SupTrac is built with a suite of specialised tools designed to handle the specific rigours of medical and academic research. By replacing fragmented workflows with a single organised workspace, SupTrac ensures that researchers, supervisors, and institutions stay aligned from concept to final submission.
The 9-Step Roadmap is the core of the SupTrac experience. It replaces the traditional, often chaotic research process with a linear, disciplined framework. This sequential roadmap ensures that no critical administrative or academic requirements are overlooked.
Standardised Milestones: The journey is broken into nine clear phases: Concept Sheet, Proposal, Ethics, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Manuscript, Submission, Committee Review, and Final Submission.
Progress Tracking: Each stage features a status indicator (In Progress, Not Started, or Completed), giving both you and your supervisor an instant visual of your project’s health and identifying bottlenecks early.
Guided Learning: Under any phase, you can click the “Info” tab to find short guidance videos and helpful notes on tasks like proposal writing and ethics preparation.
One of the greatest challenges in collaborative research is "version fatigue" caused by endless email attachments and scattered files. SupTrac centralises document management to ensure everyone is working on the most recent draft.
Cloud Integration: Getting started is simple—create a shared folder on your preferred platform (Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox) and link it directly to the relevant phase in SupTrac.
Centralised Repository: Every draft and supporting document is stored in its specific stage. You no longer need to search through WhatsApp messages or emails to find the latest protocol.
Collaborative Links: For the Manuscript stage, you can provide a live link to your document, allowing supervisors and co-authors to review and edit in real-time while SupTrac maintains the structural record of the interaction.
The Research Question Validator is an AI-assisted tool found within the Concept Sheet stage. It is designed to help you refine your study aim before you invest months into a full proposal.
Feasibility Check: The tool analyses your proposed question for clarity, academic scope, and searchability.
Logical Refinement: If a question is too broad or lacks specific variables, the validator provides guided prompts to help you narrow your focus.
Alignment: It ensures that your research question aligns with the intended study design, saving weeks of potential backtracking during the methodology and data collection phases.
Navigating the transition from proposal to active research is often stalled by regulatory hurdles. SupTrac streamlines this via the Ethics Checklist.
Pre-submission Screening: A guided module that covers common institutional requirements, such as informed consent, data anonymisation, and risk assessment.
Transparent Records: All feedback in the “Discussion & Feedback” section is timestamped and stored. This creates a clear, transparent record of supervision interactions—something research offices and ethics committees often request during audits.
Reduced Admin: By following the built-in guidance, students submit higher-quality ethics applications, reducing the number of revisions requested by the committee.
We recognise that your research represents years of intellectual effort. Protecting your intellectual property and personal data is our highest priority.
Intellectual Property (IP): You retain full ownership of your research. SupTrac acts as a secure facilitator for your work and does not claim any rights to your data or findings.
Encryption: All personal details and platform interactions are stored using enterprise-grade encryption, ensuring your data is protected from unauthorised access.
POPIA Compliance: Our data handling practices are fully aligned with the Protection of Personal Information Act, ensuring that professional and research data are managed according to South African legal standards.
Access Control: You define exactly who can see your research. Supervisors and collaborators only gain access to your project workspace when you explicitly invite them.