A criterion is one scored dimension of a competition's evaluation, and every criterion carries its own minimum and maximum score. New criteria are created with a range of 1 to 10. Criteria attach to an evaluation round rather than to the competition or to any single entry, so every entry in that round is scored on the same set.
The short answer on adding your own: any juror can propose a criterion, but a proposed criterion starts unverified, is visible to nobody but the person who created it, and is not attached to any round until UNI attaches it.
What happens to scores already recorded when a criterion is added
Organizers should read this before touching a round that is already in progress.
- No score is deleted or altered. Everything already recorded stays exactly as it was recorded.
- Completion is counted, not matched. An entry reads as fully evaluated for a juror when the number of scores that juror has saved against it is at least the number of verified criteria on the round.
- So adding a verified criterion raises the bar by one for every entry at once. Each entry the juror had already finished drops back to Partially evaluated until the new criterion is scored on it. The dashboard counts move without anyone having changed a score.
- After the round's deadline, the gap cannot be closed. Scoring past the deadline is refused with "The evaluation round has ended. Scoring is no longer allowed." A criterion added once the deadline has passed leaves every entry permanently one score short.
- Removing a criterion works the other way. The bar drops, entries read as fully evaluated again, and the scores recorded against the removed criterion remain stored and remain in the averages.
Organizers: settle the criteria set before the round opens. If a criterion genuinely has to be added mid-round, add it while the deadline is still ahead and tell the jury, because their queue will have grown.
Jurors: if your counts jumped overnight, a changed criteria set is the first thing to check. Juror dashboard counts look stale covers the other cause.
Scores are whole numbers, whatever the slider does
The score stored against a criterion is a whole number. The scoring slider on journal and publication entries moves in half steps, while the slider on project entries moves in whole steps, and a half point that reaches the server is cut down to the whole number below it. A 7.5 is stored as a 7.
Two consequences for organizers setting a range:
- Do not set a range that implies decimals. It will not survive the save.
- A range gives you as many usable values as it has whole numbers in it. A 1 to 5 range gives five, not nine.
A score outside the range is refused outright, with "Score must be between" and the two numbers. Changing a range later does not revisit scores already saved. Narrowing a maximum from 10 to 5 leaves the existing 8s in place, outside the new range and still counting in the averages, so set the range before the round starts rather than after.
Adding your own criterion, as a juror
A criterion you create is saved unverified and credited to you. Until a UNI admin verifies it:
- Nobody else can see it, and nobody else can score against it.
- It does not appear in your scoring list, because the panel only shows criteria attached to the round. So a criterion you propose is easy to lose track of entirely.
- Scores you record against it do not move you towards completion on any entry, because only verified criteria are counted.
Proposing a criterion is a suggestion to UNI, not a change to the round. To get a dimension added to a competition you are judging, ask the organizer or UNI.