Setting Up your Reviewer Portal and Assigning Reviews

Please note, the Call for Abstracts/Proposals System  module is required to use this feature.

As part of the Proposal process, reviewers play the role of assessing any incoming applications. This role is meant to measure how viable a proposed session will be and if they are appropriate for the event.

This article will cover how to set up reviewers for proposals. For information on how to set up calls, please review our Setting up your Call for Proposals article.

Creating and Assigning Review Forms for Calls

Before reviewers can conduct a review, there needs to be a form associated with the call. Review forms are meant to assess the validity of submissions as well as add any additional comments they may have on any given submission.

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Advanced > Custom Forms
2. Above the Forms table, select Create
3. Under the Name field, enter the name of the form
4. Under Category, select General Survey
5. Under Description, enter a description for the form if necessary
6. For the purposes of this form, Portal Active and Authentication Required can be ignored
7. Select Add Question to create all questions for your form
8. Select Save Changes

While the majority of your time will be spent in the Reviewers section, the Call section possesses relevant options for your reviewers.

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Proposals > Calls
2. Select the Call(s) you wish to assign a custom form to
3. Navigate to the Review tab
4. Toggle on Hide Personally Identifying Information to prevent the review panel from viewing direct personally identifying information connected to submissions such as names or email addresses
5. Toggle on Open Proposal Review Portal, to allow reviewers to submit reviews for their assigned proposals
   1. Toggling off this checkbox will prevent reviews from being submitted.
6. Under the Submission Review Limit field, enter the number of times a reviewer can review the proposal for each round
7. Under Submission Review Portal, enter the maximum number of reviews that can be submitted for the proposal
8. Under Custom Form, select the form you wish for the reviewer to use to evaluate the proposal
   1. This is a necessary step to set up for reviewers. If left blank, the reviewer(s) will not be able to submit a review.
9. Under Instructions For Reviewers, enter any instructions you wish to share with Reviewers
10. Select Save Changes

Assigning Review Forms

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Proposals > Calls
2. Select the Call(s) you wish to assign a custom form to
3. Navigate to the Review tab
4. Under Custom Form, select the form you wish for the reviewer to use to evaluate the proposal
5. Select Save Changes

Creating Reviewers

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Proposals > Reviewers
2. Above the Reviewer table, select Create
3. Under First Name, Last Name, and Email Address, enter the information of your reviewer
4. Under Tracks, select any tracks that you would like to limit the reviewer to
5. Under Target Audiences, select any Target Audiences that you would like to limit the reviewer to
6. Under Calls, select any Calls you would like to limit the reviewer to 
7. Under Proposals, select any b you would like to limit the reviewer to
8. Under Instructions, select any Instructions you would like to limit the reviewer to
   1. These instructions will appear in the Reviewer Portal at the top of each proposal page.
9. Select Save Changes

Assigning Proposals to Reviewers

As the applications come in, these proposals will appear in the Reviewer Portal. By default, all applications are visible from the Reviewer Portal. As discussed above, the proposals Reviewers see can be filtered by tracks, target audiences, calls, and even specific proposals. Reviewers will not see any proposals that do not fit with the filters.

Another way to assign proposals is by Auto Assigning them among reviewers.

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Proposals > Reviewers
2. Above the Reviewer table, select Actions > Auto Assign Proposals
3. Toggle on Accept
4. Under Calls, select any calls that you would like to limit the reviewer to
5. Under Tracks, select any tracks that you would like to limit the reviewer to
6. Under Formats, select any tracks that you would like to limit the reviewer to
7. Under Target Audiences, select any target audiences that you would like to limit the reviewer to
8. Under Reviewers Per Proposal, enter the maximum number of reviewers for each proposal
9. Select Save Changes

The proposals will be automatically divided based on the above criteria.

Setting up Extra Review Rounds for Proposals

Please note, reviewers that have proposals assigned to them can only see those proposals. Other proposals will not be visible. 

Another feature for proposals is the option to create multiple rounds of review. While the standard review options outlined in this article already allow for multiple reviews from different reviewers, Extra Review Rounds offer the option to set up different review periods over an extended period of time. 

By default, all submitted proposals have an initial review round. Additional rounds can be created from the Event Dashboard.

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Proposals > Calls
2. Select the Call you wish to edit
3. Navigate to the Reviews tab
4. Scroll down to the Extra Review Rounds section
5. Select Add Extra Rounds

You will now see a new pop-up showing the Extra Review Rounds editor form.

1. Under the Name field, enter a name for the round
2. Under the Reviewer field, select the Reviewers to be assigned to the round
   1. Whenever an Event Administrator advances a submitted proposal the review will reappear in the Reviewer Portal
3. Select Add New Round to save your progress
   1. Select Update if you wish to edit an existing review
   2. Select Delete if you wish to delete an existing review

Rearranging Rounds in the Extra Review Rounds Editor Form

Rounds can be rearranged if necessary. In the Extra Review Rounds editor form, select the arrow icons to move the review. Moved rounds are saved automatically in the Extra Review Rounds Editor Form.

Advancing A Review to the Next Round

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Proposals > Submissions
2. Select the checkbox of the Submission you wish to advance
3. Above the Submissions table, select Actions > Change Review Round > Advanced to Next Round
   1. Select Regress to Previous Round to move the round back to the previous round. This setting will have no effect if the submission is in it's Initial Round. 
4. Select Confirm

Editing the Reviewer Welcome Email Template

The Reviewer Welcome Email is a convenient way to share access to the reviewer portal for multiple reviewers at once.

Sending Reviewer Welcome Emails from the Event Dashboard

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Proposals > Reviewers
2. Select the checkbox of the reviewer(s) that you wish for
3. Above the Reviewers table, select Actions > Send Welcome Email
4. Select Confirm

The Reviewer Welcome Email can be customized as required.

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Communications > Email Templates
2. Select Reviewer Welcome from the list
3. Under Subject, enter the email header
4. Under Body Text, enter the content of the email
5. Toggle on Remove Default Welcome Message to remove the default greeting that is included in the email
6. Toggle off Enable Call-To-Action Button to remove the button leading to the Reviewer Portal
7. For the purposes of this email template, it is fine to ignore Enable Attachment
8. Select Save Changes

Utilizing the Proposal Data report

The Proposal Data Report will provide data on all proposals made towards your event. For instructions on how to do this, please review our Downloading Call for Proposal Data Reports article.