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UAI 2024 - Conflicts of Interest


This document defines what constitutes a conflict of interest for the UAI 2024 reviewing process. Please read it carefully before you either submit a paper or, if you are a reviewer, bid on papers you would like to referee.

Anyone who plans to submit a paper as an author or a co-author will need to create or update their OpenReview profile. You will be asked to declare two types of conflicts: domain conflicts and personal conflicts. Both types are declared by filling out appropriate sections of your OpenReview profile, as described below.

A potential conflict of interest arises where someone who can affect the chances of a paper being accepted has a personal interest in seeing it either accepted or rejected, for reasons that go beyond the scholarly merit of the article in question. This might be for various reasons:

  1. an author is from the same institution as a reviewer;
  2. an author has previously collaborated with a reviewer;
  3. there is a relationship (e.g. former PhD supervisor) between the author and reviewer;
  4. a reviewer has seen a previous version of the paper, and retains a prejudice from this earlier viewing;
  5. any other reason that might affect the judgement of a referee.

Cases 1-3 are generally dealt with via a combination of domain conflicts and individual conflicts. Case 4 is harder to avoid, and indeed it can be useful if a reviewer has seen a previous version so that they can give their perspective on whether the latest iteration is an improvement. If you are assigned to review a paper you have seen before, please let the relevant Area Chair know about this; they will note this, and judge your review accordingly. If you think you will find it hard to be objective, let them know and we will try to reassign the paper to someone else.

If you feel that your judgement may be biased for any reason, please get in touch with your Area Chair to disclose this. They will be able to advise on whether or not the conflict is serious enough to warrant reassigning the paper. Our advice is that if there is any doubt, please disclose the possible conflict to your Area Chair (or to the Program Chairs if you are an Area Chair).


Domain conflicts (entered in Education & Career History)

Please ensure that this section accurately represents your domain conflicts for (at least) the last three years. For current or recent collaborations, including internships, you should generally use personal conflicts (recorded in the Advisors & Other Relations section). Please use domain conflicts judiciously, reserving them for cases when you have a genuine conflict of interest with the institution. Your Education & Career History is public on your OpenReview profile.

When you enter a domain conflict, none of your submissions will be visible to reviewers, or area chairs who have also entered this domain conflict. Only the last three years of Education & Career History (both yours and theirs) will be used.


Conflicts with individual authors and program committee members (entered in Advisors & Other Relations)

Please ensure that you enter the names of all advisors and close collaborators in this section. In some cases, you may have a personal conflict that is not covered by the definition above, but would nonetheless significantly compromise the fairness of the review process. You may choose to mark such a conflict as hidden from your OpenReview profile by changing its visibility from "everyone" to "UAI 2024 Program Chairs". If program chairs have any reason to doubt the validity of such a conflict, they may ask the Ethics and Grievances committee to confidentially inquire into its nature.

Please note that OpenReview profiles are persistent across conferences, but other conferences may have a different conflict resolution policy. Any attempt to impact reviewer assignment via false declaration of conflicts may result in rejection without review.

If you have any questions about special circumstances not discussed above, please contact program chairs at uai2024pcs@gmail.com.



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