Diversity of your Review Panel

4 – The Review Process:

To reduce bias amongst your reviewers, ensure that your review panel is diverse. Sometimes, it may not be possible to have a panel, and an individual may be conducting the reviews, however this should be avoided as far as possible.

When approaching members to make up your review panel, keep your diversity goals in mind. You may also wish to use your advisory representatives to:

Check whether you are missing any key demographics
To recommend possible reviewers.

It may be helpful to put together a long list and approach members in an order which means you can still reach out to diverse panellists if people initially decline. You should also be mindful not to overburden people who may already be facing barriers at work.

If all applicants are not considered by the same review panel (more likely in funding calls than job applications) you will want to ensure that you take measures to deal with the fact that different reviewers will use different scoring systems. Consider normalising scores or using code to adjust the overall applicant rankings by uncertainty in the reviewer scores (e.g., McElreath’s code).

SECTION 4: The Review Process

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NEXT: Reviewer Guidance and Training

Clear guidance around the review process will help to reduce unconscious bias.