review-lifecycle

name	review-lifecycle
description	Skill for managing the full peer review lifecycle: intake validation, reviewer dispatch, review collection, editorial synthesis, revision cycles, re-review, and convergence determination.

Review Lifecycle

Use this skill when managing the end-to-end peer review process. The lifecycle follows a strict state machine with well-defined transitions.

State Machine

SUBMITTED → INTAKE → (DESK_REJECT | IN_REVIEW)
IN_REVIEW → SYNTHESIS → (ACCEPTED | REVISION | REJECTED)
REVISION → RE_REVIEW → CONVERGENCE_CHECK → (ACCEPTED | REVISION | EXHAUSTED)

Phase Transitions

SUBMITTED → INTAKE

Triggered by: /review <folder>

Actions:

1. Validate folder structure
2. Parse metadata.yaml
3. Run compilation check
4. Hash all artifacts
5. Initialize .review/ workspace

State update:

phase: INTAKE
round: 0

INTAKE → DESK_REJECT

Triggered by: validation failure (missing required files, won't compile)

Actions:

1. Produce desk reject report with specific failures
2. List exactly what needs to be fixed

State update:

phase: DESK_REJECT
round: 0
terminal: true
reason: "<specific validation failures>"

INTAKE → IN_REVIEW

Triggered by: validation passes

Actions:

1. Construct 3 reviewer profiles
2. Create isolated worktrees
3. Dispatch reviewer agents (blinded)
4. Optionally dispatch Reproducibility Auditor

State update:

phase: IN_REVIEW
round: 1
reviewers_dispatched: [alpha, beta, gamma]
auditor_dispatched: true | false

IN_REVIEW → SYNTHESIS

Triggered by: all 3 reviews collected

Actions:

1. Verify all review YAML files exist and are valid
2. Dispatch Associate Editor
3. AE produces meta-review and decision

State update:

phase: SYNTHESIS
round: 1
reviews_collected: [alpha, beta, gamma]

SYNTHESIS → ACCEPTED

Triggered by: AE decision = "accept"

Actions:

1. Produce camera-ready package
2. Generate review certificate
3. Archive all review materials

SYNTHESIS → REJECTED

Triggered by: AE decision = "reject"

Actions:

1. Produce detailed rejection report
2. Include actionable guidance for resubmission
3. Archive all review materials

SYNTHESIS → REVISION

Triggered by: AE decision = "major_revision" or "minor_revision"

Actions:

1. Dispatch Revision Agent with action items
2. Wait for revised submission

REVISION → RE_REVIEW

Triggered by: revision package complete

Actions:

1. Send revision to all 3 reviewers
2. Include response letter and meta-review (unblinding)
3. Each reviewer produces re-review

RE_REVIEW → CONVERGENCE_CHECK

Triggered by: all 3 re-reviews collected

Actions:

1. AE re-synthesizes
2. Check convergence criteria:
   • All reviewers recommend accept/accept_minor?
   • No unresolved critical concerns?
   • No new blocking concerns?

CONVERGENCE_CHECK → ACCEPTED / REVISION / EXHAUSTED

Decision:

• All pass → ACCEPTED
• Issues remain and round < max_rounds → REVISION (iterate)
• round ≥ max_rounds or diminishing returns → EXHAUSTED

Diminishing Returns Detection

Track mean score across rounds:

Round 1: mean = X.X
Round 2: mean = Y.Y  (Δ = Y.Y - X.X)
Round 3: mean = Z.Z  (Δ = Z.Z - Y.Y)

If Δ ≤ 0.3 for 2 consecutive rounds → EXHAUSTED

State File Format

The state file at .review/state.yaml tracks the full lifecycle:

phase: "<current phase>"
round: <current round number>
max_rounds: 3
created: "<ISO 8601>"
last_updated: "<ISO 8601>"
submission_hash: "<SHA-256>"
venue: "<venue_target>"
paper_type: "<paper_type>"
decisions:
  - round: 1
    decision: "major_revision"
    timestamp: "<ISO 8601>"
  - round: 2
    decision: "accepted"
    timestamp: "<ISO 8601>"
terminal: true | false
terminal_reason: "<reason if terminal>"