Assigning Reviewers

Navigating to the Review Stage

Before you can assign reviewers, the submission must be in the Review stage. If the submission is still at the Submission stage:

1. Open the submission from Dashboard → My Queue
2. Click the Send to Review button under the Submission stage panel
3. Confirm which files to carry forward into review
4. Click Record Editorial Decision to move the submission

Once in the Review stage the Reviewers panel appears on the right-hand side of the submission workspace.

Adding a Reviewer

1. In the Reviewers panel, click Add Reviewer
2. The reviewer selection dialog opens — you can:
   • Search by name or email
   • Browse the full reviewer pool using the list view
   • Enroll an Existing User if the person already has an account but no Reviewer role
   • Create New Reviewer to register a brand-new OJS account

Reviewer pool quality

Only users who have the Reviewer role in your journal appear in the pool. Ask your Journal Manager to assign the Reviewer role to new candidates before you try to invite them.

Reviewer Suggestions from Authors

Authors may nominate suggested (or excluded) reviewers during submission. To view these suggestions:

1. Open the submission workspace
2. Click the Submission tab → Submission library or scroll to Review Preferences
3. Look for the Suggested Reviewers and Conflicts of Interest fields filled in by the author

Using author suggestions

You are not obligated to invite suggested reviewers. Use the suggestions as one input alongside your own judgement about expertise and potential bias.

Setting Review Deadlines

When adding a reviewer, the invitation dialog asks you to set two dates:

Date Field	Purpose
Consider By	Deadline for the reviewer to accept or decline the invitation
Review Due	Deadline for the reviewer to submit their completed review

Your journal may have default values configured by the Journal Manager. You can override these for each reviewer individually.

Staggered deadlines

Consider inviting two or three reviewers and staggering their deadlines by a few days. If one declines you have time to invite a replacement without losing momentum.

Review Anonymity Types

OJS supports several peer review anonymity models. The type is usually set at the section level by the Journal Manager, but you may be able to override it per submission.

Anonymity Type	Reviewer sees author?	Author sees reviewer?
Double-Anonymous	No	No
Anonymous Reviewer / Disclosed Author	Yes	No
Open	Yes	Yes

Confirm the anonymity type before sending the invitation — changing it after a reviewer accepts may expose identity information.

Sending the Invitation Email

After selecting a reviewer and setting deadlines:

1. Review the pre-populated invitation email in the Prepare Email step
2. Edit the subject or body if needed — a link to accept/decline is inserted automatically
3. Click Add Reviewer to send the invitation

The reviewer appears in the Reviewers panel with the status Invited.

Reviewer Invitation Statuses

After sending an invitation, the reviewer's status updates as they respond:

Status	Meaning
Invited	Invitation sent; awaiting response
Accepted	Reviewer has agreed to review
Declined	Reviewer has declined the invitation
No Response	The "consider by" deadline has passed with no reply
Review Submitted	Reviewer has completed and submitted their review
Review Confirmed	Section Editor has read and confirmed the review
Cancelled	Section Editor cancelled the invitation before it was accepted

Minimum reviewers

Most journals require at least two completed reviews before an editorial decision can be made. Check your journal's policy before moving to the decision step.

Further Reading

• Learning OJS – Editorial Workflow — reviewer assignment walkthrough
• PKP Community Forum — community advice on managing reviewer pools