Rejoinders

Overview

The selection process for ARC schemes includes assessments by external peer reviewers in parallel with the assessment, moderation and overall ranking provided by an ARC College of Experts Panel and/or Selection Advisory Committee.

The purpose of the Rejoinder process is to allow applicants to respond to assessment comments made by external assessors. The assessment comments provided by external assessors are made available to applicants prior to the final assessments conducted by the Selection Advisory Committee. This also provides an important feedback mechanism that can help researchers when drafting future applications.

Rejoinders are not viewed by external assessors but are considered by an ARC College of Experts Panel or Selection Advisory Committee when deciding the overall ranking of an application. It is therefore important to carefully review the comments provided by external assessors and provide clear responses to any points raised.

Applicants should keep the following points in mind when preparing a Rejoinder:

Rejoinders should be written in a clear and concise manner.
Rejoinder text is limited to 5000 characters (including spaces). Pictures, graphs or other documents cannot be inserted or attached.
The purpose of a Rejoinder is to clarify any perceived weaknesses in the application identified by external assessors. The Rejoinder should respond directly to assessor comments, addressing any misunderstanding or difference of opinion in a constructive manner. Positive comments by the assessor do not need to be addressed.
As noted in the scheme Grant Guidelines, applications must contain all the necessary information for assessment. Rejoinders should draw only on information already provided in the application. New information, including new research results/methods, should not be provided.
Rejoinders should not include reference to any new awards, appointments or publications which may have occurred in the time since the submission of the application. Track records and publication histories are assessed as at the time of application submission and therefore no updates should be provided.
Rejoinders should not include any information that was left out of or incorrectly entered in the original application. Modification to the application can only be made if requested by the ARC.
Rejoinders should not include any information relevant to scheme round eligibility. Eligibility issues are dealt with in a process separate to and independent of the peer review process.
Rejoinders should not include any messages to the ARC. Rejoinders are provided to an ARC College of Experts Panel or Selection Advisory Committee for assessment purposes and are not reviewed by the ARC.

The Rejoinder Process

A notice will be published on the ARC website and a network message sent to Research Offices when assessor reports are available and the Rejoinder period opens. The first named Participant on each application will also receive an automated email informing them of the opening of the Rejoinder period.

Researchers involved in applications submitted to the ARC are strongly advised to maintain contact with their Research Office during the selection cycle.

Assessor reports and Rejoinder Forms are made available to Applicants via the Research Management System (RMS).

Research Offices can access assessments and Rejoinder text from RMS.

Instructions for accessing the assessments and Rejoinder text, and submitting Rejoinders are available below.

Research Management System—User Guide: Submitting a Rejoinder in RMS – PDF Format (604KB) – Word Format (749KB)

Rejoinder Dates

The period for submitting Rejoinders is not fixed but is normally one to two weeks and due as per the Grant Guidelines. An indicative time period is listed on the ARC Grants Calendar page prior to the opening of the Rejoinder period to provide a general guide as to when the Rejoinder process will take place. The exact dates will be provided with the Grant Opportunity on the GrantConnect website and on the ARC Grants Calendar page once the Rejoinder period opens.

Late requests will not be accepted except in exceptional circumstances.

Requesting the ARC to review an Assessment

Overview

During the Rejoinder period, the participants and Research Office staff may identify an assessment that contains inappropriate elements, as detailed below, and may wish to have this reviewed by the ARC.

Before submission of an assessment review request, please refer to the following criteria that may be alleged to apply to an assessment:

Defamatory comment/s
Evidence of assessor conflict of interest
Evidence of assessor breach of confidentiality
Discriminatory/biased comments
Scores included within the assessment text
Assessment text that refers to a different application in error
Comments in the assessment regarding application eligibility
Text or comments produced by the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology

Additional information regarding quality assessments can be found on the ARC’s Peer Review Resources page, including the definition of a quality assessment and examples of good and bad assessments.

Process:

To request the ARC to review an assessment, an ARC Assessment Review Request form (PDF Format - Word Format) must be submitted through the Research Office of the Administering Organisation. The form must:

Have all fields completed, including an adequate justification. Incomplete forms will not be processed or responded to;
Meet one or more of the criteria that may be selected for review;
Be certified by the Research Office Manager level or equivalent; and
Be received within 3 working days after opening of the Rejoinder period for all NCGP schemes.

Completed forms should be emailed from the Administering Organisation Research Office to ARC-NCGP@arc.gov.au.

Late requests will not be accepted, except in exceptional circumstances.

On receipt of a completed request form, the ARC will:

acknowledge receipt of the form via email to the Administering Organisation
review the request
decide upon a course of action
notify the Administering Organisation of the decision via email.

It is at the absolute discretion of the ARC, which course of action will be undertaken, including:

Determining that no change is required to an assessment—where the decision is not to change, alter or remove the assessment, Administering Organisations will be advised that participants should address all assessor comments within their Rejoinder.
Requesting the assessor to amend assessment text—the ARC will attempt to contact the detailed assessor and ask that they modify the assessment text.

The ARC will not make recommendations or provide advice to assessors on the content of their assessments except in reference to the inappropriate assessment criteria. In order to maintain a process that is independent of the ARC, only assessments that meet the strict criteria as detailed on the Review Request form will be requested to be amended.

In the event that the assessment text cannot be amended by an assessor, the ARC will decide whether the assessment should remain or should be removed from the peer review process and the Administering Organisation will be advised of the outcome.
- If the assessment is removed, it will no longer be visible in RMS and will no longer be part of the peer review process.
- If the assessment remains, Administering Organisations will be advised that participants should address all assessor comments within their Rejoinder.
Removing the assessment—where the decision is to remove the assessment from the peer review process, this will be actioned by the ARC with notification via email to the Administering Organisation. The assessment will no longer be visible in RMS and will no longer be part of the peer review process. Only assessments that meet the strict criteria as detailed on the Review Request form will be removed.

Reviews will be carried out in a timely manner to assist Administering Organisations and participants to complete their Rejoinder as soon as possible. Please be prepared to finalise your Rejoinder immediately after notification of the outcome.