2021Q3 Reports: Publication Chairs
Changes from last year
- We divided the main conference proceedings into long and short paper
volumes under the concern that the proceedings pdf becomes enormous.
- Supplementary materials other than software and dataset were
included in the final paper as appendices, capped at most four pages.
- We stopped collecting Latex source files from authors as they are no
longer used in any way.
- We instructed the authors to run formatchecker.py
(https://github.com/yz-joey/ACLPUB.git) before submitting the camera-ready (thanks to NAACL2021 publication chairs for developing the tool).
- We used a spreadsheet to help with communication between publications
chairs and trouble-shooting. Workshop organisers gave feedback that this improved things for them and it was very helpful for publications chair handling workshop proceedings.
Problems
- Many authors were confused about proper e-signature on the copyright
transfer at START (many of them just put first/last names, nicknames, START user names, etc.). It is better to elaborate on more instructions.
- Not a small number of authors complained that they cannot change the
order of authors. Instruct authors before submission that *no* change is allowed on author information (including the order).
- A substantial number of emails were received by the publications
chairs, approx 300 in a single week at the peak, many to make minor changes to the papers.
Recommendations
- Instruct authors that no change is accepted after the camera-ready
submission deadline; otherwise, publication chairs need to handle many requests to fix metadata and replace pdfs.
- Although the author instructions ask to list the addresses of the
authors' organizations, very few people follow this. It may better fit the recent habits to ask author e-mails (most people already do) rather than physical addresses.
- Communication with publication chairs should be via a system where
requests for changes are publicly visible and authors are aware of the number of emails sent to publication chairs.
- Have Findings chairs to handle the corresponding proceedings