Handbook for PhD Students

This PhD Handbook serves a dual purpose: it describes the research methodology of our group and gives general advice to students, and it sets out the standards and processes that all students in the group are expected to strive for.

Rebuttal direct link

Most conferences and journals give you the option to respond to reviews for your paper — this is called "rebuttal". Your goal during the rebuttal phase is to try and convince the reviewers to increse their scores for your paper. So, for everything you write in the rebuttal, ask yourself: "Will this help to change their mind?"

The rebuttal should point out important errors and misrepresentations in reviews, and respond to specific questions raised by reviewers. Assume reviewers have very limited time and attention spans, so keep the rebuttal succinct and to the point. Above all, use a polite and professional writing style, even if the reviews are unfair or badly done. You should also know who will read your rebuttal: sometimes the rebuttal is addressed directly to reviewers who will consider your comments in a discussion, and sometimes the rebuttal is only visible to the Area Chair (and not the reviewers) who will consider your comments alongside the reviews.

Additional advice:

  • Use explicit references to reviewers and comments, to make it easy to connect your responses to corresponding reviewer comments. For example, if a reviewer used numbered comments, then use the same numbers to refer to individual comments.
  • When possible, link your comments back to your paper to show that the paper already addresses the point ("As detailed in Section X", "As shown in Figure Y", etc).
  • If the space for rebuttals is very limited, focus on the most important/critical reviewer comments. Don't try to squeeze in everything.

Revising papers: Some conferences (and most journals) also give you the option to revise your paper in response to the reviews. Besides clarifications in text, this may include adding more experimental results (such as additional baselines and environments). A paper revision can be the most effective way to sway reviewers: if they can see how you improved the paper based on their suggestion/critique, it can lift their concerns and there is also the psychological aspect that they will feel taken seriously. To make it easier to find the revised parts in the paper, consider highlighting the changes in blue (the highlighting can be removed later in the final version if the paper is accepted).

See also: Surviving the review process, How we write rebuttals

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