Chinese nexus/network in A* conferences rejecting non chinese papers [D]

Reddit r/MachineLearning / 5/1/2026

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Key Points

  • The post claims that Chinese researchers may leverage strong social networks to influence peer review outcomes at A* conferences through a commonly used mobile app.
  • It alleges nepotism and mutual support, suggesting papers by non-Chinese authors can be unfairly rejected.
  • The author says they personally encountered a related issue at IJCAI 26, where a reviewer expressed anger over a missing citation to a paper authored by a Chinese researcher.
  • The post asks others to share whether they have experienced similar problems, implying the issue may be broader than one isolated case.
  • The overall content is presented as anecdotal reports rather than verified evidence, inviting discussion among the community.

Recently lot of people are coming forward that chinese have strong network and are doing nepotism and supporting each other through a well known mobile app they use. if true this is big, I also encountered this issue in IJCAI 26. Please share if you have faced this issue before

ex in my case : the reviewer was angry because i didnt cite a paper, whose main author was also chinese.

submitted by /u/AppropriatePush6262
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