ACL Rolling Review is inviting nominations for several Editors in Chief positions

· June 28, 2024

The ACL Rolling Review (ARR) initiative is seeking nominations (self-nominations are permitted and encouraged), for several co-Editors-in-Chief (henceforth “EiCs”, with the “co-” understood) positions, serving a 2.5-year term1. Successful candidates should be able to start at the end of summer or as early as possible.

ARR is increasingly used as the main submission channel for *CL conferences. In the last four cycles alone, ARR has received and managed, close to 10,000 submissions within 2 month cycles. To continue supporting these large cycles, there is a pressing need to scale the EiCs team managing the bi-monthly cycles. EiCs rotate to lead reviewing cycles. However, the entire team coordinates and oversees the following activities:

  • Recruit and manage (senior) area chairs ((S)ACs) and reviewers
  • Coordinate with conference program chairs, in principle becoming guest PCs during cycles tied to *CL conferences
  • Oversee review forms and CFPs
  • Review and update submission tracks
  • Make final desk reject decisions on the advice of SACs
  • Provide reports to the ACL Exec and ARR board
  • General work on the ARR system hosted on OpenReview
  • Coordinate with the rest of the ARR team, including support, communications, etc.
  • Assess and propose reviewing policies that are submitted for consideration to the ARR board and/or the ACL exec

The ideal candidate would have a strong publication record across more than one NLP research area and a solid record as an outstanding member of the*CL community. Experience serving in ARR as SAC and/or AC is highly valued, as is having served as a past PC in one of our top *CL conferences and/or as an EiC for one of our *CL journals. At a minimum, candidates should have at least some experience in managing submission and reviewing processes, for example, as workshop co-organizers.

Being an ARR Editor-in-Chief is a major, ongoing time commitment requiring, on average, 2-3 hours a week but absorbing a significant amount of time during peak cycle phases. When an EiC is leading a cycle, it is expected that they can dedicate a large portion of their time during these peak critical times. However, contributing to our community this way is also a very rewarding experience. We are aware that the ARR process needs to continue to improve; we are looking for candidates with ideas on improving what we do who are also eager to dedicate their energy and time to help us implement better reviewing practices and workflows. We welcome disrupters!

ARR is a diverse team, and we are determined to keep it that way. This includes researchers at different career stages, although we recognize that due to the requirements we specified, most junior researchers might not yet be eligible.

Nomination procedure

Nominations should be submitted via email to ARR board and EiC member, Thamar Solorio, thamar.solorio@mbzuai.ac.ae, with a Cc: to Mausam, mausam@cs.washington.edu by July 31st, 2024, subject line “Nomination for ARR co-EiC”, and should contain the following information:

  • Name, email address, and website of the nominee

If not a self-nomination, confirmation that the nominee is willing to serve (a dated excerpt of an email from the nominee suffices); if a self-nomination, a statement affirming willingness to serve

Statement of nominee’s goals/vision for ARR and/or relevant prior experience and/or reasons for interest in the position. The length of the statement is up to the nominator, but 1 paragraph may suffice, and more than 4 paragraphs are not anticipated to be necessary.

Nominations will be acknowledged by reply email; should acknowledgment not be received within 3 days, please resend your email.

The ARR board will evaluate the nominations and make decisions in coordination with the existing ARR EiC team, after which the search committee chair will contact the selected nominee via email. ARR board members are: Yuki Arase, Julia Hockenmeier, Smaranda Muersan, and EiC Thamar Solorio.

  1. The last 6 months are not considered as full on EiCs but more of a transitions period to support training of new EiCs. 

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