Electronic Document Review (EDR)

The Electronic Document Review (EDR) module enhances FOIA processing by reducing time spent searching and reviewing relevant documents. The EDR module can be accessed directly from a Request menu, or by selecting Electronic Document Review from the Select Action drop-down menu in the Perform Next Action window. The Perform Next Action window can be accessed by clicking from open/active Requests

EDR Document Review

There is a four step process for reviewing documents into EDR:

1. Select the documents to be added, and set clustering options. Users can select documents from either the local/network drive or from a file server. See the Adding Documents to EDR section for more information.

2. Use the EDR Advanced Search tools and filtering options to locate relevant documents and create Review Lists to review content for inclusion with the Request.

3. Performing Document Review on filtered documents to determine relevance to request or f further action is required.

4. Send relevant documents for further review and action in FOIAXpress by Adding Documents to the Review Log, or move content directly into the Request by Adding Documents to the Request Folder

EDR Clustering

The EDR clustering process groups similar documents by shared characteristics. For example, a collection of documents can be sorted and filtered using key words. EDR provides different types of cluster sets, however only two are defined here: Conceptual and Containment.

• A Conceptual Cluster is a group of documents (original documents loaded into EDR) that is relevant to the Request and grouped by similar subject.

• A Containment Cluster is a group of email messages or threads that have other email messages (responses) and/or attachments included

Also see the Cluster Sets section for additional details on using Cluster Sets in EDR.

(!!) Notes:

Clustering can be conducted via auto-categorization or mixed categorization. Auto-categorization will create a single, reasonable cluster of the most closely related documents while Mixed categorization will create clusters for all documents, including those unrelated or distantly related to keywords.

Users can formulate a Relevant Cluster, which is a set of documents deemed significant for review, based on the Request Description, Keywords, and Attachment (all of which comprise the Request search criteria).

The system can recognize emails and attachments as one document, or as separate documents. It also indexes and ingests all other relevant documents, and compares them to the representative document to create Containment and/or Conceptual Cluster Sets. These cluster sets become viewable in the Document Review tool for further processing.

Any attachments that are unsupported (i.e. an email with a password-protected attachment) are ignored by the system and are not ingested. See the EDR Process Summary Report's Export Rejected Items option to see any rejected attachments.

Click the links below for additional information:

Adding Documents to EDR

EDR Home Tab

Electronic Document Review Screen

Performing Document Review

Review Lists

Adding Documents to the Review Log

Adding Documents to the Request Folder

Cluster Sets

EDR Advanced Search

Data Sources

Indexing Log

EDR Reports