I'm grabbing the popcorn and the front seat on this one.

[deleted]

Did the author offer you something ?

[removed]

[deleted]

Since being able to see the names of other reviewers doesn't imply authors can guess your identity, the more troubling possibility is that a reviewer is collaborating with the authors of that paper.

Did you reach out to the meta-reviewer and the chairs? That should be the first thing you do when you run into such a situation.

A malicious reviewer can help the author to know other reviewers -- I think this is what happened in this case.

No, I did not contact the meta-reviewer (maybe the meta-reviewer himself is malicious? He told my name to the author). Since the author already knows me, if I do anything he would know it is me. What will you do in this case?

Email the chairs: aaai23chairs@aaai.org

> Since the author already knows me, if I do anything he would know it is me.

who cares? you're not the one violating protocol here, they are.

I understand you may feel constrained by knowing the author. But this issue is bigger than just their paper and their feelings. I would 100% contact the Chair, and it (edit: if) they do nothing, raise it with the organizion as a whole.

If you wish you can let the author and other reviewers know this is not normal. Reviewers shouldn't break anonymity and authors shouldn't be able to see reviewers or directly ask them to change reviews, and for that reason you will be contacting the Chair. You can tell them you"re not going to make the issue about reprimand for their specific actions but about protecting the anonymity of peer review.

[removed]

It's academia! Everyone cheats

I emailed the chairs anonymously. I did not reveal the author's name. Just hope that they can rethink/modify this anonymity policy in the future.

They replied "thank you".

That's what cheaters say to cope with their terrible morals

It seems strange to me that the reviewers can see the names of other reviewers. Why? How would that help?

No.

Yes

you definitely should contact people higher

This paper should be immediately rejected by the chairs. Authors reaching out to a reviewer is a HUGE no-no in every conference & journal I've ever worked with. I would be shocked if it's not the same for AAAI. If the authors are doing this with you, they will do it again with others, and they need to be shown that this is absolutely not OK. Please tell the chairs what happened, and identify the paper. I know that's awkward, but you really need to do this.

For anyone reading this who is a student or otherwise writing papers, and maybe hasn't heard this before: NEVER EVER DO THIS.

> an author of a paper I reviewed approached me during the rebuttal period, hoping that I could raise the score.

The beginning of the end.

Good job. Nothing will happen because you didn't reveal the author's name.

> I did not reveal the author's name

Shouldn't that paper be voided because of the incident? Since it's clear that anonymity is compromised which is critical for the review process.

This is upsetting

This has actually always been the standard. And still is in smaller conferences. Reviewing is inherently an honor system. Now this crazy mess with thousands of papers and involved agents, it gets to show we have a serious problem.

I guess it depends on the nature of your relationship with the author.

If for whatever reason you decide not to report them by name to the conference, at the very least I would tell the author that they get a free pass this one time only Their approach is completely unethical and you won't change the review on this occasion. But if they ever try a stunt like this again then you will report them - they've been warned.

How certain are you that another reviewer or the meta reviewer leaked your info? You say that the authors already know you. How can you be sure that they didn't simply guess that it was you? Maybe you mentioned to a colleague that you're an AAAI reviewer and they heard about it. If you both specialize in a niche area and they recognize your writing/argument style, they might have just connected the dots.

I'm just saying that you should be confident in your assessment before you raise accusations against your fellow reviewers.

In my opinion, you need to identify the paper to the chair. The authors violated the anonymity policy. It's the chair's job -- not yours -- to decide whether or not this paper needs to be thrown out.

What? How does the author identify you from reviewers being able to see other reviewers?

[removed]

[removed]

Most likely a reviewer or meta-reviewer is collaborating with the author

It might also be informative to know what were the details of the communication? No matter what, it's wrong and I believe the paper should be rejected. But the repercussions for the reviewer might depend on the intentions which should be inferable from the details of the communication.

Sorry you didn't get a more definitive or satisfactory result. Up to you how much to continue to push it, but you could let them know you'll think twice about reviewing for them in the future without anonymity. You can also reject papers from people you know or have any link to (possibly harder).

How many of these conferences are full of collusion rings? Is there any punishment for cheating/unethical behavior? Nope.

Suddenly got deleted 🤔