VTA displayed across the top.
3. In the Action field, select the name of the Action you want to apply from the list of values.

   The system displays the Action type and text of the Action you selected.

4. In the Action Text field you can change the default Action text if you wish.
5. Click OK. TMS declassifies the term and applies the Action to the term.

Browsing the Audit Trail

The bottom block in the Approve VTAs window also contains a tab window that displays an Audit Trail for the VTA selected in the Verbatim Term Assignments block. Records in the Audit Trail are presented from most current to oldest, and enable you to track who made each change to the VTA and when the changes occurred, or just browse the comments about the VTA.