Submitted by Laser_Plasma t3_10k31w3 in MachineLearning
ICLR introduced a Tiny Paper Track for shorter contributions, up to 2 pages. Sounds like a nice idea, right?
But to keep things interesting, since it's organized by the DEI initiative, there are restrictions as to who can author the submitted papers.
According to the official guidelines: > Each Tiny Paper needs its first or last author to qualify as an underrepresented minority (URM). Authors don't have to reveal how they qualify, and may just self-identify that they qualify.
> Our working definition of an URM is someone whose age, gender, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic makeup is from one or more of the following:
> Age: outside the range of 30-50 years
> Gender: does not identify as male
> Sexual orientation: does not identify as heterosexual
> Geographical: not located in North America, Western Europe and UK, or East Asia
> Race: non-White
> In addition, underprivileged researchers and first-time submitters also qualify:
> Underprivileged: not affiliated with a funded organization or team whose primary goal is research > First-time submitters: have never submitted to ICLR or similar conferences
So effectively, someone could submit a paper, and literally have it rejected because they're e.g. white or male.
Is this really the way the field should go? I feel like this is something that should never have passed any ethics board, but clearly the organizers disagree.