Guide for At Large Members

The Executive Committee (EC) process is very similar to the Discussion Panelist process. The guidelines below are for At Large Members.

Review Phase

Important Dates and Deadlines

During this phase, you will...

Links to relevant resources

Prep Work & General Info

Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 8pm ET:
JWST proposal submission deadline

 Note: Deadline was extended to October 1, 2026, 5pm ET.  


Monday, November 9, 2026, 12pm–2pm ET:
Discussion Panelist Orientation

  • Familiarize yourself with the review process, JWST and its instruments, the types of proposals you will be reviewing, and who to ask for help!

Roles and responsibilities: 

Preliminary Grading

Wednesday, November 11, 2026:
SPD to release proposals and assignments

Wednesday, November 18, 2026:
Deadline to check for and report additional conflicts of interest

Friday, January 8, 2027:
Deadline for preliminary grades for EC proposals

  • Be assigned as a Grader for a subset of the proposals assigned to the EC.
  • Check for and report additional conflicts of interest with any of your assigned proposals ASAP.
  • Read all of your assigned proposals.
  • Enter numerical scores as preliminary grades for all of your assigned proposals.
  • Use “Remarks” section in SPIRIT to write down your comments on the proposal. This information will be used by the Primary and Secondary Reviewers at the time of writing the feedback comments, and is particularly useful in the case the proposal is triaged and not discussed during the meeting. 

Report to the Science Policy Division, the PSS, or the Panel Manager any proposal that you think should be disqualified for violating proposal guidelines (e.g., DAPR, page limits, template changes, GAI, etc.). Not doing so in a timely manner (i.e., waiting to report it until after the proposal has been discussed) wastes precious review resources if the proposal ends up being disqualified.

   

STScI will use the grades received by each reviewer assigned to each proposal to rank the proposals and triage the panel so that only the top proposals are discussed in the panel meeting.

Additionally, you will:

  • Be designated as Primary Reviewer or Secondary Reviewer to a fraction of your grading assignments.

These designations are only relevant later, but it is helpful to take notes summarizing the strengths and weaknesses for your primary/secondary designations during this phase as you will be 1) leading the discussion of these proposals during the meeting, if they survive triage; 2) writing feedback comments on these proposals, regardless of triage status.

Useful topics from previous phases:

Pre-Meeting

Friday, January 15, 2027:
SPD to release lists of which proposals will be discussed by the panels

Tuesday, January 19, 2027, 12pm–1:30pm ET:
Executive Committee Orientation

Thursday, January 21, 2027, 12pm–1pm ET:
Discussion Panelist Q&A


  • Preparation for EC Meeting: 
    • Review all EC proposals listed for discussion (especially those you did not read for preliminary grading).
    • Consider whether you wish to raise a triaged EC proposal for discussion. If so, let your EC Chair know no later than one week before the EC meeting. 
  • Preparation for Discussion Panel Meeting:
    • If you would like to get feedback from a Discussion Panel on any of your assigned EC proposals, you should let your Panel Manager know. The Panel Manager will coordinate with the relevant Chair(s) and will let you know when the discussion will take place so you can be present. 

Useful topics from previous phases:

Panel Meetings

Monday–Thursday, February 1–4, 2027, 10am–4pm ET:
Panel Meetings for Galactic Panels
(i.e.,  Solar System Astronomy, Exoplanet Atmospheres and Habitability, Exoplanetary Systems and Dynamics, Stars and Stellar Populations, Interstellar Gas and Dust)

Tuesday–Friday, February 2–5, 2027, 10am–4pm ET:
Panel Meetings for Extragalactic Panels
(i.e., Galaxy Evolution and the Nearby Universe, Galaxy Frontiers and the Distant Universe, Super Massive Black Holes and Active Galaxies)


You will only need to attend during the four (4) days of your Panel Meeting.

During the Panel Meeting, you will:

  • Attend the Panel Meetings as an observer. You can float from Panel  Meeting to Panel Meeting to have a broad view of the process.
  • In cases where the Chair and Vice-Chair of a given Panel are both conflicted during a proposal discussion, we may ask you to serve as Chair for that particular discussion. 
  • Make sure to attend the discussion of EC proposals by the Discussion panels.   

Useful topics from previous phases:

EC Meeting

Monday–Tuesday, February 8–9, 2027, 9am–5pm ET:
Executive Committee Meeting for Galactic Panels


Wednesday–Thursday, February 10–11, 2027, 9am–5pm ET:
Executive Committee Meeting for Extragalactic Panels


You will only need to attend during the two (2) days of your EC Meeting.

  • Discuss EC proposals in turn and enter numerical scores as grades after each discussion.
  • Use “Remarks” section in SPIRIT to write down your comments on the proposal, while the discussion is still fresh in your mind. This information will be used by the Primary and Secondary Reviewers at the time of writing the feedback comments.
  • Create a ranked list of the proposals discussed.
  • Assess the final ranking of EC proposals for science balance.
  • Review team expertise for top ranked proposals once the ranking is finalized.

Useful topics from previous phases:

Post-Meeting

Wednesday, February 10, 2027:
Deadline for proposal comments for Discussion panelists

Wednesday, February 17, 2027:
Deadline for Chairs to sign-off feedback comments for Discussion proposals

Friday, February 12, 2027:
Deadline for feedback comments for Galactic EC proposals 

Tuesday, February 16, 2027:
Deadline for feedback comments for Extragalactic EC proposals

Friday, February 19, 2027:
Deadline for Galactic TAC Chair to sign-off feedback comments for Galactic EC proposals 

Tuesday, February 25, 2027:
Deadline for Extragalactic TAC Chair to sign-off feedback comments for Extragalactic EC proposals 

  • Write proposal feedback comments for every primary assignment (including triaged proposals).
  • Assist the primary reviewer with proposal feedback comments for every secondary assignment.

Reviewers are forbidden from using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools to assist with any part of their reviews since this violates the confidentiality of the review process. This means that it is forbidden to upload proposal contents or review materials to GAI tools. It is also forbidden to upload your written comments to GAI tools for the purpose of constructing your final review or polishing the language.

Please remember to remove review materials from your computer after the review.

Useful topics from previous phases:

Notifications

Early to mid-March 2027:
STScI releases Cycle 6 Science Program.




Next: Guide for TAC Chairs



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Originally published