RATS Quick Tips

For each experiment you add to your protocol, you will be asked to provide details about the experiment (question 4 of the experiment pop-up). You should provide the Committee with a clear description of what any given animal will experience from initiation of the study to euthanasia. We suggest you use bullet points, timelines, tables or a flow chart to clearly outline what happens to an animal as part of the experiment. Question 4 of the experiment pop-up has an embedded toolbox you can use to help format your description. After completing question 4 of the pop-up, please remember to create and add all referenced procedures to question 5 as shown in the screenshots below. If you need assistance with creating your experiments, please contact RATSHelp@research.ucla.edu.

We have added Behavioral Testing Core (BTC) procedures to the Standard Library in RATS 2.0. It is our hope that providing BTC tests as standard procedures will make it easier for those of you who use the BTC to populate your smartform during your first amendment or triennial review (TR) in RATS 2.0.

To find BTC standard procedures, click on IACUC, Standard Library, and under the Procedures tab, you can type "%behavioral testing core" into the search bar. This will give you a list of all of the BTC standard procedures currently available for use (we plan to add more in the near future).

Thanks to our colleagues in the BTC for their partnership in preparing these procedures for use.

We have recently added the below standard substance administration template procedures to the Standard Library:

To use these procedures on your protocols, you will first need to create a copy of the standard template procedure. To create a copy, click on the procedure you want to copy; this will take you to the procedure workspace. In the procedure workspace, click on the "Copy Procedure" button to create your team copy (see screenshot below). In your team copy, you will add the team and/or standard substances that will be administered via that specific route of administration (e.g., SC injection).

You can also add the standard template procedures directly to your experiments; however, with this approach, you will need to create a separate team substance administration procedure that contains all the substance(s) you will be using in your experiments.

We encourage you to take advantage of the standard templates when building your team’s procedure library.

In RATS 2.0, there are close to 900 standard substances and over 170 standard procedures available to you for use on your protocol(s). It is important that you first search the Standard Library of substances and procedures prior to creating your own team substances and procedures; this will hopefully reduce the amount of substances and procedures you need to create yourself. You can access the Standard Library by clicking on the IACUC tab in RATS 2.0.

We strongly encourage you use the wildcard search, whereby you use the % symbol on either side of part or all of the search term (e.g., %buprenor%) when searching for existing substances and procedures in the library. When searching for standard procedures, it is also highly encouraged that you use filters to refine your search results. For example, you can filter by species to find all standard procedures for a specific species (e.g., mouse). You are able to add multiple filters to your search. For example, you can add a second filter to search for a specific procedure type (e.g., all standard euthanasia procedures for mice) as shown in the screenshot below:

If you find substances you need for your protocol(s) in the Standard Library, you can create a Substance Administration procedure(s) where you will add the standard substances and detail how they are being administered (e.g., via subcutaneous injection). Once created, the Substance Administration procedure(s) can be added directly to the experiments on your protocols.

If you find a procedure you will be performing on your protocol(s) in the Standard Library, you can add it directly to the experiments on your protocol. You are also able to copy a standard procedure if you need to make an edit to the procedure itself (e.g., if you need to change the dose); when copied, the procedure will become a team procedure. To copy a standard procedure, click on the procedure and once in the procedure workspace, you will have the option to Copy Procedure (as shown in the screenshot below). Only create a copy if you need to make edits to the standard procedure; otherwise you can add the standard procedure directly to your protocol. Please remember to review the details of all standard procedures to ensure that they describe processes that are consistent with how you perform work in your laboratory.

If you have any questions about substances and procedures, refer to the RATS 2.0 Help Center (see screenshot below) or contact RATShelp@research.ucla.edu.

As you work in the new system, you will notice that RATS 2.0 frequently opens pop-up windows (e.g., when clicking on hyperlinks or when adding new experiment entries on the Experiments page). It can become confusing if you have multiple windows open at the same, therefore, you might prefer to open all links in a new tab as opposed to having the system open new windows. To do this, right-click on a hyperlink and select "Open Link in New Tab" as shown in the screenshot below. Alternatively, hold the Ctrl key (PC) or Command key (Mac) as you click on a hyperlink. By doing this, all pop-ups and hyperlinks will open as new tabs in one window; this may make it easier for you to keep track of all your open RATS 2.0 pages.

