Senior Area Chair Guidelines

Thank you for serving as a Senior Area Chair (SAC) for the first ever CCN Proceedings track!

In order to create a review process that yields the highest quality, as a grass-roots organization, we have adopted a system that is more common at machine learning conferences.

As this is the first CCN Proceedings track, the timeline and guidelines may evolve. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we develop this new process for CCN.

Role

As a Senior Area Chair (SAC), you will oversee several Area Chairs (ACs) and ensure the review process is fair, thorough, and timely. SACs serve as the first point of contact for ACs needing assistance or guidance, help calibrate decisions across different ACs, and liaise with the TPC for final decisions.

OpenReview Console

The OpenReview console provides an overview of all papers assigned to you. Use the console to track review progress, deadlines, and discussion status. The console allows you to filter papers by status (e.g., "Missing Reviews," "Ready for Decision").

The console points to the forum page for individual submissions, where you can view details, post comments, and engage in discussions specific to a single submission. For a quickstart on how to use the OpenReview forum page, see Using the New Forum Page.

Setting comment visibility

To set comment visibility in OpenReview, use the "Readers" dropdown when posting your comment. Check carefully that the appropriate people can see the comment before posting. For example, to engage in private discussion with an AC or SAC, the comment should be set visible to the AC or SAC and "Program Chairs" only. (The "Program Chairs" on OpenReview are the CCN TPC.)

Contacting Area Chairs

If you want to contact an area chair, this is either all area chairs (via area chair status and then message) or for a specific submission. If you want to contact a specific area chair (and therefore, for a specific submission) go to submission status, select the submission to which the AC is connected and press Message (see the image below).

Timeline

Review Stage

Assist ACs with reviewer assignments in OpenReview

• Access paper assignments through your SAC console

• Click on “Area Chairs” to see which ACs are assigned to which papers

• Ensure each AC has 3-4 qualified reviewers for each paper

• Use the “Reviewer Assignment” tab to help ACs find appropriate reviewers:

• Search for potential reviewers using keywords, expertise, and conflict checks

• Recommend potential reviewers to ACs by clicking “Suggest Reviewer”

• Note that ACs do not have access to author identities

Monitor review progress using OpenReview tools

• Use the “Review Progress” dashboard to track completion rates

• Set up email alerts for late reviews by configuring “Notification Settings”

• Send reminder emails to ACs with missing reviews by selecting papers and using the “Send Reminder” button

• Verify ACs are checking reviews for quality and respectful language

• Step in if an AC is unresponsive by using the “Reassign” feature if necessary

• Note: Submissions where the reciprocal reviewer failed to submit should be rejected

Discussion

discussion-period

Ensure ACs initiate reviewer-author discussions

• As soon as the author response is entered in the system, ACs should lead a discussion via OpenReview for each submission and make sure the reviewers engage in the discussion phase. If your assigned ACs have not initiated discussions, prompt them to do so. This one-week phase 1 of the discussions will be primarily for the reviewers to engage with the authors before the closed discussions among the reviewers and ACs.

• Use the “Discussion Status” filter in your SAC console to identify papers without active discussions

• Verify ACs are posting discussion prompts by checking each paper’s discussion forum

• Prompt inactive ACs by sending direct messages through the “Message Area Chairs” function

Oversee the AC-reviewer discussions

• Monitor discussion activity through the “Recent Activity” feed in your console

• For papers with conflicting reviews (high variance in scores), use the “Flag for Attention” feature

• Participate in discussions where needed by posting comments with visibility set to “Area Chairs and Senior Area Chairs”

• Use the built-in discussion summary feature to track key points raised in longer discussions

Meta-reviews

meta-review-period

Guide metareview process

• Use the “Meta-Review Status” dashboard to track completion status

• Remind ACs to submit preliminary meta-reviews by using the built-in reminder function.

• Have meetings with the ACs

• For one-on-one discussions with ACs

• You can also organize meetings with all ACs at the same time for calibration, but check for conflicts of interest using the “Check Conflicts” tool first.

• Pay particularly close attention to borderline papers and papers in which the AC’s recommendation goes against the recommendations of the reviewers.

• Read all meta-reviews. Make sure they explain paper decisions to the authors. Meta-reviews should augment the reviews, and explain how the reviews, author responses, and discussion were used to arrive at the decision.

• Provide feedback directly in OpenReview by adding comments visible only to the AC.

Decisions

final-decisions-period

1. Review decisions suggested by Area Chairs. Potentially meet with the TPC to finalize decisions. Likely there will be (at least) 2 meetings. A meeting early in this period so the PCs get an overview of which papers are under consideration for publication in CCN-P and a second meeting with multiple SACs to make actual decisions.

2. Be prepared to discuss all borderline papers and cases in which the recommendation of the AC goes against the recommendations of the reviewers.

3. Update meta-reviews to accurately reflect the final decision.

4. Notification: proceedings-decisions

Policies

Availability

Respect deadlines and respond to emails as promptly as possible. Make sure that your preferred email address is accurate in your OpenReview profile and that emails from noreply@openreview.net don't go to spam. Please ensure your availability and engagement during your active periods of work. If you will be unavailable (e.g., on vacation) for more than a few days during important windows (e.g., decision-making), please let the TPC know as soon as possible.

Kindness

It is important to acknowledge that personal situations may, in rare instances, lead to late or unfinished work. If you find yourself unable to complete your work on time, please communicate this as soon as possible. If you oversee others who are unable to complete their work on time, we encourage you to be considerate of the personal circumstances and be ready to pick up slack in such cases. If necessary, make a back-up plan, and be flexible to the extent possible. In all communications, exhibit empathy and understanding.

Conflicts of interest

A conflict of interest arises when an author on one of your assigned submissions is a current or former advisor, family or a close personal relationship, a current or recent collaborator; or someone who works in your current or recent immediate organization, or when you have a financial interest in the work.

If you notice a conflict of interest with a submission that is assigned to one of your ACs, contact the TPC right away.

Confidentiality

Do not discuss, distribute or use ideas, content or code of the submissions. Reviews are double-blind; authors and reviewers do not know each others' identity. Maintain strict confidentiality for all review materials. Don't use or share submission content (ideas, results, code) until publicly available. Never distribute submissions outside the OpenReview platform.

For reviewers: The use of LLMs or other automated tools is prohibited for generating review text or summarizing submissions. Inputting a paper submission into such a tool is a violation of confidentiality.

Conduct

Abide by the CCN Code of Conduct. Take part in an active, polite and constructive manner.

Transparency

Please note that all reviews and meta-reviews of accepted papers will be made public.

Do not talk to other SACs about submissions assigned to your ACs without prior approval from the TPC, as other SACs may have conflicts with these submissions. Do not talk to other SACs or ACs about submissions you are an author on or submissions with which you have a conflict of interest.

Flexibility

Despite our best efforts to plan this year's process, this is very much a new endeavor and therefore the timeline and guidelines may shift now and then. So please keep an eye on our communications, and we ask for your understanding and patience as we keep developing CCN.

Contact Info

If you encounter a situation that you are unable to resolve on your own, please contact the Technical Program Committee (TPC) at tpc@ccneuro.org.

If the issue is related to OpenReview technical issues, email the OpenReview support team directly at info@openreview.net.