Folks,
CHI reviews will be out today at 3 pm EST! Many of you who have written CHi paper this year, will receive the reviews, and we need some preparations for rebuttals.
But before going there, first let me tell you that CHI, being the topmost HCI publication venue and being attended by thousands of people from all around the world, is a very uncertain place to hear back from. So, it is not unlikely that your good work may not get appreciated in the right way, and that never tells anything about the quality of your paper. So, do not get upset with the reviews - take them only as feedback.
Now, after reading the reviews, we have the option to write a rebuttal to respond to the reviewers' concerns. We only do so if we believe there is a chance to get our paper accepted. In general, if the AC score is 3.0 or above, we write rebuttals, but in a few selected cases, it is not unlikely to write rebuttals for 2.5. We usually do not write rebuttals if the score is lower than that.
Now, what is a rebuttal and what we write in it? Please read these two articles to know more about it:
- https://sites.umiacs.umd.edu/elm/2016/11/19/writing-rebuttals/ - https://cs.stanford.edu/~merrie/merrie_rebuttal_tips.pdf
From my own experience with CHI, in rebuttal, the authors basically provide answers/clarifications to any questions that the reviewers ask, and provide the concrete plan of how they will update the paper according to address the comments of the reviewers. For example, if a reviewer says, "the authors have not provided a concrete design guideline based on their analysis", we have to respond, "We will add two concrete design guidelines (X and Y) in the second paragraph of Discussion section, and to make space for it, we will remove Table Z."
I have also accumulated some past sample rebuttals that were submitted and were successful. Please feel free to read and use them, but please do not share them beyond our circle: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IAGV8wBih7_3-8cPA18UzDgXxSRpCRIp
Now, how will you prepare your rebuttal? Here are the steps:
1. Forward the review email to all the co-authors, and start a discussion thread. This thread will decide whether we will go for a rebuttal or not.
2. Open a Google document inside this folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Gde45MYD0R_65O8DKeiji_re2QUiGct2?usp...
Mention the link of this document in your email to your co-authors.
3. Copy-paste the reviews with the score in the document.
4. Make a table in which you list which reviewer asked for what, and how you are going to accommodate that.
5. Please note that the length of rebuttal cannot go beyond 5000 characters. So, you need to use very tight English to write a rebuttal.
Check this document - a rebuttal document written by Sharifa for last CHI to see how she did that:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lxmca1W8eAQkBdDrmTBJmw6X8ySfqNKDVrM8wEHx...
Finally, I wish you all the best with your CHI reviews and I look forward to working with you with your rebuttals.
Best Regards, Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto
Probably we all should also hope for the best and at the same time be prepared to accept `rejection' in a very positive way. I am personally expecting a rejection. So if anyone wants to cry together, I am happy to join after 4.30 :D
On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 12:08 PM Ishtiaque Ahmed ishtiaque@cs.toronto.edu wrote:
Folks,
CHI reviews will be out today at 3 pm EST! Many of you who have written CHi paper this year, will receive the reviews, and we need some preparations for rebuttals.
But before going there, first let me tell you that CHI, being the topmost HCI publication venue and being attended by thousands of people from all around the world, is a very uncertain place to hear back from. So, it is not unlikely that your good work may not get appreciated in the right way, and that never tells anything about the quality of your paper. So, do not get upset with the reviews - take them only as feedback.
Now, after reading the reviews, we have the option to write a rebuttal to respond to the reviewers' concerns. We only do so if we believe there is a chance to get our paper accepted. In general, if the AC score is 3.0 or above, we write rebuttals, but in a few selected cases, it is not unlikely to write rebuttals for 2.5. We usually do not write rebuttals if the score is lower than that.
Now, what is a rebuttal and what we write in it? Please read these two articles to know more about it:
- https://sites.umiacs.umd.edu/elm/2016/11/19/writing-rebuttals/
- https://cs.stanford.edu/~merrie/merrie_rebuttal_tips.pdf
From my own experience with CHI, in rebuttal, the authors basically provide answers/clarifications to any questions that the reviewers ask, and provide the concrete plan of how they will update the paper according to address the comments of the reviewers. For example, if a reviewer says, "the authors have not provided a concrete design guideline based on their analysis", we have to respond, "We will add two concrete design guidelines (X and Y) in the second paragraph of Discussion section, and to make space for it, we will remove Table Z."
