Reviews in Dapple are how submissions get assessed before you make a decision. Your reviewers might be judges, editors, programme partners or external experts. Each in-progress stage can have a Review Round, which holds the guidance, deadlines and scoring for that review. You then decide who reviews what. Either assign reviewers to submissions yourself from the submissions list or the Stages board, or turn on automatic sending and let Dapple send each submission that reaches the stage to a reviewer pool. Everything is set up from the Workflow & Reviews tab in each project.
What is a Review Round in Dapple?
A Review Round is the setup for a review on one in-progress stage. It controls what reviewers see and how they score, and is created in a six-step wizard:
Step | What you set |
1. Name & stage | The stage the round belongs to and the Review Name |
2. Reviewers | Whether submissions are sent to reviewers automatically when they reach the stage, and to whom |
3. Guidance | Instructions for reviewers, such as what to look for and what each score means |
4. Deadlines | An optional due date: a fixed date or a number of days from when each submission is sent |
5. Scoring | Rating (a single score) or Rubric (weighted criteria giving a score out of 100) |
6. Notifications | Which emails go to reviewers and admins |
A project can have several Review Rounds, each configured independently. Reviews are only available on in-progress stages, not New or Completed stages.
How do submissions get to reviewers?
You assign them, or Dapple does it for you.
Assign reviewers yourself | Send automatically |
Leave Send automatically when a submission reaches this stage off | Turn Send automatically when a submission reaches this stage on |
Nothing is sent when a submission reaches the stage | Every submission that reaches the stage goes to the round's reviewer pool |
Assign reviewers to one submission or many from the submissions list or the Stages board | Dapple sends submissions as they arrive |
Best for awards and prizes where entries are allocated after the deadline, or whenever you want control over who reviews what | Best for open calls and rolling programmes where you want to drip-feed submissions to reviewers |
Most Review Rounds leave automatic sending off.
What is a reviewer pool?
A reviewer pool is the list of reviewers a Review Round sends submissions to automatically. It only exists when automatic sending is on. Choose how submissions are shared across it:
Chosen reviewers: every submission goes to everyone in the pool.
Share them out: Dapple spreads submissions evenly across the pool to balance the workload. You set how many reviewers each submission goes to.
For example, with 100 submissions and 5 reviewers in the pool, sending each submission to 1 reviewer gives each person 20. Set it to 2 and every submission is reviewed twice, so each reviewer gets 40. Use this to guarantee a minimum number of reviews per submission.
How does the review process work?
Create a Review Round. Open Workflow & Reviews and add a round to an in-progress stage.
Get submissions to reviewers. Assign reviewers yourself, individually or in bulk, or let automatic sending do it.
Reviewers complete their feedback. Assigned submissions appear in each reviewer's Review Account under Awaiting Review. Reviewers can save drafts and come back later.
Track progress. The round's Stats section shows who has reviewed, who is in progress and who hasn't started.
Make decisions. Compare scores, votes and comments, then move submissions to the next stage.
What kinds of feedback can reviewers give?
Type | Reviewers submit | Best for |
Score | A number within a set range | Ranking, averages, weighted rubrics |
Vote | Yes/No, Shortlist/Pass, or your own options | Triage, consensus, majority decisions |
Comment | Free-text feedback | Narrative or qualitative assessment |
With Rubric scoring, each criterion has a Max score and a Weight. Dapple converts each criterion to a percentage and applies the weights to give a final score out of 100.
What do admins see?
Admins see each reviewer's individual scores, votes and comments, plus averages, leading votes, completion status per reviewer, side-by-side comparisons and overall round progress. Only completed reviews count towards totals. Review data stays available after a round closes.
Can several reviewers review the same submission?
Yes. Assign as many reviewers as you need, or use Share them out to send each submission to a set number. Each reviewer's feedback is saved separately and never merged automatically. Reviewers can't see each other's feedback. Only admins see the combined results. Blind review hides fields such as an applicant's name, email or address from reviewers to reduce bias.
Best practice for running reviews in Dapple
Leave automatic sending off unless you need submissions to reach reviewers as they come in.
Use Share them out to split a large volume evenly, rather than creating a stage for each reviewer.
Set the number of reviewers per submission to at least your minimum review count.
Write guidance before you assign anything, so reviewers score consistently from the start.
Set a due date and check the Stats section before it passes.
Turn on blind review if an applicant's identity could influence scores.