Individual Reviews

You must have a myUSGS account in order to log in to the NCGMP-Management System (MS).  

• Log in to https://my.usgs.gov/ncgmp/ to access the NCGMP-MS

You will see that your role is ‘rev’ (reviewer) next to your email address in the upper right-hand part of the menu. You should also see the Proposal Review List in the menu at the top and a link to access all your Reviews at the bottom of the logon page. If these are not present then please contact us. 

Finding Proposals I Need to Review

• Click on Proposal Review List in the top menu to access the proposals assigned for you to review

• Alternatively, click on the "Click to access all your Reviews"button at the bottom of the page

• If you click Reviews, you can see the proposals assigned for you to review

• Under the Review Proposal column select the proposal that you would like to review and click on the title of it under the Review Proposal column

On this screen you will also find the proposals that are assigned to you as the Lead Reviewer. Please remember that you are responsible for reviewing all proposals in your queue, however, you will only take the lead in discussions on those proposals that your are assigned as the Lead Reviewer.

Reviewing a Proposal

Once you have found the proposal you want to review (see above) you will be on a screen that reads: Your name and Review of "Title of Proposal"

To begin your proposal evaluation you will need to read the proposal documents.

• To access the proposal documents click on the Download button in the bottom left of the screen; the documents will download to your computer in a zip file

It is important that you use the Download button to download all proposal files.

 Pertinent files to review:

• ProjectNarrativeAttachments - This is the Proposal
• Form SF424_2_1-V2.1 - Application for Federal Assistance SF-424
• Form SF424A-V1.0 - Budget Information
• Example geologic map deliverable and pamphlet (if available) for StateMap
• Additional documents as needed

Rating A Proposal

After you have reviewed the proposal documents for each proposal you can begin rating the proposals.

• To begin rating a proposal, click Edit
  • When you click Edit you will see a list of criteria which you will use to rate the proposal 
  • You will see the criteria listed with their numerical weights indicated next to each; you will also be provided the criteria list by the NCGMP office
    
    
• Type in a rating (Input score from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest)) in each field next to the criterion and tab to go to the next criterion field  
  • Please remember to use the 0 to 10 rating scale for each criterion; 10 indicates that the proposal fully satisfied the benchmark and 0 indicates that the proposal did not satisfy it
    
    
• Please enter up to 3 Proposal Strengths and 3 Proposal Weaknesses in the dialog boxes provided
  • Short but descriptive responses in bullet form are acceptable and appreciated
  • These comments will be summarized in feedback to the proposal’s Principal Investigator
    
    
• Please provide an Overall Rating or funding recommendation using the scale provided; the scale indicates a rating from 1=Poor to 5=Excellent
  
  
• Finally, provide any additional information describing your rating about the proposal in the Comment section
  
  
• Click Update to save your review

You can update individual proposal reviews until the NCGMP office closes the Individual Proposal Reviews stage which is typically one week before the proposal evaluation panel meeting. After that time, you will be unable to access the proposals until the Group Proposal Reviews stage opens during the proposal evaluation panel meeting. At that time you will be able to revise your reviews during proposal discussions.

Updating a Proposal Review

• To update a proposal review you can go to the proposal and click Edit, then click Update to save your revision (see above Finding Proposals I Need to Review section).

Conflicts of Interest

If at anytime during the proposal review process you feel you cannot review an item due to a conflict of interest, please contact the NCGMP team.

Confirming That You Have Completed Your Reviews

It is important to review your assigned proposals to confirm that you have completed them. To easily determine if you successfully completed all assigned proposals, simply scroll through the proposals and refer to the Done column to verify that each one indicates 100%. If not, select the incomplete proposal and complete your rating.

• To do this, go back to the Home page by selecting the House icon in the upper left menu

• Next select the Proposal Review List in the top menu or click on the "Click to access all your Reviews" link at the bottom of the page 

On the next page you will be provided with a summary of all proposals that you reviewed (see example below)

• Scroll through your list of assigned proposals

• If you have finished rating your assigned proposals, the Done column will indicate 100%  

• Incomplete or partially completed items will have a lower percentage rating

Group Proposal Reviews

Log in to https://my.usgs.gov/ncgmp/ to access the NCGMP Management System (NCGMP-MS). You will see that your role is ‘rev’ (reviewer) next to your email address in the upper right-hand part of the menu. You should also have a Proposal Review List in the menu at the top and a link to access all of your reviews at the bottom of the login page. If these are not present then please contact us.

