Hi Margaret,
Overlapping duplicates groups: Yes, the newest group would be the one with the largest ID number. Numbers are so big because they are unique across the whole EPPI-Reviewer database, not only within a single review.
Fees and trial account: there is no need to create a new account. You may upgrade any account (even expired accounts) at any time:
If the account is valid, your subscription will be added to the current expiration date. Considering a payment done today (27/03/2012), if the current expiration date is 04/04/2012, and a three months subscription is bought, the new expiration date will be 04/07/2012. This ensures that nobody loses any subscription allowance.
If the account is expired, the new expiration date will be calculated starting from the day the payment was done: buying a three months subscription today will set the new expiration date to 27/06/2012. Expired accounts can remain idle for as long as required, no data will be lost during the inactive period.
You can buy new subscriptions in two ways: through the Account Manager (http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?tabid=2935) or with the old order/invoice/bank transfer paper route. Payments done through the Account Manager (accepts Visa and MasterCard) are processed in real time, this is usually the quickest and cheaper option; the paper route may require more time, so we normally update the expiration dates when the customer confirms his/her intention to buy, meaning that we don't wait for the payment to be completed; this second option may be useful if you need to raise an official purchase order, if you can't buy with a credit/debit card or if you want us to renew/create one or more accounts on a particular date.
You can check the expiration date of your account and of any (optional) shared review in a few ways: inside EPPI-Reviewer 4, in the top part of the "My Info" tab; also, the "User:" and "Review:" fields in status bar on the bottom (any tab) will change colour when the expiration date is approaching. Expiration dates are also shown on The "Summary" and "Purchase" tabs of the Account Manager.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Sergio