How to Configure Review Criteria and Scoring

Paige Watson

Updated on 10 March 2026

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Review criteria and scoring allow reviewers to evaluate submissions consistently and fairly. In PeerSubmit, organizers can configure evaluation forms that define how reviewers score papers and provide feedback during the peer review process.

These settings are available in the Evaluation Forms section of your conference under CFP Settings.

Open Evaluation Forms

To configure review criteria and scoring:

• Open your conference dashboard.
• Navigate to Call for Submissions.
• Click CFP Settings.
• Select Evaluation Forms.

This section allows you to configure how reviewers evaluate submissions and how final decisions are recorded.

Configure Review Form

The Review Form defines the criteria reviewers use when evaluating submissions.

• Overall Rating – A score representing the overall quality of the paper.
• Confidential Comments to the Program Chair – Private notes visible only to the program committee.
• Comments to the Author – Feedback that will be shared with the author.
• Additional Notes / Justification – Additional reasoning behind the review score.

These fields ensure that reviewers provide both quantitative scores and qualitative feedback.

Configure Acceptance Decision Form

The Acceptance Decision Form collects final comments when a paper is accepted.

• Comments to the author
• Additional notes or justification

These comments may be shared with authors along with the final decision.

Configure Rejection Decision Form

The Rejection Decision Form records the reasons why a submission is not accepted.

• Reviewer feedback
• Program chair comments
• Justification for the rejection decision

Providing clear feedback helps authors improve their research and maintain transparency in the review process.

Use Custom Evaluation Forms

If you need additional evaluation criteria, you can create custom questionnaire forms and attach them to the review process.

• Create a custom form using the PeerSubmit form builder.
• Select the form from the Select Questionnaire Form dropdown.
• Save the configuration.

This allows conferences to add specialized evaluation criteria for specific research fields.

Save Your Changes

After configuring the review criteria:

• Review the evaluation fields.
• Confirm that all necessary scoring criteria are included.
• Click Save Changes.

Your configured review form will now be used by reviewers when evaluating submissions.

Best Practices for Review Criteria

Clear evaluation criteria help reviewers assess submissions consistently.

• Use scoring criteria such as originality, relevance, and technical quality.
• Encourage reviewers to provide detailed feedback.
• Include confidential comments for program chairs.
• Keep scoring simple and easy to interpret.

Well-defined review criteria improve fairness and transparency in the peer review process.