What it does

Access to a review cycle comes from two paths: administrative permission at the cycle's scope, or explicit membership on the cycle itself, managed from the Review Team panel. Membership lets specific people — such as committee reviewers — work in a cycle without broad admin permissions for the whole program or institution.

Who it's for

Administrators at the organization, institution, or program level see cycles in their scope automatically; non-administrator committee members, reviewers, and approvers reach a cycle through membership; the cycle owner is accountable for the review and receives its notifications.

How it works

Every cycle is scoped to an organization, an institution, or a program. Anyone with review viewing permission at that scope can open the cycle; anyone with review management permission there can change it.

Membership. Cycle membership adds people on top of that, from the Review Team panel on the cycle page. A member is attached to one cycle with a role — owner, reviewer, approver, or viewer — and a Can edit setting. Membership grants access to that cycle only:

Any member can open the cycle and see its evidence (subject to evidence privacy), findings, goals, and activity.
Members whose Can edit setting is on can also manage the cycle's content, the same as a scoped administrator.
Committee-level evidence is visible only to cycle members and managers, which is how sensitive material stays inside the review committee.

Import or add. The panel's button opens a sheet with two sources: search for a named Person, or pick an Existing group to import its active members in one step. A group must match the cycle's institution and program scope and have at least one active member. Otherwise the panel blocks the import and explains why. New people or groups join as reviewer with Can edit off. A manager adjusts the role or turns on edit access afterward.

Owner protection. When a cycle is created, its owner is added automatically as the first member with edit rights on. The owner receives the cycle's notifications — for example report-ready or feedback-summary events. The panel won't let you turn off edit access, change the role, or deactivate the last member who is both an owner and has Can edit on. Add a second owner first.

Before you start

To open the Review Team panel and see the roster, you need existing access to the cycle — as an assigned team member, a committee reviewer, or a scoped review manager.
To add or change members, you need cycle management access (scoped review-management permission, or membership with Can edit on).
To import a group, the group must belong to the cycle's institution, and, if the cycle is program-scoped, either be program-scoped to that program or institution-wide.

Do this

Open the review cycle's page (/reviews/:cycleId or the institution/organization equivalent) → you should see the cycle workspace with a Review Team card.
In the Review Team card, review the member-count badge (for example "3 members") and the member table → confirm the people and groups already on the team.
Select the Import or add button → the Add review team members sheet opens on the Person tab.
To add one person, search by name, ID, or email in the Search people field and select their row → they show as Selected. To add several at once, select the Existing group button, then search and select a group → the group's scope badge and active-member count appear.
Select the Add to review team button → you should return to the Review Team card and see the new member or group listed with the reviewer role and Can edit off.
To change a member's part in the review, open the role dropdown in their row and pick Owner, Reviewer, Approver, or Viewer → the row updates to the new role.
To let a member change cycle content, turn on Can edit in the member's row of the Review Team card → the switch shows on and the member gains edit access immediately.

You're done when

✓ The person or group appears in the Review Team table with the role and Can edit setting you set.
✓ The member-count badge reflects the new total.
✓ The added member can open the cycle and see the content their role and edit setting allow.

Boundaries and limits

Membership is per cycle. Being a member of one review cycle grants nothing on other cycles or elsewhere in the platform.
The role labels (owner, reviewer, approver, viewer) describe a member's part in the review. The Can edit setting actually controls change access — a member with it off can view but not modify, regardless of role.
The panel will not let you turn off Can edit, change the role away from owner, or deactivate the last member who is an owner with Can edit on. Add another owner first.
Importing a group adds its current active members as individual review-team members. There's no live link back, so later group changes don't update the review team automatically.
A group with no active members, or one outside the cycle's institution and program scope, cannot be imported — the sheet explains which blocked it.
Membership records cannot be hard-deleted; access is removed with the Deactivate access button, which keeps the record for audit history.
Evidence marked restricted or admin-only stays hidden from ordinary members; only cycle managers see it.

Common questions

Q: A faculty member needs to see one review but shouldn't be a program admin. What do we do? A: Open the cycle's Review Team panel, select Import or add, and add them as a person. They join as a reviewer without edit access; turn on Can edit if they also need to change content.

Q: Does the "approver" role unlock an approval button? A: No. Roles are descriptive labels for the committee. Whether a member can change anything is determined by their Can edit setting, changed with the switch in their row.

Q: Can I add a whole committee at once instead of one person at a time? A: Yes. In the Add review team members sheet, select Existing group and import a group scoped to the cycle's institution or program. Its active members join as reviewers in one step.

Q: Who gets notified about the cycle? A: The cycle owner receives notifications such as report-ready and feedback-summary announcements. Update requests notify the specific person they are assigned to.

Q: I removed someone by mistake. Can I bring them back? A: There's no undo button. Select Import or add, search for the person again, and add them back; they will start again as a reviewer without edit access.

Review Cycle Membership and Access