2017 ACL 2017:170208-acl17-inviteGeneric.txt

Dear [invitefirstname],

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE EMAIL. WE ARE DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY THIS YEAR.

We would like to invite you to serve on the Program Committee for [confName] [confYR] ([acronymYR]).  [acronymYR] will be held in [confLocation], on [confDate].

The success of the conference and the strength of the technical program depend very much on the expertise, guidance and judgment of the many reviewers who serve on the program committee.

Would you be willing to serve as a reviewer?  Please respond using the link below within a week of receiving this email.

We realise you are very busy and have many commitments, but we are trying to keep the load reasonably low, and it is expected that each reviewer will be asked to review at most 4 submissions in total (both long and short, as the deadline is joint).  A key difference from previous years is that the initial reviewing timeframe is shorter -- two weeks: 13-27 February 2017.

Additionally, we would strongly encourage you to review that other changes we have planned for ACL 2017, including the use of the Toronto Paper Matching System.  Please do visit our PC Chairs Blog to stay up to date (subscribe!) about the changes and our push for a transparent conference organization process: http://chairs-blog.acl2017.org

Here is the reviewing schedule.  Please take note of the key dates, or import the conference calendar (link below).

KEY DATES

- Long + short paper joint submission deadline: 6 February
- Paper Bidding: 9-12 February 
- Assignments out to reviewers: 13 February 
- Reviewing period: 13-27 February (two weeks)
- Reviews due: 27 February 
- Author response: 13-15 March
- Reviewers to read author responses, update reviews: 16-20 March 
- Notification of acceptance: 30 March
- Camera ready deadline: 15 April

(link for live calendar : https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/arq0ig9b7dvhvpnv1n93bbluv0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics )

You will note that the initial review period is short and that more time has been allocated for discussion, as we feel discussion should be a key part of the review process.  The shorter timeframe also means that reviewers need to be absolutely committed to turning in reviews on time.  Please consider this charge carefully when accepting this invitation.

To respond to this invitation to join the ACL 2017 program committee, please first accept or decline by following this link,

  [invitelink]

where you can also make a START V2 account if you don't have one.

Then, if you are willing to review for ACL, we will need you to create a Toronto Paper Matching System (TPMS) profile.  Do this by going here 

http://torontopapermatching.org/webapp/profileBrowser/login/

and registering an account and uploading a few representative papers that you're authored or are interested in.  These will be used in this ACL (and likely other ACL events) going forward to assist reviewing assignment beyond bidding.  Assignments will still be done manually but with input from TPMS as well.


Note that you have the option to express a preference for multiple areas. We will assign you to a single area, based on your area preferences as well as the requests of the area chairs. We will try to select your primary choice(s) over your secondary choice(s), and will not assign you to an area for which you do not want to review.

With your help, we know that we can make [acronymYR] a success.

Best Regards,

Regina Barzilay and Min-Yen Kan
for ACL 2017