NeurIPS 2025 Reviewers Not Forced to Update Scores, Sparking Fairness Debate
CantKillTheLifeless · reddit · 2026-08-13
A Reddit user pointed out that many high-score reviews for NeurIPS 2025 (mistyped as 2026 in the original post) were not modified after the author discussion phase. After speaking with an Area Chair (AC), it was revealed that NeurIPS does not mandate reviewers to provide a final justification for modifications. Consequently, much of the AC-phase feedback is given via private comments without updating the public score.
The original poster questioned the transparency and fairness of this mechanism, asking other ACs to share what percentage of recently modified reviews in their batches actually resulted in a score increase. This has sparked a broader discussion on whether top AI conferences should enforce score update justifications.
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