# The Proposal Auto-Categorizer and Manager for Time Allocation Review at Space Telescope Science Institute

## TL;DR

PACMan is a Bayesian-based tool designed to automate and improve the consistency of proposal categorization and reviewer assignment for space telescope proposals, reducing subjective bias and workload.

## Contribution

The paper introduces PACMan, a novel automated system that replicates human decision-making in proposal categorization and reviewer assignment for space telescopes.

## Key findings

- PACMan achieved 87% agreement with human categorization in Cycle 24.
- Accuracy improved to over 95% with additional training.
- The tool is set to augment or replace manual review processes in future cycles.

## Abstract

The Proposal Auto-Categorizer and Manager (PACMan) tool was written to respond to concerns on subjective flaws and potential biases in some aspects of the proposal review process for time allocation for the {\it Hubble Space Telescope} (HST), and to partially alleviate some of the anticipated additional workload from the {\it James Webb Space Telescope} (JWST) proposal review. PACMan is essentially a mixed-method Naive Bayesian spam filtering routine, with multiple pools representing scientific categories, that utilizes the Robinson method for combining token (or word) probabilities. PACMan was trained to make similar programmatic decisions in science category sorting, panelist selection, and proposal-to-panelists assignments to those made by individuals and committees in the Science Policies Group (SPG) at Space Telescope Science Institute. Based on training from the previous cycle's proposals, PACMan made the same science category assignments for proposals in Cycle 24 as did the SPG, an average of 87\% of the time. Tests for similar science categorizations, based on training using proposals from additional cycles, show that this accuracy can be further improved, to the $>95\%$ level. This tool will be used to augment or replace key functions in the TAC review processes in future HST and JWST cycles.