Release Decisions & Reviews to Authors
Configure when authors see decisions and reviews, then release results per phase
PaperFox keeps a submission's outcome private while you work, then releases it to authors on your signal. Two things control this:
- Two per-track settings decide what waits for release — when authors see decisions, and when they see reviews.
- One "Release" button per phase is the moment those results reach that phase's authors.
You configure the settings once per track, then release each phase when you're ready. Recording a decision is always private work until then — you can deliberate, change, or clear it without anything reaching the author.
Release, publish, and share
Three different words in PaperFox, on purpose. Release sends a phase's decisions and reviews to its authors (this page), and, on the assignments page, a phase's review assignments to its reviewers (see Assign Reviewers). Publish makes something public to the world — your program, website, or public registrant list. Share hands one specific document to a specific audience — a paper's AI review to its authors or to one reviewer — and takes effect immediately, independent of release.
Who can release results?
Conference chairs, track chairs, and senior editors can configure visibility settings and release or hide results for any phase in their track. Conference chairs can also release a phase in every track at once.
Choose What Authors See
Go to your track management page (Conferences → your conference → your track) and find the Review Management section. Click "Review Settings" to expand the settings — the collapsed row shows a one-line summary of the current values. Two dropdowns sit under Review Type — both save automatically when you pick an option.
Decision Visibility to Authors — when authors see the accept/reject/revision decision:
| Option | Authors see the decision… |
|---|---|
| When Released (default) | Once you release the phase's results |
| Immediately When Recorded | The moment you enter it |
Review Visibility to Authors — when authors see the reviewer scores, comments, and files:
| Option | Authors see the reviews… |
|---|---|
| When Released, After Decision (default) | After you release, once their submission also has a decision |
| When Released | As soon as you release — no decision required |
| Immediately When Submitted | The moment each reviewer submits — no release step |
The two settings are independent. A common combination beyond the defaults: set Review Visibility to Immediately When Submitted while leaving Decision Visibility at When Released — reviews stream to authors as they come in, but the decision stays private until you announce it.
Release from the Decisions Page
Open the Reviews & Decisions page for your track. A banner sits at the top, above the statistics cards.
When the phase hasn't been released, the banner is amber:
- Click the Release button on the right
- Confirm in the dialog
The button names exactly what a click will reveal, based on your two settings — "Release Decisions & Reviews" when both are waiting, or "Release Decisions" / "Release Reviews" when only one is. Once released, the banner turns green and shows who released and when:
No release step needed?
If you set both Decision Visibility and Review Visibility to their "Immediately" options, nothing waits on release — the banner becomes a plain note instead of a button, because everything reaches authors as it's recorded or submitted.
Release in All Tracks at Once
A conference with many tracks would otherwise need one visit to each track's Reviews & Decisions page. Conference chairs don't have to: the choice is offered right where you already are.
From the track you're on
Click "Release Decisions & Reviews" as usual. When another track still holds the phase unreleased, the dialog adds a scope choice:
- Leave "This track only" selected to release just this track — the default, so nothing changes if you don't look
- Pick "All N tracks" to release every track at once
The banner behind it counts the tracks you haven't reached yet ("Also unreleased in 1 other track"), so you can see the choice is worth making before you open the dialog. Once this track is released, its green banner keeps that count and gains a "Release in All Tracks" button for the rest.
From the Conference Phases page
The same switches are tallied per phase at Conferences → your conference → Phases. Each phase card carries two rows: assignments to reviewers, and decisions and reviews to authors.
- Click "Release in All Tracks" on the row you want
- Confirm in the dialog — it states how many tracks the release reaches and how many submissions have a decision in that phase across them
Only tracks that are still unreleased flip. A track you already released from its own page keeps its original release date and releaser, so its banner still reads "released on … by …". Once every track is released, the tally turns green and the button is replaced by "Hide in All Tracks", which hides the phase everywhere in one step.
Tracks with custom phases are not included
The all-tracks switch follows the conference phase structure, so a track you unlinked with Custom Phases keeps its own release control — release it from its own Reviews & Decisions page. The dialog reminds you when such tracks exist.
Release While Sending Decision Emails
When you send a decision letter (Acceptance, Major Revision, Rejection, etc.) from the Notify menu, a confirm dialog appears with a "Release this phase's results with this email" toggle, defaulted OFF.
- Leave the toggle off and authors get the email, but their decision and reviews stay hidden on PaperFox until you release from the Decisions page. Do that once every decision letter has gone out — the safe order for the common "accepts first, rejects later" send.
- Turn it on to release with the send — but note the release is phase-wide, not limited to the authors you are emailing.
Reviews in the letter before release
Decision letter templates end with a {{paperReviews}} block that embeds each reviewer's comments to the authors. That block follows the same release gate as the author pages: while the phase is unreleased, the letter says the reviews will be available on PaperFox once the results are published, instead of quoting them.
Click "Preview Email" and the preview tells you when that is the case — an amber notice counts the completed reviews the letter leaves out and links to the Decisions page.
Tick "Preview with reviews" to see the letter as it will read once the phase is released, reviews included. The toggle only changes the preview (and a test email to yourself): the letter you send embeds the reviews only if you release the phase with the send, or release it from the Decisions page first.
Releasing with the send publishes the whole phase
Release state lives on the phase, not on the email. Turning the toggle on publishes decisions and reviews for every decided submission in the phase — including authors whose letters you have not sent yet. If you send acceptances on Monday and rejections on Friday, releasing with the Monday send lets the rejected authors read their decision and every reviewer comment four days before their letter arrives.
The toggle only appears for decision-letter templates. A generic blast or a non-decision template never releases results.
Hide a Released Phase
If you released by mistake, click "Hide from Authors" in the green banner. The phase goes back to unreleased, and authors who haven't opened their pages yet stop seeing results.
Hiding isn't a full undo
Authors who already opened their reviews page have already seen the content. Hiding only affects authors who haven't viewed them yet — use it to catch a mistake quickly, not as a routine "preview, then release" workflow.
Multi-Phase Tracks
Release is per phase. Releasing Phase 1: Submission doesn't touch Phase 2: Camera Ready or any later phase. Switch phases using the Phase selector at the top-right of the Reviews & Decisions page — each phase has its own banner and its own release state.
This lets you run a private second-round review without exposing it to authors until you're ready. The all-tracks switch on the Conference Phases page is per phase too — each phase card has its own tally and button.
What Authors See
Until a phase is released (and, in the default review setting, until their submission also has a decision), authors see their submission as Under Review with no decision or review content — regardless of what you've recorded privately. After release, they see their decision, full review scores and comments, and any reviewer-attached files marked visible to authors, according to the two settings above.
Chair preview of the author view
When a chair visits the author reviews page at /submissions/{slug}/reviews, PaperFox shows the author preview — gated exactly as the author would see it, with a yellow banner reminding you that scores and reviewer identities are hidden. Use the Management view link on the banner to switch back to the unrestricted chair view.
Management views are never gated
Track chairs, conference chairs, senior editors, associate editors, and the reviewers themselves always see decisions and completed reviews on the Reviews & Decisions page as soon as they come in. Releasing only affects the author-facing pages.
See Also
- Make Decisions on Submissions — record and update decisions
- Send Notifications — full guide to the notification composer