Submitted by tfburns t3_10jtg7n in MachineLearning

Accepted conference papers at ICLR represent a high level of scientific quality. The other side of the coin is that they can be out of reach for those starting out, or from different backgrounds. We want paper publishing to be not only a showcase of achievements, but also a marker for valuable learning experiences made accessible to beginners and outsiders. Devising more ways to mark milestones and measure growth in an individual, or community’s maturity, is greatly conducive to both continually pushing the frontiers of science, and lifting people up in this process.

Researchers from underrepresented backgrounds are not necessarily equipped with the same resources to publish full papers from the start of their scientific journeys. To create a more inclusive ICLR community, we as organizers need to create more pathways, and reasons for people from various backgrounds to enter, stay, and grow in the machine learning community.

To that end, we are launching a more approachable format to publish, kick-start, and collaborate on ideas, “Tiny Papers,” as a brand new track at ICLR 2023, with the hope to attract more underrepresented, under-resourced, and budding researchers to join the community in a meaningful way. Not only will this additional, and different, venue to publish usher in new researchers, it will also serve as an efficient platform for disseminating ideas, findings, and opinions.

The objective of the new “Tiny Papers” track at ICLR is threefold:

  1. Creating alternative, complementary, and diverse entry points to research. And in particular, creating approachable avenues for beginners to enter and enjoy the ICLR community.
  2. Celebrating intermediate breakthroughs in machine learning.
  3. Efficiently disseminating ideas, findings, and opinions.

As the Tiny Papers track is a Diveristy, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiative, orgnized by the DEI Chairs of ICLR 2023, we require every submission to have at least one key author that meets the underrepresented minority (URM) criteria (see webpage for details).

Inspired by the Call for Blog Post at ICLR 2023, despite the wide range of topics that could benefit from the Tiny Papers format, we decide to restrict the type of submissions to be the following:

  • An implementation and experimentation of a novel (not published elsewhere) yet simple idea, or a modest and self-contained theoretical result
  • A follow-up experiment to or re-analysis of a previously published paper
  • A new perspective on a previously published paper

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If you are interested in helping review, organize, volunteer, and generally contribute to this intiative, kindly fill out this form.

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For more information, please see the website: https://iclr.cc/Conferences/2023/CallForTinyPapers

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Key Dates

Submission portal opens: February 1st, 2023

Submission deadline: February 28th, 2023 AoE

Notification of acceptance: March 31st, 2023

Camera-ready deadline: April 15th, 2023

Tiny Papers Showcase Day: May 5th, 2023

ICLR 2023 DEI Chairs

Krystal Maughan (University of Vermont)

Rosanne Liu (ML Collective, Google Brain)

Thomas F Burns (OIST)

Email: iclr.dei.2023@gmail.com

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Comments

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w2ex t1_j5nn2oi wrote

That's interesting. I am a bit skeptical about some of the URM criteria but well, it would be difficult to do something perfect anyway.

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chrysanthemum6359 t1_j5o1jte wrote

Racial criteria for being eligible to participate? Just when you think society is making progress beyond race...

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certain_entropy t1_j5od4pw wrote

Any chance you might relax the criteria for volunteering? The form calls for a website and open review account which many prospective volunteers might not have.

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terranop t1_j5of10a wrote

Is there a reason why trans people (specifically trans men, since trans people of other genders would qualify under the "gender" criterion) are not included in the URM criteria? It seems kinda odd to include all these other minority groups but not trans people. Are transgender people not actually underrepresented at ICLR?

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pink-science t1_j6jc8qd wrote

it is not clear if tiny papers will be included in the proceedings or not. will they count as ICLR publications?

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