All entries (over 3,600) were reviewed by the MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach team for:

• Eligibility of the proposed artist
• Completeness of entry
• Quality of biographical information provided
• Scholarly nature of biographical source information

Approximately 1200 entries, representing 583 different artists, fulfilled all of the entry requirements

Entries were subdivided according to the nature of the artist’s work

• Literary Arts
• Performance Arts (music)
• Performance Arts (other) 
• Visual Arts (painting, sculpture)
• Visual Arts (graphic and media)

Lists of artists with biographical information, divided according to artistic field, were provided to at least 3 experts in that respective field

• Each expert reviewed a list of approximately 100 artists and biographies

Experts we asked to provide

• A list of their top 10 submissions
• A list of their top 5 submissions with a detailed score (according to a rubric designed by the MESSENGER E/PO team; special weighting was given to artists originating from ethnic or cultural groups that are currently under-represented in the planetary nomenclature)

The E/PO team aligned the selections and reviews from the 3 experts. Selections of finalists were made according to:

• Agreement between reviewers (top 5 or top 10 lists)
• Overall scores provided by reviewers

At least 3 finalist names were selected per field of artistic endeavor (more were selected in cases where it was not possible to objectively make a decision)

A list of 17 finalists were identified and provided to the IAU’s Working Group on Planetary Nomenclature for their deliberation.

Five artist names were selected by the WGPN following a three week deliberative process.