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Independence rules

Recuse assessors automatically from applications they are connected to, by email domain or by a name in a tagged field.

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An independence rule recuses an assessor automatically when they are assigned an application they are connected to. The conflict is declared for them, marked COI Recused, and listed under Conflicts of interest with the rule's name. Rules run only in assessment rounds that ask assessors to declare conflicts of interest.

Before you start

You need to be able to view the organisation's settings. The page appears as the Independence rules tab of Settings > Organisation when Assessments is turned on for your organisation.

Add a rule

  1. Go to Settings > Organisation and open the Independence rules tab.
  2. Select New Rule and enter a Name.
  3. Choose a Type:
    • Email domain match recuses an assessor whose email address has the same domain as the applicant's. Public email domains, such as gmail.com and outlook.com, are ignored: sharing one is never a match.
    • Named in a field recuses an assessor whose name or email address appears in the answer to the field carrying the Field Tag you choose. If the tag you want is not listed, type part of its name in Search Field Tags and the list shows the tags that match.
  4. Leave Assessment Round as every round, or choose one round that asks for declarations. Only rounds that ask for declarations are listed; search by the round's name to find an older one. A round with no name is listed as Untitled round (ID n), where n is its ID.
  5. Leave Run this rule ticked, then select Save.

Both lists show the first 50 choices, in name order (rounds with no name come last). When more match, select Show more under the list to add the next 50; it appears again until every match is listed. Changing the search starts the list again from the first 50 that match the new search.

A rule is checked whenever assessors are assigned. An assessor who has already declared no conflict is left untouched, and the match is logged.

Change, disable or delete a rule

Open a rule's menu and select Edit, Disable or Enable. A disabled rule recuses no one new; the recusals it already made are kept.

A rule that has matched cannot be deleted, because it is kept in the record of those assessments. Disable it instead. View matches lists every match a rule made.

See also

This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.