If you close your browser window, any information the system was storing about your visit, such as marked records, will be lost. You must re-enter your settings when you return.

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Using the Sidebar

The links on the sidebar provide quick access from anywhere in the system to several key locations.

SEER Inquiry System leads to the SINQ Home Page, where you can browse all of the questions that have been addressed in SINQ
Search leads to the page where users can search existing questions.
Create Report is a link to the system's Reports section.
Login leads to the page where administrative users log in to their accounts.
The Help link opens this help system.

Links for administrative users

Submit a Question is only available to administrative users. It brings the user to a page to submit a new question.
Settings is only available to administrative users. It takes the user to a page to edit his or her account settings.

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Navigating between Questions

The navigation bar lies between the info bar and the question content on the SEER Inquiry Home Page. The text "X of Y" among the arrow buttons indicates how many questions are in your current set (Y) and which of them you are looking at now (X). You can move among these questions using the navigation bar's controls:

Arrow buttons: Use these to move forward or backwards through the questions.

Click the << First to go to the first question in the current set.
Click the < Prev to go to the previous group of questions in the current set.
Click the Next > to go to the next group of questions in the current set.
Click the Last >> to go to the last page of questions.

Note: The "set" of questions usually includes every question that is currently available to a user at your access level. You can narrow this set of questions using the Search feature.

The Add to Report checkbox is described in Setting Options.

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Using the SINQ Home Page

The SINQ home page is your primary interface to the SEER Inquiry System.

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Inquiry Content

The main feature of the SINQ Home Page is the list of questions. This is the region in the center of the screen. It contains the following elements:

Add to Report: This checkbox will allow the user to add a question to the set of questions for a report.
ID: The unique SINQ id for that question
Question: This section contains the text of the original question that was submitted to SINQ.
Status: Only questions that are final are available to the general public. Additional questions are available to administrative users.
Last Updated: The datae that the question was last modified.

To get all fields for a single question, click on the ID. That will bring up all available information for that question. Note that a section may be visible and still not have any content. Only the Question and Answer fields of each question are guaranteed to contain information. The other fields are supplemental and thus are not always used. If a section is empty, you will see only the section's heading when looking at the question. Administrative users will also see a Comment section towards the bottom of the page. This lists any notes that have been added to the inquiry by administrators.

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Information About Questions

Located just above the navigation arrows, the info bar provides information about the current question's place in the system.

ID: Every question in the system has a unique identification number. ID numbers are eight digits long: the first four digits indicate the year in which the question was submitted, and the last four are sequentially assigned within each year. If you know a question's ID number, you can enter it in the "Question ID" field in the Search box to view that question.

In addition, the date on which a question was last updated is listed just below the other sections of the question.

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Adding Specific Questions to Reports

Add to Report: Check this box to have the system add this question to a custom reports. The page will not reload, but your mark will be saved.

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Searching the Questions

Use the Search link on the left to reach the search page.

Topic/Year Search: This option searches all searchable fields in a question. It includes all chosen topics. If you choose a specific range of years to search, both the "From" and "To" year will be included. Be sure to use the Search button located directly below the year dropboxes to use the Topic/Year search.
Quick Search: The quick search feature searches all searchable fields in all questions available to a user's access level (including question IDs).
Display Options: Use these options to choose which fields you wish to view in your results. In addition, you may choose to view your results as a table or as each question listened individually.
Detailed Search: The detailed search gives users more control over their search results
- Question ID: Each question in the system has a unique 8-digit ID number, indicated in the table with the question or on the info bar above the question. If you know the ID number of the question you want to see, type it here. You must type the full ID number. Since each record has a unique ID, there is no need to fill in other search criteria if you fill in this field.
- Category: SEER Administrators place questions in to categories according to their subject area. Use these boxes to narrow your search to a specific category. "And" includes all categories. "Or" will search for any one of the chosen categories.
- Last Updated Since: This section allows users to find questions based on the date that they were last updated.
- Free Text: This section allows a user to search the text within questions, answers, and other text-based fields. You may enter up to 4 phrases. Chose "And" to search only for questions that include all phrases. Choose "Or" to search for questions that contain any of the phrases.
- Year of Question: Use this section to search for questions based on the year in which they were submitted (NOT when it was last updated)

When your search results are displayed, you may navigate through them just as you would on the SINQ home page or reports sections.

