TrackChair

Review Assigner Help

This page explains the process of assigning reviews for TPC members. Please see also: Reviewer Help.

Assigning Reviews

TrackChair allows you to assign reviewers in two ways: by personal recommendation, and by keyword and interest match. The former is by far preferred: if you can find enough suitable reviewers from among your colleagues, please do so.

To start assigning reviews, log into TrackChair, and visit your account dashboard. Here, your assigned papers are listed in a table.

Status of Assigned Reviews

Your table of assigned papers has four columns: conference, reviews, paper title, and action. The action column gives you a link to the paper's reviews page, from which you can assign reviewers.

The reviews column counts the number of reviews with a particular status. You can change the set of status values using the drop-down menu above the papers table. The appropriate set depends on the stage of the reviewing process:

Stage Set Meaning
Start Assigned, incomplete, or completed Can be completed
Midway Incomplete or completed Will be completed
End Completed Completed

Your role is to ensure that each paper always has enough reviews of the relevant status set. An incomplete review is one which has been accepted by the reviewer, but not all of the questions have been answered yet.

Questions and Answers

How many reviews should I assign?

All IEEE-sponsored conferences require 3 reviews per paper.

TrackChair expects at least two completed reviews per paper. Therefore, you should make sure that there are at least two reviews for your paper with the appropriate status for the reviewing stage (see the table above).

Some conferences prefer more reviews: you should discuss this with your TPC chair. TrackChair has no upper limit to the number of reviews a paper can have.

How do I assign reviews?

Visit your dashboard page, and look at your assigned papers table. For the paper you wish to assign reviews, click on the "Reviewers" link in the Action column. This will list any currently-assigned reviews, and allow you to assign more reviews.

To assign a review, you can either choose one of your contacts, or type in the details of the reviewer. The reviewer will receive an email requesting their assistance with reviewing, including links to the paper and to TrackChair documentation. You will receive a copy of this email.

At the bottom of the page, TrackChair also suggests potential reviewers, matching paper keywords and account interests. Click the "Assign" button next to the reviewer's name to assign them a review.

See also: How do I find my review page?, What if TrackChair can't find any keyword-matching reviewers?

Can I add a personal note to the review request?

The review request email template is fixed. Allowing you to modify the template would complicate the review assignment process, and we want assigning reviews to be as quick and easy as possible.

However, we have found that review requests are often more successful if you take the time to contact the reviewer yourself. So, to increase the chance of your reviewer accepting the review, simply reply to your copy of the review request email. Use your email client's "Reply To All" feature to ensure that the reviewer receives your message.

What if TrackChair can't find any keyword-matching reviewers?

The automatic assignment may not always work. This can happen when the authors of the paper have added keywords which are too specific, or misspelled.

From the paper's reviewers page, there is a link to "add more keywords". Read the paper title, abstract, and possibly manuscript, and try to add more relevant keywords to the paper.

Once there are enough keywords, return to the reviewer assignment page. Hopefully, there should now be some relevant people listed for review assignment.

See also: What are keywords for?, How do I assign a review by keyword?

Can I review the paper myself?

Yes, of course! If you have time to do so, this is very helpful. Simply assign yourself a review in the normal way. You will be sent an email with the link to complete the review.

See also: How do I find my review page?

How do I contact reviewers?

When you assign a review, you receive a copy of the assignment email. You can simply hit reply-to-all in your email client to send an email to the reviewer.

Alternatively, you can send an email through TrackChair. Visit the paper's reviewers page, click on the reviewer's name, and type your message.

Can I resend a review request?

Yes, you can re-send the review request to people who lost the first message, or even who refused the review by mistake. If the review was marked Refused, it will be reset to Assigned.

To do this, visit the review page. You will have been emailed a copy of the assignment email, which contains a link there. From there, you can click "Resend review request".

My assignment email bounced. What now?

You can cancel the review request, to help you remember that this reviewer cannot review the paper. Visit the link to the review page in the bounced email. From there, you should be able to click "Cancel review request", to mark the review as Refused.