Machine learning and learning theory research
This is a very difficult post to write, because it is about a perenially touchy subject. Nevertheless, it is an important one which needs to be thought about carefully. There are a few things which should be understood: The system is changing and responsive. We-the-authors are we-the-reviewers, we-the-PC, and even we-the-NIPS-board. NIPS has implemented ‘secondary …
Continue reading “Structural Problems in NIPS Decision Making”
Reviewing is a fairly formal process which is integral to the way academia is run. Given this integral nature, the quality of reviewing is often frustrating. I’ve seen plenty of examples of false statements, misbeliefs, reading what isn’t written, etc…, and I’m sure many other people have as well. Recently, mechanisms like double blind review …
Conferences exist as part of the process of doing research. They provide many roles including “announcing research”, “meeting people”, and “point of reference”. Not all conferences are alike so a basic question is: “to what extent do individual conferences attempt to aid research?” This question is very difficult to answer in any satisfying way. What …
The many reviews following the many paper deadlines are just about over. AAAI and ICML in particular were experimenting with several reviewing techniques. Double Blind: AAAI and ICML were both double blind this year. It seemed (overall) beneficial, but two problems arose. For theoretical papers, with a lot to say, authors often leave out the …
If we accept that bad reviewing often occurs and want to fix it, the question is “how”? Reviewing is done by paper writers just like yourself, so a good proxy for this question is asking “How can I be a better reviewer?” Here are a few things I’ve learned by trial (and error), as a …