ICML 2012 Survey Results
Background
1) Did you serve as an Area chair for ICML 2012?
25/575 = 4%
Yes
550/575 = 96%
No
2) Did you serve as a Reviewer / PC member for ICML 2012?
198/575 = 34%
Yes
377/575 = 66%
No
3) Are you an author of a paper submitted to ICML?
466/575 = 81%
Yes
109/575 = 19%
No
4) You are:
230/463 = 50%
An author of an accepted paper
267/463 = 58%
An author of a rejected paper
5) Are you going to attend ICML 2012 in Edinburgh?
225/575 = 39%
Yes
350/575 = 61%
No
Paper Assignment
6) Which information do you support using for assignment of papers to PC members? (choose all that apply)
127/195 = 65%
Keywords
158/195 = 81%
Toronto matching service
172/195 = 88%
Bids
150/195 = 77%
Choices made by the Area Chairs
7) How did you like your assignments?
16/197 = 8%
Very interesting
168/197 = 85%
Good fit for my expertise
12/197 = 6%
Mostly not my area
1/197 = 1%
Terrible
Paper Reviewing
9) Did you consult supplementary material for any of the papers you reviewed?
128/197 = 65%
Yes
69/197 = 35%
No
10) Did the supplementary material help you form a decision for any paper?
75/189 = 40%
Yes
114/189 = 60%
No
11) Did you have sufficient time to prepare your reviews?
160/194 = 82%
Yes
34/194 = 18%
No
12) Would you prefer if the paper submission deadline was earlier, to allow more time for the initial review period?
31/196 = 16%
Yes, the review period should be longer.
151/196 = 77%
The review period was fine.
14/196 = 7%
No, in fact the review period could be shorter.
Author Response
13) Did you read the author responses for any of the papers you reviewed?
196/198 = 99%
Yes
2/198 = 1%
No
13_5) Was the author response informative for you?
166/196 = 85%
Yes
30/196 = 15%
No
14) Did you consult a new version of a paper uploaded during author response?
105/197 = 53%
Yes
92/197 = 47%
No
15) Did you change any of your (meta-)reviews due to the author response or new version?
47/196 = 24%
It changed my mind about a paper.
133/196 = 68%
It helped clarify a few questions, but did not change my mind.
16/196 = 8%
It was not useful.
0/196 = 0%
I did not see it.
16) Do you think the author feedback has an influence on the decision of acceptance/rejection?
144/196 = 73%
Yes
52/196 = 27%
No
Discussion
17) Did you participate in the discussion for any of the papers you reviewed?
188/196 = 96%
Yes
8/196 = 4%
No
18) Did you change any of your reviews due to the discussion?
122/195 = 63%
Yes
73/195 = 37%
No
Assessment of Reviewing Process
19) Do you think the ICML 2012 reviews were different in quality from the reviews at previous ICMLs?
7/197 = 4%
ICML 2012 substantially better
43/197 = 22%
Somewhat better
67/197 = 34%
The same
6/197 = 3%
Somewhat worse
1/197 = 1%
Substantially worse
73/197 = 37%
Don't know
20) Do you think the ICML 2012 reviews were different in quality from the reviews at other similar conferences?
14/197 = 7%
ICML 2012 substantially better
68/197 = 35%
Somewhat better
75/197 = 38%
The same
10/197 = 5%
Somewhat worse
2/197 = 1%
Substantially worse
28/197 = 14%
Don't know
21) Compared to other conferences, how much effort was it to participate in the program committee for ICML 2012?
3/196 = 2%
ICML 2012 substantially less
15/196 = 8%
Somewhat less
89/196 = 45%
The same
48/196 = 24%
Somewhat more
20/196 = 10%
Substantially more
21/196 = 11%
Don't know
22) Throughout the reviewing process, was it always clear to you what needed to be done?
183/195 = 94%
Yes
12/195 = 6%
No
23) How many hours did you spend on the review process?
Averaged over 161 entries: 28
24) If you submitted a rebuttal during the author response period, do you believe it had some influence on the final decision?
11/455 = 2%
Very strong influence
92/455 = 20%
Substantial influence
200/455 = 44%
Marginal influence
152/455 = 33%
No influence
25) Do you prefer having the author response option?
409/462 = 89%
Yes
53/462 = 11%
No
26) If you uploaded a new file during the author response period, do you believe it had some influence on the final decision?
13/365 = 4%
Very strong influence
50/365 = 14%
Substantial influence
148/365 = 41%
Marginal influence
154/365 = 42%
No influence
27) The majority of the reviews of your paper were:
55/459 = 12%
Right to the point
276/459 = 60%
High quality
80/459 = 17%
Low quality
48/459 = 10%
The reviewers did not understand my paper.
28) Do you prefer the option to revise the paper during author response?
297/457 = 65%
Yes
160/457 = 35%
No
29) Do you think that the meta-reviews adequately summarized the reviewers' opinions and made the right decision?
160/459 = 35%
Yes
145/459 = 32%
Mostly
103/459 = 22%
Somewhat
51/459 = 11%
No, there was no justification of the decision.
Conference Format
30) With 242 accepted papers, ICML can no longer offer a full talk to all accepted papers (assuming 5 parallel tracks over 3 days). Which of the following do you support (choose all that apply):
134/558 = 24%
Accept fewer papers.
198/558 = 35%
Add a day.
193/558 = 35%
Add an additional track.
216/558 = 39%
Present some papers only as posters.
241/558 = 43%
Present some papers as short talk + poster.
15/558 = 3%
Other (briefly comment below)
30-c) Other
31) The workshop program has been extended to 2-days. What is your opinion of this new format?
151/561 = 27%
Good idea, I plan on attending.
196/561 = 35%
Good idea, but I won’t attend.
178/561 = 32%
I don’t care.
26/561 = 5%
Bad idea, ICML is too long already.
10/561 = 2%
Bad idea, I don’t like workshops.
32) Which conferences would like to see in co-location with ICML in the future? (choose all that apply):
237/434 = 55%
COLT
216/434 = 50%
UAI
81/434 = 19%
ECML-PKDD
118/434 = 27%
SIGKDD
109/434 = 25%
IJCAI
122/434 = 28%
AAAI
26/434 = 6%
ECAI
41/434 = 9%
EMNLP-CoNLL
55/434 = 13%
SIGIR
56/434 = 13%
ACL
26/434 = 6%
RSS
104/434 = 24%
CVPR
18/434 = 4%
RSS
13/434 = 3%
Other (comment below)