We want to highlight two important changes we are implementing for the February cycle: (1) a minimum review load requirement for those volunteer reviewers who are nominated for multiple submissions, and (2) the possibility of nominating an experienced colleague as a reviewing volunteer for a submission.
We introduced a reviewing workload requirement for submissions in April 2024 (link). This requirement has helped to significantly enlarge the reviewer pool, which is needed for major cycles that receive a large number of submissions. We thank all of you who have adhered to this requirement.
As we continue to fine-tune our review process, we would like to implement the following two important changes:
(1) If a person is nominated as the reviewing volunteer for multiple submissions, we now require this volunteer reviewer to provide 4 reviews per submission, with a cap of 16 reviews. For example, if a volunteer reviewer is nominated for 3 submissions, then we expect this reviewer to provide a minimum of 12 reviews; if a volunteer reviewer is nominated for 4 or more submissions, then the reviewer is expected to provide 16 reviews. We hope that by introducing this change, authors submitting multiple papers can share a larger reviewing load, which we deem a fair practice for all authors.
Clarification: If the same senior author has more than 4 submissions, then authors must coordinate so that the team overall contributes 4 reviews for each of their papers, but no one reviewer is responsible for more than 4 papers. If a qualified author already serves as an ARR AC in this cycle, this accounts for up to 4 papers they submit as authors. Serving as a SAC accounts for up to 6 papers as an author, and serving as a PC - up to 10.
(2) In the past there have been submissions with no authors qualified as reviewers based on our criteria. We are happy to announce that we will now relax the requirement to allow authors to nominate an experienced colleague who is not an author of the submission to be the reviewing volunteer of that submission. This non-author reviewing volunteer is also expected to provide 4 reviews per submission for which the volunteer is nominated for.
The above changes can also be found in the OpenReview submission form, as shown below. Please also note that we reserve the right to desk reject papers that do not contribute to reviewing effort without sufficient justification.
As always, we welcome your feedback. Please send an email to editors@aclrollingreview.org with your comments and suggestions. We will continue to review our processes with the goal of improving the overall reviewing experience and increasing trust in the community.