Primary / Secondary Reviewers & Graders
For each proposal you have been assigned, you will be a Primary Reviewer, Secondary Reviewer or Grader. What does these terms mean and when are the relevant?
Overview
During preliminary grading, every proposal is assigned 6 panelists. All 6 panelists are Graders. Of these, 1 panelist will be designated Primary Reviewer and 1 will be designated Secondary Reviewer. Primary and Secondary Reviewers grade their assigned proposals.
We try to distribute the assignments equally among panelists. You should expect to grade all your assignments, but will only be primary on ~1/6 of them, and secondary on another ~1/6. (Proposal loads vary between panels, but numbers are typically around 50 proposals total for grading, with a subset of around 8 primary and around 8 secondary.)
During the panel meeting, only a subset of proposals will be discussed. All unconflicted panelists will discuss and grade a proposal. The primary/secondary reviewer assignments remain the same.
Grader
Reads a proposal and enters a numerical score. Contributes to discussion in panel meeting.
Graders will read each proposal they have been assigned, evaluate the proposal against the scoring rubric and enter a numerical grade.
During preliminary grading, panelists are not assigned to read every proposal in the panel, only a subset of them. Only the assignments will be visible in the SPIRIT review tool. So you should read and grade every proposal you see.
During the panel meeting, only proposals scheduled for discussion will be visible. You should have read and be prepared to discuss and grade all of them, including proposals that were not assigned to you for preliminary grades.
Primary Reviewer
Leads discussion during panel meeting and writes comments.
During the panel meeting, the panel Chair will ask the primary reviewer to give a brief overview of a proposal to kick off the discussion. The primary reviewer will also be responsible for writing comments on the proposal that capture the salient points of the discussion, with assistance from the secondary reviewer.
Primary reviewers write comments for all of their assigned proposals, including proposals that were triaged, again with the assistance of the secondary reviewer.
Although this role has most relevance during and after the panel meeting, we notify panelists of their roles from the start so that they can prepare discussion notes and comments during the preliminary grading phase.
Secondary Reviewer
Supports discussion during panel meeting and assists with comments.
During the panel meeting, the panel Chair will ask the secondary reviewer for supplementary comments after the primary reviewer has summarised the proposal.
The secondary reviewer assists the primary reviewer in writing comments for discussed and triaged proposals.
Although this role has most relevance during and after the panel meeting, we notify panelists of their roles from the start so that they can prepare discussion notes and comments during the preliminary grading phase.