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Frequently Asked Questions

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General Questions

Author Questions

General Questions

What does PC mean?

Program Committee.

What defines a Program Committee Member?

The Program Committee consists of all members of the conference except for Authors who are not also Reviewers.

What are Meta-Reviewers?

A special type of Reviewer.  There can be any number of Reviewers for a given paper, but only one Meta-Reviewer.  The Meta-Reviewer can go over all the reviews submitted for the paper and submit their own review.  Questions for the Meta-Reviewer can be different from those for a normal Reviewer.  Their role is to ensure that the reviews are good and consistent. The decision to use Meta-Reviewers is optional, and must be set before paper assignment occurs.

What are External Reviewer assignments by Reviewers?

An External Reviewer is a person that has been assigned to review a paper for another Reviewer, but is not themselves a Reviewer. 

What does the Virtual Meeting Feature do?

Virtual PC Meeting Wizard allows the Chair to control the data related to paper that is made visible to reviewers during discussion process. It is a bulk setting and applies permission settings to all papers for which discussion is enabled. If a paper is not enabled for discussion, any changes made using Virtual PC Meeting Wizard do not impact the paper. Chair makes the decision regarding what data about the paper should be visible to reviewers (e.g. view title and abstract, submission files, view reviews).

What characteristics define a 'Strong Password'?

Strong passwords must have the following characteristics:

  • Be at least 8 alphanumeric characters long.
  • Contain both upper and lower case characters (e.g., a-z, A-Z).
  • Have digits and punctuation characters as well as letters e.g., 0-9, !@#$%^&*()_+|~-=\`{}[]:";'<>?,./).
  • One or more of the characters from the second (2) to sixth (6) positions must not be an alphabet character e.g. between A-Z or a-z.

What actions should each Role do in each phase?

* Conference Chairs, and Associate Chairs.
** Edit Author Questions, Review/Meta-Review Criteria, Conference Details/Dates, Subject Areas
Phases
Role Action I II III IV V VI
Conference Chair Initial Setup**
Authors Paper Abstract Submission
Authors Paper Full Version Submission
All Chairs* Add Reviewers/Authors
All Chairs* Submit Paper for Author
Reviewers Set Bid/Preference
All Chairs* Assign Reviewers to Papers
All Chairs* Accept/Reject Decision
Reviewers Submit Reviews
Reviewers Discuss/Finalize Reviews
Conference Chair Send Accept/Reject Notices to Authors

Should I accept the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate popup?

Yes, accepting CMTs SSL certificate allows you to connect with the server over a secure connection. Once you accept a certificate it is added to a list of Trusted Certificates, and you won't be asked to accept or reject the certificate again. If you reject a certificate, you will be unable to connect to any CMT conference.

What does "Conflict of Interest" mean in CMT terms?

“Conflict of Interest” in CMT is an association between a specific Reviewer and a specific paper or author that states there is a conflict of interest between that reviewer and that paper. Conflicts can be marked by authors (during paper submission) or later by reviewers or by the Chair. Based on the conflict, the reviewer will not be able to bid on that particular paper, be assigned to that paper to review (either automatically by the system or manually by the Chair) or view review submissions for that paper.

What should I do if I forget my Password?

If you do not remember your password, please use "Reset your password" link on your CMT conference main page to reset your password.

Author Questions

When an Author submits a paper, what does the 'A program committee member is an author of this paper' checkbox mean?

It is important that Authors not be allowed to review the own papers, or have other privileges allowed to Reviewers when it concerns their papers.  If a Program Committee member submits a paper as an Author, marking this checkbox allows the system to administer this policy.

Can an Author submit comments to each review individually, for each paper or all at once?

When Author Feedback is enabled in Phase 5, Authors can read all reviews for each paper and submit comments for all those reviews at once. So, for each paper, the Author can submit one set of comments, regardless of how many reviews or reviewer comments are submitted for that paper.

Can Authors see Reviewer comments?

The review comments are visible in Author's Console after "Author Notification" provided the Chair configures the following:

  • Review questions need to be marked as "Visible to Authors". Reviews will only include the questions marked as "Visible to Authors" and will not include the Reviewer's names.
  • Author Notification needs to be marked as complete (from "Edit Conference Dates and Settings").
  • Author Notification Deadline needs to be set to some date in the past.

    • Please note that CMT currently does not support attaching reviews or links to reviews in emails that are sent out to authors. Authors will have to log in to CMT site to view their reviews. Reviews are made visible when “Author Notification” is marked as complete and deadline has passed. (If you use the “Author Notification Wizard” to notify authors, by default the wizard takes care of setting activity state and deadline accordingly). After the Chair does this, Authors will be able to login and see the reviews next to the papers in the Author console. Please note that authors will also see paper status values for their papers.

    If you have questions that aren't answered by this FAQ, please send an email to CMT@Microsoft.com (include your conference name in the subject line).