IAR Meeting Phases

The process of reviewing applications is broken down into several meeting phases. The meeting administrator creates the phase dates in the IAR Control Center for each meeting. Before Reviewers can see a meeting in IAR, the phases for the meeting must be set, the Reviewer must have an active eRA Commons account, and the Reviewer must be enabled for that meeting.

NOTE: All times entered will be in U.S. Eastern Standard Time/ Eastern Daylight Time.

NOTE: Not all phases are used by every review meeting

While some meeting phases are required (Submit Phase, Read Phase), others are optional (Recruitment Phase, Edit Phase) at the meeting administrator’s discretion.

NOTE: The Chair of a meeting is not granted any special privileges in IAR regarding access to critiques. During the Submit Phase, the Chair will only be able to view his/her own submitted critiques for his/her assigned applications. During the Read Phase, the Chair will be able to read all meeting critiques (unless blocked or in conflict). The List of All Applications defaults to show a Reviewer’s assignment list, but the Reviewers can see the full meeting list of applications by clicking on the List All Applications link. If a Chair has no assignments, the Chair will need to click on List All Applications link to view all meeting critiques.

Recruitment Phase

The meeting administrator responsible for conducting the review meeting is required to select and assign Reviewers for each application in the meeting. These Reviewers must not have any real or apparent conflicts of interest (COI) with the applications they are reviewing. The Recruitment Phase is a tool available to meeting administrators for identifying conflicts before making assignments.

The Recruitment Phase is an optional phase enabled at the discretion of the meeting administrator, usually ending with the start of the meeting or selection of a Reviewer for the Submit Phase. The meeting administrator invites the potential Reviewers to participate in the Recruitment Phase, and when enabled for it, the Reviewers are notified via an email invitation. In this phase, potential Reviewers self-identify any COIs before being selected as Reviewers and being given access to applications in the meeting.

Please refer to the Recruitment Phase for Reviewers Guide topic which links to detailed information from the Peer Review online help.

Yes/No Phase

The Yes/No Phase is an optional phase used in Pioneer Meetings. During the Yes/No Phase, Reviewers make a determination as to whether applications will be discussed in the next level of review during the meeting.

Submit Phase

During the Submit Phase, Reviewers submit critiques and preliminary scores for their assigned applications. Reviewers can only view critiques and scores that they have submitted and cannot yet read the critiques of other reviewers; however, they may submit critiques for unassigned applications if permitted by the meeting administrator. Access to the critiques of other Reviewers is restricted during this phase to ensure that Reviewers begin the process with independently developed opinions. These actions are taken using the Refer to List of Applications screen in IAR.

The Critique Due Date determines the end of the Submit Phase and is typically a few days to a week before the actual meeting date.

NOTE: Mail Reviewers can only see their assigned applications regardless of meeting administrator settings.

NOTE: Note: Veterans Affairs (VA) Only - The VA Meeting Chairperson can access submitted critiques during the Submit Phase, providing more time to review the submitted critiques in preparation for the meeting. When the VA Meeting Chairperson navigates to the List of Applications screens, the system shows a Download Zip of All Critiques (PDF) link, even while the meeting is in the Submit Phase. Clicking the link downloads all the critiques that have been submitted at that time. However, critiques of applications identified by the SRO that are in conflict with the chairperson are omitted from the downloaded PDF.

Read Phase

During the Read Phase of a meeting, Reviewers who have already submitted critiques for their assigned applications can view the critiques and scores of other Reviewers. Reviewers may submit late critiques if they had not done so in the Submit Phase; however, Reviewers cannot modify or resubmit critiques or preliminary scores already submitted during the Read Phase.

Not all Reviewers can view all critiques, for example, Mail Reviewers may only view assigned applications. Reviewers may be blocked by meeting administrators from reviewing others’ critiques if their own have not been submitted. Reviewers are also excluded from viewing critiques of applications with which they are in conflict.

The Read Phase of the meeting begins immediately at the end of the Submit Phase and ends when the meeting administrator designates, which usually is at the time the actual meeting ends.

Critique files must be less than 1 MB in size.

Edit Phase

The Edit Phase is an optional phase enabled at the discretion of the meeting administrator. During the Edit Phase, Reviewers may submit updated critiques for their assigned applications and read critiques posted by themselves and others. Additionally, Reviewers can submit critiques for unassigned applications if permitted by the meeting administrator. As with the other phases, Reviewers cannot submit critiques or view critiques if in conflict with the application.

NOTE: Preliminary score submission is not permitted in the Edit Phase after the actual meeting is held (start date of the actual meeting has passed). Criteria scores can be modified in this phase.

SS Prep Phase

The SS Prep Phase is the time period when summary statements are prepared. SS Prep occurs at the end of the Read Phase or if it exists, at the end of the optional Edit Phase. Meetings in this phase display with SS Prep in the Phase column of the List of Meetings screen only to SROs. This phase type is not visible to Reviewers, who see Read or Edit listed as the Phase during this time.

NOTE: The meeting is not visible to Reviewers during the SS Prep Phase unless the List of Meetings displays the SS Prep phase along with another phase (e.g., Edit/SS Prep in the Phase column) on the List of Meetings.