A Review Round in Dapple is a structured peer review attached to an in-progress stage of your project workflow — with its own name, guidance notes, scoring type, deadlines, review group, and notifications. Add one from Workflow & Reviews: find an in-progress stage column, click + Add review round, and work through the six-step wizard. Review Rounds are not assigned to the project as a whole; they are tied to a specific stage.
What is a Review Round in Dapple?
A Review Round is the configuration that turns a stage into a structured review. It defines:
Which stage the review is attached to
The name of the review (visible to reviewers)
Guidance notes for reviewers — what to look for, scoring criteria, any rubric
Whether submissions are automatically sent to the round when they enter the stage
Deadlines for completing reviews
Scoring type — Rubric scoring or Star rating
The Review Group — the members who will score submissions in this round
Email notifications for reviewers
Each review round has its own Review Group: the specific people invited to score submissions in that round. A project with two review rounds — say a first-pass sift and a final jury — has two separate review groups.
Where do I add a Review Round in Dapple?
Review Rounds live inside Workflow & Reviews, not in a separate settings area. Each stage column in Workflow & Reviews has a Reviews section where any configured review rounds are shown. To add one:
Open your project.
Click Workflow & Reviews in the top navigation.
Find the in-progress stage column where you want the review round.
Click + Add review round in the Reviews section of the column.
Work through the six-step wizard (see below).
Save.
Review Rounds can only be added to in-progress stages. The + Add review round option is not available on the New or Completed stages. If you need a review step, make sure the submissions are moving through an in-progress stage first.
What does the Review Round wizard ask me to set up?
The wizard has six steps. You can move through them in order; some steps are optional.
Step | What you configure |
1 — Name & stage | The stage the review round is attached to (pre-filled from where you clicked + Add review round), the name of the review round (e.g. "Round 1 Sift" or "Final Jury"), and whether submissions should be automatically sent to this review round when they enter the stage. |
2 — Guidance | Guidance notes for reviewers — what to assess, any scoring criteria or rubric instructions. This is shown to reviewers inside the review interface. |
3 — Deadlines | Optional deadline dates for reviewers to complete their scoring by. |
4 — Scoring | The scoring type for this round — Rubric scoring (structured criteria) or Rating (a simple star or numeric rating). |
5 — Members | The Review Group for this round — the specific people who will score submissions. Add reviewers by name or email. |
6 — Notifications | Email notification settings for reviewers — when they are assigned and when new submissions arrive for them to review. |
What does "Automatically send to review round" mean?
On Step 1 of the wizard there is an Automatically send to review round toggle. When this is turned on, every submission that enters this stage is automatically assigned to this review round — reviewers in the Review Group will see the submission appear in their review queue without any manual step from your admin team.
When the toggle is off, submissions must be manually sent to the review round after they enter the stage. This is useful when you want to filter or triage submissions before routing them to reviewers. They can be sent individually or in bulk.
Can a stage have more than one review round?
Yes. A single in-progress stage can have multiple review rounds — for example, a first-pass scoring round and a secondary expert review round, both attached to the same stage. Each round has its own name, review group, scoring type, and guidance. Reviewers only see the submissions and guidance for their own round. We recommend that only one round is used per stage to avoid automations conflicting however there are instances when more than one review round can be added to a stage.
What is a Review Group?
A Review Group is the set of reviewers assigned to a specific review round and appears in the members section of the round configuration. Reviewers in the group can be notified when submissions are sent to the round and can access the review interface to score their assigned submissions.
Review Groups are per-round, not shared across rounds. If you have two review rounds on the same stage, each has its own independent review group.
How do I see which stages have review rounds configured?
In Workflow & Reviews, each stage column shows its configured review rounds in the Reviews section. The card for each round shows the round name, its Review Group, and the scoring type. If no review rounds are configured on a stage, only the + Add review round button is shown.
How do I edit or remove a review round?
Open Workflow & Reviews and find the stage column. Click the review round card you want to update — this opens the configuration wizard again with the current settings pre-filled. Make your changes across the relevant steps and save. To remove a review round, open it and use the delete option at the bottom of the configuration.
Best practices for Review Rounds
Name review rounds descriptively — "Round 1 Sift" or "Final Jury" is clearer than "Review 1" for your reviewers and for reporting.
Use the Generate from AI to get a quick baseline set. You can always edit this later.
Write the Guidance step carefully — this is the main reference for reviewers and directly affects scoring consistency.
Use "Automatically send to review round" for high-volume stages where you want every submission reviewed without manual routing.
Keep Review Groups as small as they need to be — a tight group is easier to manage and produces faster outcomes than a large uncoordinated one.
Set a deadline on every round. Reviewers without a deadline tend to deprioritise the task.
If you have multiple rounds on one stage, name them clearly so reviewers know which round they are working on.
Where to go next