Auto Assign Reviewers
Automatically match papers with reviewers using keyword matching or AI-powered analysis
Auto Assign Reviewers matches papers with the most suitable reviewers based on expertise. Choose between free keyword matching or AI-powered analysis.
Getting Started
- Go to Submissions → Assignments for your track
- Click "Auto Assign" in the toolbar
This opens the auto-assignment page where you configure matching settings.
Matching Methods
Select your preferred matching method at the top of the page.
| Method | How It Works | Cost | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keyword | TF-IDF text similarity + keyword overlap | Free | Seconds |
| AI | Semantic analysis using large language models | ~3 credits/paper | ~1 min per 20 papers |
Keyword Matching
Analyzes text similarity between paper abstracts and reviewer research profiles using TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency). Also compares paper keywords with reviewer expertise tags.
Best for: Quick iterations, large tracks, budget-conscious assignments.
AI Matching
Uses AI to understand the semantic meaning of papers and reviewer expertise. Can identify matches even when different terminology is used for similar concepts.
Best for: Final assignment rounds, nuanced matching, highest accuracy needs.
Settings
Reviewers per Paper
How many reviewers to assign to each paper. Default: 3.
Max Papers per Reviewer
Upper limit on papers assigned to a single reviewer. Default: 5. Prevents any one reviewer from being overloaded.
Strategy
Fill Gaps Only (Default)
Only assigns reviewers to papers that don't have enough reviewers yet. Preserves any existing assignments.
Use when: You've already made some manual assignments and want to fill in the rest.
Fresh Start
Removes all existing assignments and generates a complete new set.
Use when: Starting over or regenerating all assignments from scratch.
Options
Enforce COI
Enabled by default. Prevents assigning reviewers who have conflicts with paper authors.
Conflicts are detected by:
- Matching institutional affiliations
- Matching email domains (excluding generic providers like Gmail)
- Declared conflicts in reviewer profiles
Balance Workload
When enabled, the algorithm favors distributing papers evenly across reviewers, even if it means slightly lower expertise matches.
Use when: You want to avoid overloading some reviewers while others have few papers.
Reviewers Without Research Profiles
Reviewers who haven't completed their research profile cannot be matched by expertise. They will be randomly assigned to fill remaining slots after all profiled reviewers are placed.
If you see a warning about reviewers without profiles:
- Click the link to go to the reviewers page
- Send reminder emails to reviewers without profiles
- Wait for profiles to be updated, then run auto-assign again
See Research Profiles for details on what reviewers should include.
Running Auto Assign
- Select your matching method (Keyword Matching or AI Matching)
- Adjust Reviewers per paper and Max papers per reviewer if needed
- Choose a strategy (Fill gaps only or Fresh start)
- Toggle options (Enforce COI, Balance workload)
- Click "Generate Assignments"
After generation completes, you'll see a suggestions page where you can:
- Review each proposed assignment
- See match scores and reasoning
- Accept or reject individual suggestions
- Apply accepted assignments in bulk
Tips for Best Results
- Ensure reviewers have profiles — The more complete the research profiles, the better the matching quality
- Use keywords on papers — Papers with topic keywords get better matches than those with only titles
- Start with Keyword method — It's free and fast, so you can iterate quickly
- Use AI for final round — When you need the highest quality matches and have credits available
- Check COI settings — Keep conflict checking enabled unless you have a specific reason to disable it