Reviewer Guidelines

Thank you once again for agreeing to review for CCN Proceedings.

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 second 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 Reviewer, you carry the important responsibility of evaluating submissions, thereby identifying work that should be included and highlighted at CCN as well as giving feedback to others' work that is vital to the scientific process.

Each submission to the CCN 2026 Proceedings will receive at least 3 high-quality reviews from Reviewers like yourself. After the review period concludes, the Authors can respond to the reviews and sustain discussion with the Reviewers. Your work and that of your fellow Reviewers will be supported by an Area Chair (AC). The AC will write a meta-review that summarizes the reviews and discussions and makes a recommendation for acceptance. Your area chair will be supervised by a Senior Area Chair (SAC). Your communications with authors, other reviewers, and area chairs will take place via OpenReview.

OpenReview Console

The OpenReview console provides an overview of all papers assigned to you (for Reviewers and (S)ACs) or submitted by you (for Authors). From the console, you can access the forum page for each submission to view details, post comments, and engage in discussions. For a quickstart on the OpenReview forum page, see Using the New Forum Page.

Working in OpenReview

OpenReview supports Markdown and LaTeX formatting in text fields such as reviews, comments, and rebuttals. You can use standard Markdown syntax for structure and inline LaTeX (e.g., $x^2$) for mathematical notation.

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.)

Timeline

Review

Feb 24 - Mar 23, 2026

Assignment

We have done our best to match reviewers with the most appropriate submissions. However, if you find that a manuscript assigned to you is too far outside of your area of expertise, or if you recognize a potential conflict of interest; please let your AC or the TPC know straight away so that we can re-assign the manuscript by posting a comment on the OpenReview forum for the submission with the readers set to your Area Chair and the TPC (see Setting comment visibility).

A conflict of interest arises when an author on one of your assigned submissions is a current or former advisor, family member, or 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.

In addition, please make sure that your OpenReview profile has your latest email listed and keep an eye on emails possibly landing in spam.

Review deadline

Mar 23, 2026, 11:59 PM Anywhere on Earth (AoE), is the reviewing deadline. We are counting on you to submit your review(s) on or before this date so that we can move onto the next step of the process.

Reciprocal reviewers

As stated in the submission guidelines, if you are a Reciprocal Reviewer (reviewing as part of a Proceedings submission) and do not submit all assigned reviews by the author response stage, the relevant submissions may be desk-rejected from the Proceedings track and may not be considered for Contributed Talk when converted to the Extended Abstracts track.

Review content

Reviewers are asked to evaluate submissions according to their interest, soundness, clarity, and confidence of expertise, and to provide comments on their evaluations.

Things to flag

If you note any of the following in your submissions, please escalate them to your AC or the TPC by posting a comment on the OpenReview forum for the submission with the readers set to your Area Chair and the TPC (see Setting comment visibility).

Breaches of anonymity

If you find that the identity of the authors is revealed (e.g., names or affiliations can be found in the text, or in included or linked supplementary material), please escalate this to the TPC.

Ethical concerns

This includes, for instance, harm, injury, or unfair bias. If you notice unethical behavior involving authors or reviewers assigned to you, please escalate this to the TPC.

Dual submission

Submissions that are identical or substantially similar to papers that are under review, have been accepted to, or have been published in other archival conferences and journals should be deemed dual submissions. If you suspect a dual submission, please escalate this to the TPC.

Discussion

Apr 8 - Apr 14, 2026

Authors are invited to submit an author response by Apr 7, 2026, which may include a revision of the submission PDF and a text response to each review. After authors submit their author response, and before the end of the discussion period, you are required to update your review. This update is important because the Area Chair will look to your review (both the scores and your justification for them) to inform their meta-review and initial decision recommendation for a submission. We especially ask that you update your categorical evaluations for interest, soundness, and clarity to make them consistent with your assessment of the submission after the author response, for example if it has addressed some of your concerns.

You are also encouraged to post a Reviewer Reply to follow up on any last things that need to be clarified before you can update your review per the author response. If an author submitted a "Rebuttal" to your review, you will see a "Reviewer Reply" button on the bottom right of their Rebuttal. You can submit one Reviewer Reply per Rebuttal of up to 2500 characters. The authors can then follow up with one last "Author Reply."

Please note that all discussion notes for a submission are visible to its Senior Area Chairs, Area Chairs, Reviewers, and Authors. The TPC ("Program Chairs" on OpenReview) can view everything on the OpenReview console.

The discussion period closes on Apr 14, 2026, Anywhere on Earth. No new replies from either Reviewers or Authors can be submitted after this time.

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.

If you are unable to meet these expectations, please let your AC or 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 their personal circumstances and be ready to pick up the slack in such cases. If necessary, make a backup plan, and be flexible to the extent possible. In all communications, exhibit empathy and understanding.

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 other's 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.

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.

Anonymization

Authors and other reviewers do not know your identity.

However, ACs do know your identity.

Interdisciplinarity

Keep in mind that a submission may have a greater affinity with a domain other than yours.

Flexibility

Despite our best efforts to plan this year's process, this is very much a recent 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 a technical issue related to the OpenReview platform, email the OpenReview support team directly at info@openreview.net and CC the TPC at tpc@ccneuro.org.