If you are assigned a submission you should not or cannot review, you may be able to decline it instead of scoring it. Reviewers commonly decline because of a conflict of interest, limited subject expertise, or limited time.
Before You Begin
Prerequisites
- The submission’s round must allow reviewers to decline. If the round does not allow declines, you will not see a decline option.
- You must still have an outstanding assignment for that submission in its current round. You cannot decline an assignment you have already reviewed or already declined.
Decline an Assignment
- Open your reviewer list for the space and find the submission on your Needs My Review tab.
- Select Submit Review to open the assignment, then choose the option to decline instead of scoring it.
- Choose a decline reason from the list the association provides. Some rounds show only the reasons allowed for that round.
- Add a comment if you want to explain why you are declining.
- Send the decline.
Result
The assignment moves to declined. It no longer appears in your outstanding list and appears with your declined assignments instead. You can still see it there, but you cannot take further action.
Warning
A comment you add here replaces anything already written in the assignment’s notes, including a note staff may have added. If you want to keep an earlier note, copy it into your comment before you send the decline.
Why You Might Not Be Able to Decline
The decline option is meant for reviewers to use themselves, but Rhythm currently accepts a decline only from someone who administers the review team for that assignment. That includes a team role of administrator, or administrator and reviewer combined. If your team role is reviewer only, the decline option may still appear, but Rhythm refuses the decline when you send it. If that happens, ask your team administrator or the association’s staff to record the decline for you.
Declining works only for reviewers who have an individual assignment record, such as one created by round-robin or manual assignment. If you were assigned automatically because you belong to a team covering the bucket, and there is no individual assignment behind it, there is nothing for the decline to update and the option will not be available. An administrator sets up the reasons reviewers can choose from Submissions & Reviews's Setup › Reviews › Decline Reasons for the space.
Rhythm does not have a built-in way to recuse a reviewer from a submission they also submitted, including in blind rounds where the reviewer might not otherwise realize the connection. If that is a concern for your association, handle it through team assignment or manual oversight rather than a Rhythm setting.
Declining is final from your side. After you decline, you cannot undo it yourself. If you change your mind, ask a team administrator or staff to reset your assignment back to not yet reviewed.
Tip
Rhythm does not check the round’s status or deadline when you decline, so you can decline an assignment even after the round has technically closed. Declining does not check your submission timing the way completing a review does.
Related Reading
To find the submissions waiting for your review before deciding whether to score or decline one, see Find the Submissions Waiting for Your Review. If you want to complete and later revisit a review instead of declining it, see Change or Read Your Review in the Portal.