Contents

• Overview
• What is a Conflict of Interest Question?
• How to Require a Conflict of Interest Question
• Reviewer Experience
  • What Happens After a Reviewer Reports a Conflict?
    • How to View the Reviewer's Comment
• How to Reassign a Declined Review Assignment
• Related Articles

Overview

This article explains how the Conflict of Interest setting works in Review Rounds and what reviewers see when it's enabled. 

What is a Conflict of Interest Question?

A conflict of interest question lets reviewers flag that they can't fairly review an application.  For example, a reviewer might know the applicant, work for their organization, or benefit if the application is funded.
 

You decide whether to include a conflict of interest question in a review round when setting up the round in the Workflow Builder.

• If you require a conflict of interest question in the review round: Reviewers see the question as soon as they open the feedback panel, before the actual feedback form loads. If a reviewer reports a conflict, their assignment is removed, and they cannot give feedback on that application. 
  
  What the reviewer sees: 

• If you do NOT require a conflict of interest question in a review round: Reviewers won't see the conflict of interest question when they open the feedback panel. They'll go straight to the feedback form.
   

How to Require a Conflict of Interest Question 

If you want to include the conflict of interest question in a review round, it must be added to your review round settings in the Workflow Builder. For the full setup process, see ➡️Feedback Types and Setup in a Review Round.

➜ In short: 

• When choosing a feedback method for your review round (Scoring, Voting, or Custom Feedback Form), toggle “Should reviewers be asked whether they have a conflict of interest?” to Yes. 
   
• You can also require reviewers to explain their conflict by checking the box next to “Make comment field required for reviewer to provide more detail on the conflict of interest.”
  
  Example: 

Reviewer Experience

1. When the conflict of interest question is required, reviewers see the following prompt after clicking the Add Feedback button in the upper-right corner of an application: "Before you begin, please tell us if you have a conflict of interest." 
   
   
    
2. They choose between two options: 

A. I have no conflict of interest and can review this application.

➜ What happens if this is selected: The feedback form loads for the reviewer to complete. 


 

B. I have a conflict of interest and will not be able to review this application.

➜ What happens if this is selected: 

• A text box appears, labeled “Please provide a brief explanation for the conflict of interest,” and the reviewer can enter their comment (If the comment field was marked as required when the review round was set up, the reviewer sees a red asterisk and can't continue without filling it in. If it wasn't marked as required, the field appears as Optional). 
   
• Once the reviewer submits their response, the review assignment is removed, and they cannot view the actual feedback form or submit feedback for that applicant. 
   

What Happens After a Reviewer Reports a Conflict? 

• The application stays in the reviewer's Review Assignments table, but as read-only; its status updates to “Declined.” If the reviewer opens the application and clicks the Add Feedback button in the upper-right corner, they can see their conflict of interest response.
  
  
  
   
• The Program Owner receives an email titled “Review Assignment Declined.” 
  
  

How to View the Reviewer's Comment on the Declined Assignment 

• Program admins can view the reviewer's comment in the review round: 

  • On an applicant's Review Assignments panel: Open the cycle, then select the review round from the left-hand menu; click the hyperlinked number in the Assignments column; in the Review Assignments panel that opens, review the details under "Reviewers Who Declined Assignment." 
    
    

   

How to Reassign a Declined Review Assignment

To reassign a declined review assignment, follow the steps in ➡️Reassign Declined Review Assignments. 

Related Articles

• ➡️Feedback Types and Setup in a Review Round.
• ➡️Assign Reviewers Manually
• ➡️Set Up a Review Round
• ➡️Reassign Declined Review Assignments

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