Requesting External Reviews in Interfolio: A Guide for Department Chairs

External reviews should be requested once the faculty candidate has submitted at minimum the CV and materials that they wish to share with external reviewers. Contact your college case manager if you are unsure whether the case is ready.

Be sure to initiate invitations early enough that reviewers have adequate time to respond before your department’s internal deadline. We recommend aligning your requested response date with your departmental timeline established in your bylaws.

There are several common reasons why you might not see your faculty candidate(s) cases when you log in to Interfolio. It may be that the faculty candidate hasn't finished and submitted uploading their CV and materials to share with external evaluators. Or, your college Interfolio case manager may not have yet finished configuring access to the review steps in the case to grant you chair access.

If you don't see a faclty candidate case as expected in Interfolio, contact your college Interfolio case manager.

When you send an invitation through Interfolio, the external evaluator receives an email with a secure, unique link. After accepting the invitation, they can view and download only the materials you designated for sharing—they do not have access to the candidate’s full packet or to any other part of NIU’s Interfolio system. Their access is both restricted and temporary.

When the invited external reviewer clicks the "View Request" link in the email they receive from Interfolio, they see in their web browser a page where they officially accept or decline serving as a reviewer. 

When they click the "I Accept" button, the page then updates to include links to the documents shared from the candidate packet as well as the link for the reviewer to upload and submit their review letter.

If an evaluator declines, their status in the External Evaluations section will update to “Declined.” You can then add a replacement evaluator using the same process. There is no limit to the number of invitations you can send. Consult your department bylaws for guidance on the minimum number of external evaluations required and whether declined invitations affect that count.

Yes. You can add new evaluators at any time by returning to the External Evaluations section and clicking “Add Evaluator.” If you need to withdraw an invitation that has already been sent, contact your college case manager or email interfolio@niu.edu for assistance.

Yes. Within the External Evaluations section, you can send a reminder email directly from Interfolio to any evaluator whose status is still “Invited” or “Accepted” and who has not yet submitted their letter. Interfolio also allows you to set automatic reminders before the response deadline.

Evaluators only see the materials from the candidate’s packet that are specifically designated for external review. These are documents the candidate uploaded to the section labeled “Materials to Share with External Evaluators.” As the department chair initiating the request, you will confirm and select which of those documents to include when setting up each invitation. If the candidate has not yet uploaded materials to that section, ask them or the case manager to do so before you send invitations.

Interfolio does not automatically notify candidates when external review invitations are sent. Follow the notification practices outlined in your department or school bylaws. Some bylaws require that candidates be informed of the names and affiliations of external evaluators prior to invitations being sent; others do not. Consult your bylaws and the Office of the Provost if you are unsure of your department’s requirements.