In Brief:
You can submit to SIGIR 2024 papers that you have posted to archival platforms (e.g. arXiv), or plan to post in the future, after submission. However, your paper must conform to the specifications outlined below.
Instructions to Authors
- You are allowed to post a non-anonymized version of your paper to an online archival platform at any point before or after the submission of the paper to SIGIR 2024.
- However, posting a non-anonymized version of your paper to an online archival platform (e.g. arXiv, your organisation pre-print server, your website) is not compulsory, and it is not necessarily encouraged.
- If your submission has posted a non-anonymized version online, on the author submission form in Easychair, you must inform the PC chairs that a non-anonymized version exists, or you plan to make one available before SIGIR 2024 acceptance notifications. Not disclosing a non-anonymized version exists could cause your paper to be desk-rejected.
- The title and abstract of the non-anonymized version of your paper in the archival
platform should be sufficiently distinct from your SIGIR 2024 submission: failure
to do so will cause your paper to be desk rejected. In particular, we recommend that you:
- Set on your final title before submission to SIGIR. Then, use the final title for your archival submission.
- Submit the paper to SIGIR with an alternative title, which you could modify after the paper is accepted by SIGIR.
- Take the same approach for the abstract of your paper, noting that the abstract might likely change also because of reviewers’ feedback.
- These differences between the title/abstract of your archival and those of the SIGIR submission will provide a first level of dissuasion for re-identification during the peer review process
- It is completely fine to post an anonymous version of your submission online.
- If any dispute happens, the PC chairs reserve the full rights of explanation and to make the final accept/reject decision.
Instructions to Reviewers
- PC chairs will ask reviewers (1) not to look for the paper on archival platforms, and (2) to disclose whether they become aware of an archival version of the paper they are reviewing and whether they have a COI due to this.
- PC and Area chairs will monitor online paper archives and check if a submission has properly disclosed its non-anonymized version on an archive.
- PC Chairs and Area chairs will actively monitor reviews for indications that the presence of a paper in an archival platform has unfairly influenced the accept/reject recommendation, and act upon this.
- If any dispute happens, the PC chairs reserve the full rights of explanation and to make the final accept/reject decision.
FAQs
Q: Why is SIGIR 2024 implementing a change to the archival policy?
A: SIGIR is committed to continuous improvement and ensuring that our policies align with our mission, values, and the dynamic needs of our community. In pursuit of this commitment, we are introducing this archive trial policy, which we will test in SIGIR 2024. This trial will allow us to assess the policy's effectiveness, drawbacks, impact, gather feedback, and make informed decisions for its future.
Q: Will SIGIR 2024 follow double blind review?
A: Yes, SIGIR 2024 will follow a double blind review. We are aware that the presence of archival versions of a paper may compromise the double blind review process. We also know that knowledge about paper authorship may have (positive or negative) effects on the acceptance of a paper, and several studies have identified possible biases due to non-anonymity. We have established some simple steps to avoid obvious identification of authorship for papers on archival platforms; however we are aware they are far from being a sufficient guarantee of preservation of anonymity. On the other hand, we also understand the need for certain types of work in Information Retrieval to submit early versions of their paper to archival platforms, the benefit early release of results brings to the research community, and the other advantages associated with archival platforms. We will however carefully monitor the review process for papers with an archival version to attempt to weed out any bias due to loss of anonymity.
Q: Will SIGIR 2024 identify and enforce Conflicts of Interest (COIs)?
A: Yes, SIGIR 2024 will actively identify and enforce COI. We note that anonymity and COI are not strictly related: i.e. knowing who the authors of a paper are does not necessarily establish a COI.
Q: Under this policy, is it compulsory to make a version of my SIGIR 2024 submission available online in an archival platform?
A: No, you don’t have to.
Q: If my paper is rejected from SIGIR 2024 and I made it available online already, will the conference where I re-submit my work wave their less liberal archival policy?
A: No, there is no guarantee any other venue, including ICTIR, CHIIR, CIKM, SIGIR-AP will do that. We note that some conferences, e.g. CHIIR 2024, have a complete ban of papers submitted to arXiv before or during the review process: in this case you will not be able to submit your rejected SIGIR 2024 paper to these conferences, if you already made your paper available online.