Judging

Judging brings together everything you need to run fair, defensible evaluation. Choose a voting method, set up your judge panel, configure how entries are distributed, and let judges score independently.

How the page is organized

The Judging page has three sections, top to bottom:

• Scoring: the voting method, criteria, and round options. Click Edit scoring to open the editor and Hide scoring to collapse it back to a one-line summary ("Judges score each entry on 4 criteria, 10-point scale.").
• Audience Voting (only when public voting is on) and Judge Voting: the assignment mode, your judges, and their progress.
• Conflicts of interest: every recusal judges have declared, with an export.

On a multi-round program, a Judging rounds card sits above everything and the round you select scopes the whole page: the Scoring editor edits that round's method and criteria, and Judge Voting shows that round's panel and assignment mode.

Pick a voting method

AwardKit supports two voting methods. Choose based on how detailed you want scoring to be:

• Score Criteria: judges score every entry on weighted criteria you define (Impact, Innovation, etc.). Best for professional awards programs where you want the scoring to be auditable.
• Top Picks: judges pick and rank their favorite entries (no per-criterion scoring). Best for shortlist rounds, smaller programs, or when you want gut-feel evaluation.

While your program is in Test mode, you can switch methods and edit criteria freely; the editor warns that "Changing the setup resets your test scores." Once the program is live and judges have cast real votes, the method and criteria lock for that round.

Set the judging window

Judging opens only when you give it dates. On the Overview page, the lifecycle bar has a Judging step with Opens and Closes fields, and a Use timeline dates shortcut that prefills them from your entries and results dates. With no judging dates set, the judge portal stays closed ("This judging portal opens during the program's judging window."). On multi-round programs each round carries its own dates; see Judging rounds.

Build your judge panel

Add judges one by one or import a CSV of last year's panel. Every judge gets a unique link, no account required.

For programs with conflict-of-interest considerations, configure judge assignment so each judge only sees the entries they're qualified to evaluate. Judges can also recuse themselves from an entry, which excludes their score and logs the conflict for your audit trail.

Scoring is per category

When an entry is submitted to more than one category, it's judged independently in each one. The same work can advance in one category and be cut in another, and can win a different award in each. Each category is scored on one rubric: your default rubric, or its own if you give it one. See Voting methods.

If a category has no criteria at all (for example, every category has its own rubric except one that you emptied), the page shows a warning ("1 category has no scoring criteria") so you can fix it before judges arrive.

Judge without seeing who entered

Flip the Blind judging tile in Round Options and judges score the work without names, team members, or file names. Questions you mark Hide from judges on the entry form are stripped before the page reaches a judge's browser. Blindness is set per round, so a blind screening round can feed an open final. See Blind judging.

Run multiple rounds (optional)

Large programs often judge in stages: a broad Screening round narrows the field to a shortlist, then a smaller Final jury scores the finalists. Each round has its own dates, panel, criteria, assignment mode, and blind setting. Add a round with Add judging round next to Edit scoring, and advance the shortlist between rounds from the Results page. See Judging rounds.

Let the public vote (optional)

For People's Choice awards or community engagement, flip the Public voting tile in Round Options (off by default). On multi-round programs this is set per round. Anyone with the link can vote, no account needed. Audience votes are tallied separately from judge scores so you can publish a "People's Choice" alongside the juried winners. See Voting methods.

Judging in Test mode

Until you go live, judges and voters who open their links see a Test mode preview. banner. Their scores are test scores: they never lock your setup, you can clear them with Reset votes in the Scoring editor, and going live wipes every vote and winner along with the sample data. See Test mode and going live.

What's next?