Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
- What Does PC mean?
- What defines a Program Committee Member?
- What are Meta-Reviewers?
- What are External Reviewer assignments by Reviewers?
- What does the Virtual Meeting Feature do?
- What characteristics define a 'Strong Password'?
- What actions should each Role do in each phase?
- Should I accept the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate popup?
- What does a 'conflict' mean in CMT terms?
- What should I do if I forget my Password?
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?
If the Virtual Meeting Feature is enabled, during Phase 5 Reviewers can sort through papers via a tool with similar functionality to the admin feature View Papers Ranked By Reviews, although they cannot filter PC papers, alter Paper Status, use export features, or view Author Feedback (for papers they have not been assigned - they can still view Author Feedback for papers they have been assigned through the Reviewer main page). Reviewers are not able to view reviews or comments for papers they have submitted as an Author.
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 AreasPhases 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 a 'conflict' mean in CMT terms?
In CMT terms, a ‘Conflict of Interest’ is an association between a specific Reviewer and a specific Paper that states there is a conflict of interest between that Reviewer and that paper. Conflicts can be marked by Authors (during paper submission) or by Reviewers (in Phase 2) or by Chairmen (in Phase 3).
Based on that conflict, the reviewer will not be able to bid on the paper, be assigned to that paper (either automatically by the system or manually by a Chairman) or view review submissions for that paper.
What should I do if I forget my Password?
If your conference was built after 3/11/05, you should see a 'Forgot Your Password?' link on the login page. Following that link takes you to a page which will allow you to prompt the conference site to send you an email with instructions for using the Reset Password feature.
If you do not see the 'Forgot Your Password?' link on the login page, you can use the link on the left to 'Contact Chair'.
If you are an External Reviewer, you should also contact the Reviewer that asked you to Review papers for them.
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).