To search again using different criteria, enter the new criteria and click Search again. Note that this will search all available records, not just the ones in your current result set.

Clear all fields and click Search to have all available records included in the set again.

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Printing

Printing a Report/Printing Search Results - at the top of the report there is a "Printable Report" link. This will give you a page formatted for printing. From there use your browser's print button. Note that only the items in the report/search results are available for printing.
Printing an Individual Question - use your browser's print button to print the page directly. You can also highlight the text, right-click, choose copy, and then paste it into another program (like Microsoft Word).

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Submitting a New Question

To submit a new question to SINQ, you must be either a SEER Registry Administrator or an NCI Administrator.

Be sure to use the Search function to make sure that your question has not already been answered before you submit it. If you have a question that is not already addressed in the SEER Inquiry System, you can use the Submit a Question link located in the side bar to the left of the page. This feature is only available to administrators after login. Be sure to login before attempting to submit a question.

When you click the "Submit a Question" on the left navigation you will be directed to the Submit a Question Form.

Your question will be reviewed and answered by the SEER administrators. It will appear in the system only after this process is complete.

Note: You do not need a user name or password to view the questions and answers in the SEER Inquiry System ("SINQ"). They are available to the public. At this time, however, only designated individuals from SEER registries have permission to submit questions.

If you have a question that is not addressed in the SEER Inquiry System, please use the form on Ask A SEER Registrar page to submit a question.

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Listing All Questions

To view all questions you can use the Quick Search on the Search page and leave the box empty. Choose display options based on the fields you want to view.

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Generating Reports

To generate a report on a selection of questions in the system, click the Create Reports link on the sidebar. Before creating the report, edit the settings on the Reports page.

Record Selection: This section contains two options:
- All Records in Current Search Result set: Select this option to include all questions in your current search result set. Any questions in which you unchecked "Add to Report" will be excluded.
- Only Records Marked "Add to Report": Select this option to include all questions you marked for report. Use the Add to Report checkbox on the Home page or Search Results page to mark questions. All questions that have appeared in your current search queries are included by default. Any question for which you have unchecked the "Add to Report" box is excluded.
  
  All marked questions are included from your current session only. The system will not keep track of selected questions after closing you browser or logging out of SINQ.
  
  To clear all questions marked Add to Report, use the Clear questions marked for report link near the top of the Report page screen.
- Use Specific SINQ IDs: If you have a list of SINQ IDs that you would like to view, enter them here. Be sure to delimit them in some way (e.g. 20081002, 20081003, 20081004). Spaces, commas, or new lines between the IDs are perfectly fine. (Most other delimiters are also recognized.)
Field Selection: This section allows you to choose the fields you would like to include in your report. Remember that not every record contains information in every field.

When you have chosen your desired settings, click the Create Report button at the bottom of the page. Your report will be generated.

The report consists of one table for each question that you chose to include. Each table indicates the question's ID number and includes that question's contents for each field which you marked in "Field Selection" when specifying the report's parameters.

Review or print the report as desired. When you are finished, use the left navigation to return to the SEER Inquiry System.

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Accessing & Using Your Administrative Account

This section only applies to administrative users.

Administrative users have additional functions of the SEER Inquiry System available to them, to aid in reviewing and responding to questions. Only SEER Quality Control personnel can request an administrative account.

Administrative users are provided with a username and password. Click Login on the sidebar to log in to the SEER Inquiry System using this username and password. Once you are logged in, the link text will change to Logoff. Click it again to log off of the system and return to the normal user access level.

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Posting & Editing Comments on a Question

Administrative users may add comments to the list that appears below the question content, as long as the question has not already been made Final.

To post a comment to a specific question, go to that question's Edit page. (You can access the Edit page by clicking on the ID column links on either the Home Page, the Search Results Page, or the Report Results Page). Scroll down to the box labeled "Comments." Click the "Post Comment" link located on the upper right corner of that box. On the next screen, enter the text for your comment. Click submit when you are finished. You may return to your comment and change it if you'd like.

Your name will be linked above comments you have posted. To change or correct one of your comments, click that link, edit or re-type your comment, and click submit again.