Before you start updating your protocol in RATS 2.0, you first need to create building blocks, specifically, your substances and procedures. There is a Standard Library of substances and procedures available for you to use (click on the IACUC tab in RATS 2.0 to access the Standard Library). If you cannot find the substances (e.g., medications, drugs, test compounds, etc.) and/or procedures you need for your protocol(s) in the Standard Library, then create your own team substances and procedures. When searching for existing substances, we strongly encourage using a wildcard search, whereby you use the % symbol on either side of part or all of the search term, for example: %buprenor%

To create your team substances and procedures, go to your Research Team workspace, where you will find the "Create Procedure" and "Create Substance" buttons (see screenshot below). The protocol smartform in RATS 2.0 no longer has a Medications and Experimental Drugs section like the protocol form in Legacy RATS did; therefore, all of your substances (standard and/or team) need to be added to a Substance Administration procedure and attached to an Experiment. The building blocks you create can be reused across all of the protocols under your research team, which is great feature of RATS 2.0 and will hopefully reduce administrative burden in the long-run.

Once your building blocks have been created, you can start working on your RATS 2.0 protocol. When creating an experiment, make sure to add all of the standard and/or team procedures associated with that experiment.

If you have any questions about creating your building blocks, refer to the RATS 2.0 Help Center (see screenshot below) or contact RATShelp@research.ucla.edu.

When you log on to RATS 2.0, you will notice that we have created a research team for you (when you click on "My Inbox," you will find your research team on the left hand side of the page). When we migrated protocols into RATS 2.0, we added all personnel listed on your Legacy RATS protocol(s) as research team members. As such, it is important that you review and update your research team members list to only include personnel that you would like to have access to your research team substances and procedures (research team members also have the ability to create team substances and procedures). Research team members DO NOT have the ability to create and submit protocols on your behalf, however you can assign a PI Proxy (or multiple PI Proxies) to your protocols to allow them to submit and create protocol applications on your behalf. You can find the "Assign PI Proxy" activity in the protocol workspace (please see screenshot below).

We have added the below LIFE Core procedures to the Standard Library in RATS 2.0 with the hope that it will make it easier for those of you who use the LIFE Core to populate your smartform during your first amendment or triennial review (TR) in RATS 2.0.

To find the LIFE Core standard procedures, click on IACUC, Standard Library, and under the Procedures tab, you can type "%life core" into the search bar. This will give you a list of all of the LIFE Core standard procedures currently available for use.

When you are in the protocol smartform and working within a pop-up that does not display an option to save (e.g., when completing an experiment pop-up on the Experiments page), it is imperative to click “OK” at the bottom of the pop-up window AND THEN click “Save” on the main page in the protocol smartform. Otherwise, the information entered into the pop-up window may not be saved to the protocol.

For protocols that have not yet had the smartform populated, but require time-sensitive updates to personnel, funding, and/or locations, we have made activities available to allow you to submit these changes for review in lieu of an amendment. Important notes about these activities:

• The activities can be found on the left side of the parent protocol workspace and are named “Request for…”
  • The parent protocol is the version without an appendix, e.g., ARC-2021-100
• If an amendment or triennial review is already in progress and you wish to make a time-sensitive update, contact your assigned IACUC coordinator
  • The name of the IACUC Coordinator appears in the summary information of the open amendment or triennial review application
• If your protocol smartform has already been populated in the new system, an amendment is required
• Email RATShelp@research.ucla.edu for more information

When approved protocols were migrated from L-RATS to RATS 2.0, a PDF copy of the Most Current Approved Version (MCAV) of the protocol was appended to the RATS 2.0 protocol workspace for historical purposes. To find the MCAV:

First, log in to RATS 2.0 using your UCLA Single Sign-On credentials.

Note: if you experience any issues logging in to RATS 2.0, please email RATSHelp@research.ucla.edu for assistance.

From the dashboard, in the left-hand column under My Research Teams, select the research team for the protocol in question.

Once within the Research Team, click the Name of the protocol to view it.

From within the protocol workspace, click the Documents tab and the Legacy documents from L-RATS will be linked at the bottom of the list. At the time of launch, two documents were uploaded to this tab: a PDF of the protocol MCAV and a copy of the approval notice corresponding to that version of the protocol.

Contact arc@research.ucla.edu if you have any trouble accessing your documents.