Primary, Secondary Reviewers and Graders
The roles of Primary Reviewer, Secondary Reviewer, and Grader during JWST peer review meetings is discussed in this page. For each proposal you have been assigned, you will have one of these roles. This page also describes what these terms mean and when are the relevant.
On this page
During preliminary grading, every proposal is assigned to a subset of panelists. All assigned panelists are Graders. Of these, one panelist will be designated Primary Reviewer and one will be designated Secondary Reviewer.
We try to distribute the assignments equally among panelists.
During the panel meeting, only a subset of proposals will be discussed. All un-conflicted 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 proposal feedback 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 feedback comments on the proposal that capture the salient points of the discussion, with assistance from the secondary reviewer.
Primary reviewers write feedback 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 feedback comments during the preliminary grading phase.
Secondary Reviewer
Supports discussion during panel meeting and assists with proposal feedback comments.
During the panel meeting, the panel Chair will ask the secondary reviewer for supplementary comments after the primary reviewer has summarized the proposal.
The secondary reviewer assists the primary reviewer in writing proposal feedback 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 feedback comments during the preliminary grading phase.
Next: Triage Process & Discussion List