Reviews of submissions are governed by two key settings: Reviewer Allocation (how submissions are assigned) and Review Privacy (what reviewers and submitters can see).

A submission can only be reviewed by users assigned as reviewers. Likewise, reviewers may only access submissions explicitly assigned to them.

Manual: Submissions are manually assigned to reviewers. This method can be time-consuming but is sometimes necessary when assignment rules are highly specific.

Automatic: Random: Submissions are randomly distributed among members of the assigned Reviewer Group in the currently active Review Phase.

Automatic: Queue: Submissions are assigned to the reviewer with the fewest outstanding reviews. This helps balance the workload among reviewers based on their current queue.

Automatic: Smart (Beta): Uses observed reviewer behavior to estimate when a submission is likely to be reviewed. The system then assigns the submission to the reviewer predicted to complete it the fastest.

Note: A submission must be assigned before it can be reviewed.

To reduce bias and preserve impartiality, some identifying information may be hidden from either reviewers or submitters.

Collaboration: Reviewers can see the author’s name, and submission authors can see who reviewed their submission.

Blind Review: Reviewers cannot see the author’s name. Authors cannot see reviewer names; however, reviewers can see each other's reviews.

Anonymous: Extends blind review by also preventing reviewers from seeing each other's evaluations.