Managing reviewers and reviewer groups

Any administrator with Reviewer Group Access can create and edit reviewer groups within their scope. For more on scopes, see Scopes.

To create a new reviewer group:

1. Go to Opportunity, Evaluators, Reviewer Groups.

2. At the top right, select Create a Reviewer Group.

3. Fill in the following information:

   • Name

   • Group Information: A description of the group for other administrators

   • Public: Select to make this group available to all administrators

   • Scopes: Select one or more scopes to make this group available to certain administrators. For more information, see Scopes.

   • Source: Choose which opportunities and applications you want available to this group. For more information, see Manage special reviewing scenarios.

   • Assign Reviews: Choose how reviews are assigned to reviewers

     Warning: Be careful with selecting Manual or Every application to every reviewer. For more information, see Troubleshoot common reviewer issues.

   • Only Review Qualified Applications: Select to exclude applicants who don't meet your group's qualification criteria

4. Select Create Group.

To add custom notes, questions, or rubrics to a reviewer group, you first have to detach it from the reviewer group template:

• Attached groups: Receive default notes, questions, and rubrics from the reviewer group template. For more information, see Set up reviewer group template.

• Detached groups: Can be customized with unique notes, questions, and rubrics

To detach a group from the template:

1. Go to the group's Details tab.

2. At the top right, click Detach.

If you detach a group, don't forget to add specific group instructions to the Group Reviewer Note.

Note: Once you detach a reviewer group, you cannot re-attach it to the Reviewer Group Template.

1. At the top right, select Add Reviewers.

2. Choose reviewers to add to your system:

   • In the top box, search for existing users in your system

   • In the bottom box, add email addresses on separate lines

3. Select Add or Invite.

4. To change a reviewer's Display Name, go to their user account. For more details, see User accounts.

Note: Reviewer invitations may not be sent out immediately. For more information, see Troubleshoot common reviewer issues.

To add existing reviewers:

1. For one or more System Reviewers, select Member.

   Note: For more information about reviewer chairs, see Create reviewer chairs.

2. Select Update Reviewers.

To remove reviewers:

1. For one or more Current Reviewers, select None.

2. Select Update Reviewers.

Warning: Don't remove reviewers with completed reviews. For more information, see Manage special reviewing scenarios.

If a reviewer is unable to complete any reviews, you can remove the reviewer from the group and replace them. To replace a reviewer:

1. Select Opportunity, Evaluators, Reviewer Groups.

2. Select the reviewer group for which you want to replace the reviewer.

3. Select Reviewers in the top right corner.

4. Change Member to None for the reviewer being removed.

5. Add a new reviewer to the group by either:

   • selecting a reviewer from the All system reviewers list and changing the reviewer from None to Member.

   • selecting Add reviewers, entering the reviewer's email address , and selecting Add or Invite.

6. Select Update reviewers.

Any reviews owned by the reviewer that was removed are assigned to the new reviewer.

For high-volume awards, you may set additional qualifications for your applicants—beyond those set by the opportunity.

For example, an opportunity may have included a GPA of 3.2 or higher. To reduce reviews even further, you may set qualifications for a GPA of 3.5 or higher on the reviewer group.

For more guidance, see Add qualifications.

Tip: If you're using qualifications to reduce reviews, make sure you've selected Only Review Qualified Applications on the group's Detail tab.

You may want to ask your reviewers qualitative questions about applicants, such as Share any additional thoughts regarding this applicant.

For more guidance, see Add questions.

You may want your reviewers to rate your applicants on various categories, such as Academic Merit or Financial Need.

For more guidance, see Add rubrics.

Situations may arise when a reviewer cannot complete their assigned applications. If your reviewer group is set up to Automatically assign, but not set up to Assign every application to every reviewer, you can lock the reviewer. By locking a reviewer, any unsubmitted reviews from the reviewer gets reassigned to other members within the same reviewer group. Unsubmitted reviews include reviews that were started, but not completed, that is, drafted reviews. The system distributes the reviews evenly across the remaining reviewers. Any reviews already submitted by the reviewer remain with the reviewer, and no new applications will be assigned.

Follow these steps to lock a reviewer:

1. Select Opportunity, Evaluators, Reviewer Groups.

2. Select the name of the reviewer group to redistribute.

3. Select Reviewers tab in the top right corner.

4. Select the Locked checkbox next to the reviewer unable to complete their reviews.

5. Select Update reviewers.

It is recommended you leave the same number of reviewers unlocked as the number of reviewers per application that you desire. For example, if you have at most three reviews per application selected on the Details tab, then at a minimum you must have three reviewers unlocked.