SIGIR 2017 Reviewing Guidelines for the PC
PC Responsibilities
EasyChair Full papers track.
Overview
Members of the Program Committee (PC) assist a submission’s Primary Area Chair (1AC) by writing a review for the paper, and participating actively in the discussion phase.
This year, after borderline papers have been flagged by the 1ACs based on the outcome of the first-tier reviewing phase, the PC chairs assign those borderline papers a Secondary Area Chair (2AC). The 2AC writes an additional review, knowing the paper is borderline but without access to the original reviews. After 2AC reviews have been entered, you will be requested to contribute actively to the discussion phase.
Detailed expectations
The PC responsibilities include:
- In January, identify conflicts of interest and bid for papers before full papers are due (see schedule below; we will prompt you to do this).
- Once paper submissions are closed, we will assign a maximum of 6-8 papers to review.
- During the discussion phase, you help the 1AC and 2AC finalize a recommendation for each borderline paper.
The result of a paper’s Review Team (3 first-tier reviewers selected from the PC, 1 Primary AC selected from the SPC, and, optionally, 1 Secondary AC selected from the SPC) deliberations will be considered as its final recommendation. We expect to receive the Review Team’s final recommendations BEFORE the PC meeting for the vast majority of papers. The recommendations will be different grades of ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ to help with ranking, but there should be very few papers left in the ‘undecided’ category at the time of the PC meeting.
Before starting your review, read closely the detailed guidance about how to construct your reviews as a member of the PC.
During the discussion phase, you receive messages from the Senior PC members overseeing your assignment, to help clarify aspects of your review, to discuss deviations in evaluation between different first tier reviews, and to provide feedback on the metareview that they will draft. The objective in this phase is to reach a clear verdict on every paper. Ideally, reviewers can agree on the outcome of the reviewing process, and help the primary area chair assigned to the paper to recommend either acceptance or rejection. Only in rare cases we should see a need to discuss the paper in the PC meeting.
Notice that you usually do not need to modify your review; you will only be expected to do so if the discussion hints at serious shortcomings in the evaluation itself, such as missing references, or a misunderstanding that is clarified in interaction with the other reviewers. The discussion should however provide the 1AC with all the information necessary to arrive at a recommendation supported by a metareview that reflects the opinions of all the reviewers.
Timeline
The schedule for the review process is as follows (PC activities in Bold):
| Task | Responsibility | Start | Stop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract submissions | Authors | January 17 | |
| Bidding, COI declaration | PC, ACs | January 18 | January 23 |
| Paper submissions | Authors | January 24 | |
| Assignment of papers to reviewers and ACs | PC chairs | January 31 | |
| First round reviews due | PC | February 28 | |
| Flag papers needing additional review | 1ACs | February 28 | March 3 |
| Additional 2AC review for 1AC flagged papers | 2ACs | March 3 | March 13 |
| Discussion; starts irrespective of missing 2AC reviews | PC, ACs | March 13 | March 27 |
| Meta-review and recommendations (1AC) | 1ACs | March 27 | |
| PC Meeting | PC chairs, ACs | March 30 | March 31 |
| Notifications | PC chairs | April 11 |
Modifications in 2017
PC invitees who have had prior involvement with SIGIR reviewing will have noticed the two modifications that we have made. PC chairs will take charge of the reviewer assignments and balancing referee workload instead of coordinating this step through all the 1ACs, and the Senior PC is involved with reviewing to steer the decision process on those papers where a decision is not obvious based on the initial reviewing phase.
For PC members, this means that we expect a more active contribution during the discussion phase, over a longer timeframe.
Act Now
If you decide to accept the invitation to join the SIGIR 2017 PC, let us know by accessing the link included in the preamble of the invitation message.
Next, update your EasyChair account in two steps:
- Review personal details and contact information: EasyChair/My Account
- Select areas of interest: SIGIR 2017/My Topics
We look forward to working with you!