Frequently Asked Questions

This document has an updated list of frequently asked questions about IJCAI 2017 paper submission and revision. These clarifications apply to both the main track and the AI & Autonomy special track. If you have a question that is not on this list, please feel free to send a mail to me at pcchair@ijcai-17.org.

Prof. Carles Sierra

Program Chair, IJCAI 2017

Questions

  1. Can I assign a paper to an assistant reviewer?
  2. Do SPC review papers?
  3. When I try to submit a form, causes the following error:"Forbidden (403)/CSRF verification failed. Request aborted./More information is available with DEBUG=True."
  4. Can I include pdf files in my review?
  5. Can we submit papers to IJCAI if we have already put them up on arxiv?
  6. Are papers that appeared at workshops previously eligible for submission to IJCAI?
  7. How strict is author anonymity requirement in the submissions?
  8. Is supplemental material allowed for IJCAI submissions?
  9. Are we allowed to put (anonymized) links to supplemental material?
  10. Can we have color images in the submission?
  11. When does a paper qualify as student paper?
  12. Clarifications regarding author response phase
(updated 29/03/2017)
1.Can I assign a paper to an assistant reviewer?
Yes, sub-reviewing should be limited and an exceptional case. If you feel that a person you trust with significant postdoc experience can do a better review, let the person do it. To assign a paper to an assistant reviewer you will find the option ‘Invitation List’ under your role at the header of the page. Use it to add an invitation. Once the person accepts, you can assign a paper with the option ‘Assignments’ again under your role at the header of the page. At the rightmost column you can choose the assistant that will be in charge of the review.
2.Do SPC review papers?
Yes, differently from previous editions, for IJCAI 2017 SPC members do review papers. They should enter their reviews before the 25th of March. Then, after the discussion period they will write meta-reviews of the papers they reviewed.
3. When I try to submit a form, causes the following error:"Forbidden (403)/CSRF verification failed. Request aborted./More information is available with DEBUG=True."
For security reasons to prevent Cross Site Request Forgery ConfMaster requires the referrer for each submitted form. Probably your browser does not send the referrer tag. Either enable referrer tags or try another browser (see also http://www.thefakegeek.com/2015/01/how-to-fix-the-csrf-verification-failed-error-message/)
4. Can I include pdf files in my review?
To add complementary material to your review, like for instance a drawing, a proof, or whatever you think difficult to express in text (not the review itself!) please upload a pdf file onto the server: http://www.ijcai.org/filesharing/and then paste the appropriate link into your review text. Files will be kept on our servers for a Year by default. Then they will be deleted.
5. Can we submit papers to IJCAI if we have already put them up on arxiv?
We require that any submission to IJCAI must not be under review at any other refereed publication venue including conferences and archival journals. Papers put on arxiv do not violate this rule as long as they are not refereed.
6. Are papers that appeared at workshops previously eligible for submission to IJCAI?
Although workshops at top AI conferences sometimes do have reviewing process, traditionally they have all been seen as venues for informal presentation/discussion, rather than formally refereed archival venues. Consequently, presentation of a piece of work at a workshop doesn’t disqualify that work from submission to IJCAI.
7. How strict is author anonymity requirement in the submissions?

IJCAI requires that all submissions be anonymised so that the review of the submission is done on objective criteria, and is not influenced by author identity. To facilitate this, we require that the authors follow both the letter and spirit of the normal anonymisation guidelines. Any paper that obviously flouts this requirement will be rejected without review. (Please note that given the tight reviewing cycle, we will not have time to work with authors to “correct” their submissions after deadline).

The anonymity requirement holds only for the submitted paper. In particular, the program committee members will be explicitly instructed not to actively seek to figure out author identities with the help of search engines etc.

8. Is supplemental material allowed for IJCAI submissions?
No supplemental material is allowed for submissions to the IJCAI main track. The submitted papers must be self-contained.
9. Are we allowed to put (anonymized) links to supplemental material?
We recommend against such a practice.
10. Can we have colour images in the submission?
Yes, colour images are fine. (The style file instructions suggesting black & white images are a holdover from the days of hard copy proceedings).
11. When does a paper qualify as student paper?
A paper is considered a 'student paper' and thus a potential winner of the 'Best Student paper award' when the first author is a PhD student that at the time of submission has not obtened the PhD degree yet. When submitting a paper, this should be indicated by marking the appropriate checkbox.
12. Clarifications regarding the author response phase

Here are some additional clarifications on the author response phase

  1. Author responses must respect the double-blind reviewing (and thus not divulge author identity). This is particularly important in cases where the reviewers specifically ask questions regarding a prior publication that happens to be by the same authors. Care must be exercised in responding so as not to explicitly divulge author identity.
  2. In some cases the program committee has added missing reviews after the author response phase started. You can always check the up-to-date reviews of your paper on the Conference Management System of IJCAI 2017.
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