Reviews

Create accounts for the reviewers and give them the reviewer function

Three options:

Create an Excel spreadsheet with the reviewers' profiles, which can be done on the Participants page, and upload it to the site.
Create individual accounts on behalf of the reviewers, on the Participants page.
Let reviewers create their own accounts.

This can be done at Configuration / Reviews / Review form.
Starting from a preconfigured form, you can adapt it and extended it, to fit your workflow.

Option 1: start assigning reviews once the submission process is over
- Manually, or
- Automatically
Once all reviews have been allocated, you can send an email to the reviewers, to invite them to start their reviews.
Option 2: start assigning reviews as soon as the submission process starts
- Manually, or
- Automatically
If you choose this option, you can allocate submissions as soon as they are created. An automatic email is sent out to the reviewers, as soon as you allocate them a review. If you remove an assignment, an automatic email is also sent out.

Both options can be combined with constraints that are put on the review assignment procedure, for instance:

Options can be set at Configuration / Reviews / Options for the review process.
Available options include: decide whether to use blind reviews; allow file downloads and uploads by the reviewers; activate bidding; detect conflicts, and more.

You can set reviewers' permission to access their assigned reviews at Configuration / Access rights / Access to functions & deadlines / Reviews.
If the reviews are preformed after all submissions have been collected, you might want to ensure that the reviews are not accessible before the review assignment process has been finalised.
If the reviews can be performed during the submission period, you will need to ensure that the reviews are accessible during this period.

The configuration and sending of emails can be done on the Emails page.
If the reviews start after the abstract submission period, you can send a bulk email to all reviewers, to invite them to start the review process, at Emails / Bulk emails / Reviewers / 2. Inform all reviewers about their task assignments.
If reviews are already assigned during the abstract submission period, you can set up automatic emails to notify reviewers of their new assignments at Emails / Automatic emails / Send an automatic email to a reviewer as soon as a review is assigned to that reviewer .

Once the reviews are started, you can follow their progress at Submissions & reviews / Progress Tracking.
You can send reminders about the approaching deadline for the completion of reviews at Emails / Bulk emails / Reviewers / 4. Reminder email to all reviewers: deadline is approaching.