Track chair: Editing your allocation

The video below shows you how to edit your allocation before opening the review. Check it out on Vimeo here. 

You may need to change a few review assignments or even change all review assignments to get different results. This article explains the ways in which you can modify the allocation before the review opens. 

Go to your review list

There are two easy ways to access the reviews list.

The first is using the Review Allocated card on your dashboard. From this card, you can:

• use the View Submissions button to see all submission assignments
• use the View Partially Allocated button to review submissions that have not been fully allocated, meaning have at least 1 reviewer assigned but there are still empty reviewer slots
• use the View Not Allocated button to see all submissions that have no reviewers assigned

The second way you can look through the review allocation is to click on Review at the top of the page and ensure you are looking at your List of Submissions. The All Statuses filter allows you to narrow the list down to view only:

• Allocated Submissions, meaning submissions that are fully assigned and have no empty reviewer slots
• Partially Allocated submissions that have not been fully allocated, meaning have at least 1 reviewer assigned but there are still empty reviewer slots

• Not Allocated submissions, meaning those that have no reviewers assigned

Re-allocate to create new assignments across all submissions

Not a fan of the majority of allocations? Not to worry! You can:

1. Go to the Reviews hub and ensure you are viewing the List of Submissions
2. Sites with tracks: if you need to impact a specific track only, please update the tracks filter
3. Choose one of the following options:
   1. Re-allocate Submissions: this allows you to get completely new assignments across all submissions in the list
   2. Reverse Allocation: this will make it as if your site was never allocated. We recommend using this if you are using review groups; and forgot to place submissions in review groups before allocation.

Assigning recommend reviewers to empty reviewer slots:

You can quickly assign recommend reviewers to one, multiple or all submissions that have empty reviewer slots. Recommended reviewers are those that:

• shares all topics in common with the submission AND

• who have not met or exceeded review limits.

  • Example: You limit all reviewers to receiving 5 reviews maximum. Reviewers with 5 reviews will not be assigned new ones.

To use this feature:

1. Go to the Reviews hub and ensure you are viewing the List of Submissions
2. Apply any filters, such as tracks or format, or search for the specific submission using the search bar
3. You can either:
   1. place a check in the box to the left of the submission(s) title you wish to impact
   2. place a check in the box at the top of the submissions list to impact all submissions in the list
4. Select the Actions menu
5. Select Assign Recommended Reviewers
6. Confirm your choice in the pop up
7. That's it! The system will let you know when the reviewers have been assigned

Manually matching reviewers:

Need to take a closer look or assign reviewers that aren't a perfect match? No problem! You can:

1. Go to the Reviews hub and ensure you are viewing the List of Submissions
2. Apply any filters, such as tracks or format, or search for the specific submission using the search bar
3. Select either:
   1. the no reviewer slot
   2. the reviewer's name you wish to change
      
      
4. Choose one of four action in the pop up window:
   1. Recommended Reviewers: Choose one of the recommended reviewers as determined by Ex Ordo's statistical analysis of the underlying submissions and available reviewers. They system may show you up to 3 names in the pop up window if there are perfect topic matches.
   2. Search by Name or Email: Browse or search the full list of available reviewers available to you.
   3. Invite a Reviewer: Invite an external reviewer that is not currently available in the list of reviewers. This is useful if you would like to invite a colleague who has not yet been invited to be a reviewer for this conference.
   4. No Reviewer: For whatever reason, you may decide to leave one of the review slots vacant. The submission will then receive one less review than the other submissions in your list. 
      
      
      
      
      
5. That's it! You can now make other changes, if needed.

FAQs:

Can you explain a little more about the list of recommended reviewers and stars?

The system will recommend reviewers based on topic match. For example, if a submission has 5 topics and a reviewer shares all 5 topics, they are considered a perfect match. 

• 3 star reviewers = a perfect topic match
• 2 star reviewers = matches on a few topics, but reviewers do not match on all topics
• 1 star reviewers = matches on at least one topic, but does not match on many other topics
• 0 star reviewers = no topic match

It should be stressed that our recommendation engine does not take into account a reviewer's intellectual ability, reputation or academic qualifications. 

I am happy with the assignments and ready for the review to begin. What's next?

We advise checking with the conference organisers. They may want you to open the review; or they may be opening the review on all tracks at the same time. If you are unsure, please reach out to the organisers directly.

Can I change reviewer assignments after the review is opened and reviewers have started their work?

Yes! We have an article on changing review assignments mid-review here.