public reviews in conferences [D]

Reddit r/MachineLearning / 5/1/2026

💬 OpinionSignals & Early TrendsIdeas & Deep Analysis

Key Points

  • The post asks why not all machine learning conferences make peer reviews public, highlighting perceived benefits from ICLR’s practice of releasing public reviews.
  • It argues that public reviews help readers understand how others in the field evaluate the work and improve transparency in the publication process.
  • The author suggests public (but masked) reviews may increase reviewer effort because reviewers may be more motivated to avoid public scrutiny.
  • It raises questions about potential drawbacks of adopting ICLR-like public reviews more broadly and whether the wider community would benefit if all conferences released reviews.

Why don't all conferences make reviews public?

I find ICLR public reviews to be very useful :

- I get an idea of how others in the field think about the work

- Makes the publishing process more transparent

- Reviewers will potentially spend more effort to avoid public scrutiny

Are there any drawbacks in having ICLR-like public reviews? (where the reviewer identifies are masked) Would the community benefit if all conferences released their reviews?

submitted by /u/Fit_Schedule5951
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