A reading room for the committee.
For thesis and dissertation committees, external examiners, fellowship and scholarship panels, search committees reading writing samples, and prize juries: a few named readers, the same documents, and a decision that has to hold up later.
Named readers · one rubric · a record of the decision
A committee reads a handful of documents closely, then has to agree. The documents travel as email attachments, each reader keeps notes their own way, and a year later nobody can say why the committee decided as it did.
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Attachments and a shared drive
Drafts go out by email, a revision arrives, and readers end up commenting on different versions.
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Every reader on a different scale
One reader writes a page of notes, another gives a number, a third says "strong". Putting them side by side takes a meeting.
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No record of why
When a candidate, a dean or an appeal asks how the decision was reached, the reasons are in five inboxes.
What a shelf does.
One shelf per candidate or search
Invite the readers by name. The documents are for the shelf's members, not the public.
The same criteria for every reader
Write the rubric once. Each reader scores against it, and highlights and comments on the document itself.
Scores side by side
The chair sees every reader's scores against each criterion on one page, with the places readers split marked, so the meeting starts where they disagree.
The record stays
Each review keeps who wrote it and when. Export the reviews to CSV or PDF for the file, or download everything on the shelf.
Reading alone, use the Mac app. Deciding together, open a free shelf.
A reader working alone, an external examiner for instance, can use TextShelf for Mac: free, no account, and the shelf stays in that reader's own iCloud Drive. A committee needs one place where every reader's scores meet, and that is a shelf on the web. A free shelf takes up to five readers. For a thesis or an examiner's reading, open an Academic Peer Review shelf; for a search committee, a Submission Review shelf.
Free — run a small call
100 submissions a year, 5 readers per shelf, unlimited shelves. Enough for most committees.
Standard — a program, a journal, a studio
Up to 1,000 submissions a year and unlimited readers, for a department that runs many searches or reviews a year. Billed once a year.
Organization — several programs
Up to 5,000 submissions a year. Custom branding, your own storage bucket, priority support. Billed once a year.
Priced by the submissions you take in each year. Nonprofit discounts on request; for larger programs and institutions, talk to us.