The group proposal review will be initiated the week of the proposal evaluation panel meeting. At that time, each panel member will be allowed to change their individual rating scores for each assigned proposal during proposal discussions. The average overall scores and statistical metrics will be provided in real-time to all panel members on their NCGMP-MS dashboard. 

Begin a Group Panel Session

To begin the group review, at the instruction of the proposal review panel chairperson, you will log in to the NCGMP-Management System (https://my.usgs.gov/ncgmp/) just as you did for the individual reviews. However, this time you will be participating in a face-to-face group panel meeting or WebEx with the NCGMP team.

Find Your Reviews

• Select Proposal Review List in the black menu bar at the top of the page, to access all of the reviews that you completed in the individual review stage
  
  
  • You will see a summarized list of all proposals that you reviewed

Filter by RFP

If you want, you can filter the Review Proposal List by the name of the RFP by clicking on the drop-down arrow next to the RFP box in the top left of the Review Proposal List

Select or Search for an Individual Proposal

The Panel Chairperson will begin the group review and lead the panel through each proposal.

• To select or search for an individual proposal by name, use the Proposal drop-down box or type the name of the state or university that you are searching for in the box

• When you find the proposal to be discussed, click on the proposal title under the Review Proposal heading to open it

This will take you to the familiar proposal rating tool that you used in the Individual Review stage.

You may also want to review the Proposal by clicking on the Proposal menu option at the top (we suggest right clicking and opening it in a new tab so it is easy to see your review and the proposal at the same time).

You will then have the option to download the documents again or to revise your rating using the Edit button. 

Editing Your Review

• Log in and find your review (see previous sections)

• To revise your criteria ratings and/or text click the Edit button at the bottom left of the page

• Make changes to any of the fields, then click Update to save your changes; you may do this at any time during the group review stage

• Don’t forget to save your changes by clicking UPDATE!
  

How to Read and Interpret Your Review Proposal List During the Group Review Phase

• When you log in to the NCGMP-MS and select Proposal Review List in the top left, you will see a list of all proposals assigned to you that you have previously rated

Column Definitions/Glossary

RFP Column

The name of the RFP that the proposals you reviewed are collected under.

Review Proposal Column

The location of the proposals you reviewed.

Lead Reviewer Column

This is the column where the person who is the lead reviewer on a proposal is listed - this person might have additional responsibilities during the group review.

Wt. Column

Weight - this column lists the weight your review has

Done Column

The % of the review that is complete. Ideally this should read 100%.

The Score Column

The Score column provides four pieces of information: a large number with three smaller numbers to the its right.  These are described below.

• The large number is the score that you originally gave the proposal during the individual review or the revised score during the group review.  
• The first number to the right of the large number is the average (ag.) score of all panel members
• The middle number is the average deviation (ad.) 
• The last number is the standard deviation (sigma) based on all panel members ratings

Please be aware that all of these (small) numbers will change based on individual panel members’ revised ratings. To get the most up to date scores, you must refresh this page in your web browser. In our next iteration of the software this will be updated automatically.

The Previous Score Column

The Previous Score column provides three pieces of information indicated by a large number with three smaller numbers to the its right.  

• The large number is the score that you originally gave the proposal during the individual review and is locked at the end of this phase.

  While the Score column large number will change if you update your review during the group review, the Previous Score’s large number will stay the same to remind you how you originally scored the project.

• The first number to the right of the "large" number is the average (ag.) score of all panel members
• The last number is the standard deviation (sigma) based on all panel members ratings

Please be aware that all of these (small) numbers will change based on individual panel members’ revised ratings. To get the most up to date rating scores, you have to refresh this page in your web browser. In our next iteration of the software this will be updated automatically.

Comment Column

This is where comments that you made about the project when you reviewed it are kept.

Rating Column

This is the 1-5 rating that you gave the project when you reviewed it.