Reviews in Dapple are the structured process by which submissions are assessed by a group of people — judges, editors, programme partners, or external experts — so that decisions are made collaboratively and consistently, not by one person alone. You configure reviews per stage using Review Rounds, which define the guidance, scoring criteria, deadlines, and reviewers for that stage. The people assigned to complete those reviews are your Review Group. Both are managed from the Workflow & Reviews tab inside each project.
Reviews are only available on in-progress stages. Once a round is set up, you send submissions to it manually, in bulk, or automatically — reviewers then score independently, and admins see the consolidated results in the round's Stats section.
What is a Review Round in Dapple?
A Review Round is the review configuration attached to an in-progress stage of your project. It is the container that holds everything defining how that review works — the name, reviewer guidance, scoring type, deadline, and notification rules. Think of it as the setup layer.
You create and manage Review Rounds from the Workflows & Reviews section of a project's settings.
Step | What you configure |
1 — Name & stage | The round's name (e.g. "Round 1 Sift" or "Final Jury"), which stage it belongs to, and whether submissions entering that stage are sent automatically |
2 — Guidance | Instructions shown to reviewers on their review form — scoring criteria, background context, and any decision-making framework |
3 — Deadlines | Whether to display a due date to reviewers, and whether it is a fixed calendar date or a rolling window calculated from when each submission is sent |
4 — Scoring | The scoring type — Rating (a simple numeric score) or Rubric (weighted criteria, each with a Max score and Weight, producing a final score out of 100) |
5 — Members | Who belongs to the Review Group for this round |
6 — Notifications | Which email notifications fire to reviewers and to admins at key moments in the review lifecycle |
You can add multiple Review Rounds to a project and configure each independently.
What is a Review Group in Dapple?
A Review Group is the set of users assigned to complete reviews within a Review Round. While the Review Round defines the configuration, the Review Group defines the people. Each Review Round has its own Review Group, and users can be members of multiple Review Groups simultaneously without any conflict.
Members of a Review Group can access and score every submission sent to their round. Their feedback is always saved individually — scores, votes, and comments are never merged or averaged before the admin sees them. Admins view the consolidated picture from the Stats section; each reviewer only sees their own work.
How does the review process work in Dapple?
The review process follows five steps from setup to decision:
Create a Review Round. Open Workflow & Reviews, find the in-progress stage, and click + Add review round. Work through the six-step wizard to set the name, guidance, scoring, deadline, and Review Group.
Send submissions to the round. Route submissions individually from their Reviews tab, in bulk using the stage column's three-dot menu, or automatically using Stage Automation.
Reviewers complete their assessments. Each member of the Review Group logs in and sees their assigned submissions under Awaiting Feedback. They score each submission using the form you configured — with a numeric score, a vote, or written comments depending on your setup. Reviews can be saved as drafts and returned to.
Admins track progress. Open the Review Round settings and go to Stats to see completion status across the Review Group — who has reviewed, who is in progress, and who has not started.
Results inform decisions. Once scoring is complete, admins view individual responses, average scores, leading votes, and side-by-side comparisons across the Review Group. Submissions can then be moved to the next stage.
What can reviewers submit as feedback?
Each criterion on a review form can collect one or more types of input. When setting up a Review Round, you choose which types to include:
Type | What reviewers submit | Best for |
Score | A numeric rating within a defined range — for example, 1–5 or 1–10 | Ranking submissions, calculating averages, rubric scoring with weighted criteria |
Vote | A binary or categorical choice — Yes/No, Shortlist/Pass, or custom options | Quick triage rounds, consensus checks, or decision-making by majority |
Comment | Free-text written feedback on a specific criterion or on the submission overall | Narrative feedback, qualitative assessment, or where written rationale is required |
When Rubric scoring is enabled, each criterion has a Max score (the rating scale reviewers see) and a Weight (how much it contributes to the final score). Dapple normalises each criterion score to a percentage and applies the weight, producing a final weighted average out of 100. This makes scores comparable across reviewers even when criteria use different scales.
What do admins see after reviewers have scored?
Admins can see any work-in-progress scores but only completed scores count against totals. Once submitted, admins can see:
Each reviewer's individual score, vote, and comment per submission
The average score and leading vote across the Review Group
Completion status for every reviewer — who has submitted, who is in draft, and who has not started
Side-by-side comparison of reviewer responses to identify consensus or divergence
Overall Review Round progress from the Stats section in Workflow & Reviews
Review data is preserved after the round closes and remains available for reporting and audit purposes.
Can a submission be reviewed by multiple people?
Yes — every member of the Review Group can review every submission sent to the round. Each person's feedback is stored independently. There is no automatic aggregation before the admin views results; admins see individual responses alongside summary figures (averages, leading votes) and can draw their own conclusions from both.
If you want to reduce unconscious bias during scoring, enable blind review on the round. Blind review hides selected submission fields — such as the applicant's name, email, or address — from reviewers during assessment.