I have also accumulated some past sample rebuttals that were submitted and were successful. Please feel free to read and use them, but please do not share them beyond our circle: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IAGV8wBih7_3-8cPA18UzDgXxSRpCRIp
Now, how will you prepare your rebuttal? Here are the steps:
- Forward the review email to all the co-authors, and start a discussion
thread. This thread will decide whether we will go for a rebuttal or not.
- Open a Google document inside this folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Gde45MYD0R_65O8DKeiji_re2QUiGct2?usp...
Mention the link of this document in your email to your co-authors.
Copy-paste the reviews with the score in the document.
Make a table in which you list which reviewer asked for what, and how
you are going to accommodate that.
- Please note that the length of rebuttal cannot go beyond 5000
characters. So, you need to use very tight English to write a rebuttal.
Check this document - a rebuttal document written by Sharifa for last CHI to see how she did that:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lxmca1W8eAQkBdDrmTBJmw6X8ySfqNKDVrM8wEHx...
Finally, I wish you all the best with your CHI reviews and I look forward to working with you with your rebuttals.
Best Regards, Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto
Hi Thirdspace and other authors,
First, my paper is on borderline and I am not aiming for a rebuttal. So, I have some spare hours this week. I have experience in writing some successful rebuttals (two CHI rebuttals and one CSCW). So, if anyone feels that they would need my help to prepare their first draft of the rebuttal, I am open to helping.
Please be informed that the piece you prepare with me must go through an `Ishtiaque revision' before the submission, not because I am less experienced of CHI culture than him (which is true) but also because he knows your work better than me.
Feel free to ping me.
On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 12:08 PM Ishtiaque Ahmed ishtiaque@cs.toronto.edu wrote:
Folks,
CHI reviews will be out today at 3 pm EST! Many of you who have written CHi paper this year, will receive the reviews, and we need some preparations for rebuttals.
But before going there, first let me tell you that CHI, being the topmost HCI publication venue and being attended by thousands of people from all around the world, is a very uncertain place to hear back from. So, it is not unlikely that your good work may not get appreciated in the right way, and that never tells anything about the quality of your paper. So, do not get upset with the reviews - take them only as feedback.
Now, after reading the reviews, we have the option to write a rebuttal to respond to the reviewers' concerns. We only do so if we believe there is a chance to get our paper accepted. In general, if the AC score is 3.0 or above, we write rebuttals, but in a few selected cases, it is not unlikely to write rebuttals for 2.5. We usually do not write rebuttals if the score is lower than that.
Now, what is a rebuttal and what we write in it? Please read these two articles to know more about it:
- https://sites.umiacs.umd.edu/elm/2016/11/19/writing-rebuttals/
- https://cs.stanford.edu/~merrie/merrie_rebuttal_tips.pdf
From my own experience with CHI, in rebuttal, the authors basically provide answers/clarifications to any questions that the reviewers ask, and provide the concrete plan of how they will update the paper according to address the comments of the reviewers. For example, if a reviewer says, "the authors have not provided a concrete design guideline based on their analysis", we have to respond, "We will add two concrete design guidelines (X and Y) in the second paragraph of Discussion section, and to make space for it, we will remove Table Z."
I have also accumulated some past sample rebuttals that were submitted and were successful. Please feel free to read and use them, but please do not share them beyond our circle: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IAGV8wBih7_3-8cPA18UzDgXxSRpCRIp
Now, how will you prepare your rebuttal? Here are the steps:
- Forward the review email to all the co-authors, and start a discussion
thread. This thread will decide whether we will go for a rebuttal or not.
- Open a Google document inside this folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Gde45MYD0R_65O8DKeiji_re2QUiGct2?usp...
Mention the link of this document in your email to your co-authors.
Copy-paste the reviews with the score in the document.
Make a table in which you list which reviewer asked for what, and how
you are going to accommodate that.
- Please note that the length of rebuttal cannot go beyond 5000
characters. So, you need to use very tight English to write a rebuttal.
Check this document - a rebuttal document written by Sharifa for last CHI to see how she did that:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lxmca1W8eAQkBdDrmTBJmw6X8ySfqNKDVrM8wEHx...
Finally, I wish you all the best with your CHI reviews and I look forward to working with you with your rebuttals.
Best Regards, Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto
-
Ishtiaque Ahmed -
Sharifa Sultana