Senior Area Chair Guidelines

Thank you for serving as a Senior Area Chair (SAC) for the second 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 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 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 (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.)

Contacting Area Chairs

To contact all your ACs at once, use "Area Chair Status" and then "Message" in your SAC console. To contact a specific AC about a submission, go to "Submission Status", select the relevant submission, and press "Message".

Timeline

Meta-Review

Apr 15 - Apr 27, 2026

This is the most important phase of your involvement. As a SAC, you see more papers than any individual AC, which means you are uniquely positioned to assess the relative merit of papers for acceptance and to calibrate decisions across your ACs.

Read all meta-reviews from your ACs and ensure they are well-reasoned and clearly convey the decision to the authors. Meta-reviews should augment the reviews and explain how the reviews, author responses, and discussion informed the recommendation. Pay particular attention to borderline papers and cases where the AC's recommendation diverges from the reviewers'. Provide feedback to ACs directly in OpenReview by adding comments visible only to the AC. You may optionally meet with your ACs individually to discuss their recommendations.

Each AC also submits a batch ranking ("Top of my batch", "Middle of my batch", or "Bottom of my batch") for every paper they handle. Use these rankings to calibrate the decision threshold across your stack of ACs, since you see a broader set of papers than any individual AC.

Decision

Apr 28 - May 11, 2026

Review the decisions recommended by your ACs and work with the TPC to finalize them. The TPC may optionally schedule a meeting with SACs to calibrate final decisions. We would appreciate your input on borderline papers and cases where the AC's recommendation diverges from the reviewers'. Ensure meta-reviews are updated to accurately reflect the final decision.

Decisions will be released to authors on May 12, 2026.

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 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.

Conflicts of interest

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.

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 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.

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 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.