Abstracts ratings draft for review

Dear Steering Committee,

Attached for your consideration is a draft of the rating scales we intend to send to abstract reviewers.  If you have questions and/or comments please send them along by NOVEMBER 22.  (Ed - please comment by reply email and we will post or click "please review and comment here" above and use the comments block - thanks).

Please note that there are different variations for each of the five main session formats:

- Oral/poster Presentation
- Pre-formed Panel
- Comm Talk
- Multimedia Showcase
- Skills-Building Workshop

Please also note that for each session format, there are variations (where appropriate) for Research-oriented and Program-oriented submissions and for submissions under Theme 1 and Theme 2.

In general, the first five scales in each version address the main criteria that the website says apply to all submissions, while the latter part of each set of scales is tailored to the specific criteria the website says apply to that particular type of submission. The variations for Comm Talks, Multimedia and Skills-buildling sessions are a little different from the Oral/Poster and Pre-formed Panel variations because the nature of those sessions is different.

While this looks like a lot of pages, most reviewers will only be using one of the variations, because we will match reviewers to specific types of submissions. Also, most abstracts will be rated on 8 scales (panels have 10), plus an overall rating (Definitely Accept, Accept if there is room, Definitely Reject) and an option to provide verbal feedback to the submitter and/or to the selection committee, if you wish.

We tried to keep the items as simple and clean as possible and to use language consistent with what appears on the website. Each item is accompanied by a question that attempts to explain what the scale is trying to assess.

Your feedback on these scales is welcomed.

This information will be sent with further explanation to reviewers and once we get your feedback, we’ll also do some internal testing to make sure it works as anticipated before we send out.

Doug & Caroline

(Ed - please comment by reply email and we will post or click "please review and comment here" above and use the comments block - thanks).