Track chair: Understanding progress on an individual review

As a track chair, one task during the review process is to encourage your reviewers to complete their reviews. This article will tell you what you need to know and show you the relevant tools you will need to complete your task.

When looking at your list of submissions for review, you'll see a submission with reviews that look something like this:

In this case, there are 2 reviewers assigned to this particular submission. One of the reviews seem to be colour coded. This guide will help you to understand what each colour represents and how you should do next next:

Complete (Green) Reviews

A green review indicates that a reviewer has completed his/her review and no further action is required. 

You should consider reading the reviewer's comments, particularly the public comments (if applicable) as these comments will be shared with the submitting authors later on. Comments should generally be constructive and positive.

In Progress (Orange) Reviews

An orange review indicates that the reviewer has confirmed their intention to review the submission and their  review is in progress. You can  send a reminder to these reviewers to complete the review using the Communication hub

Occasionally, you may see an orange review that contains submitted review scores. This indicates that the reviewer is either still working on the review or has completed their review. You may consider completing the review on their behalf.

Not Started (Grey) Reviews

A grey review indicates that the reviewer has not yet started or declined the review. These types of reviews are most concerning, as it means that reviewer has not responded to any of your emails. Initially you should consider   sending a reminder to these reviewers, but ultimately you may end up reassigning these reviews to another reviewer