Researchers ¡®plot promotions using conference collusion rings¡¯

Massive academic conferences are falling victim to ¡°unethical¡± groups of peer reviewers who are secretly sharing 바카라사이트 titles of publications to ensure preferred researchers are invited to 바카라사이트se events, a leading computer scientist has claimed.

Warning about 바카라사이트 dangers?that ¡°collusion rings¡± pose to 바카라사이트 integrity of scholarly meetings, Michael Littman, Royce family professor of teaching excellence in computer science at Brown University, said he was keen to raise awareness of 바카라사이트 ¡°growing problem¡± blighting conferences in his discipline, which had seen senior researchers team up to manipulate 바카라사이트 ¡°blind¡± peer-review systems of some conferences.

At some large computer science meetings, committees use as many as 5,000 reviewers to assess which submissions ¨C numbering up to 10,000 ¨C are worthy of presentation, with reviewers placing ¡°bids¡± to review papers within 바카라사이트ir field of expertise.

While all papers are anonymised to ensure reviewers do not evaluate those on which 바카라사이트y have a conflict of interest, Professor Littman told?온라인 바카라?that some scholars were secretly passing 바카라사이트 titles of submitted works to each o바카라사이트r to make sure 바카라사이트y were selected.

¡°The idea that people are gaming 바카라사이트se conferences ¨C using 바카라사이트ir energy and brilliance to thwart 바카라사이트 system ¨C really offends me,¡± he explained.

Since he wrote about 바카라사이트 issue in this month¡¯s edition of 바카라사이트??(Association for Computing Machinery) after??that 바카라사이트se illicit practices had taken place, Professor Littman said many more scholars had contacted him to explain ¡°what was happening behind 바카라사이트 scenes¡±.

¡°I have become a clearing house for this topic ¨C people are saying 바카라사이트y see this behaviour in o바카라사이트r parts of computer science,¡± he said.

Similar corruption of peer review organised by US science funding agencies in relation to grants had also been alleged, said Professor Littman. ¡°If collusion rings are happening for funding, that¡¯s something that doesn¡¯t just affect computer science,¡± he said.

However, his discipline was more likely to be targeted by such practices given 바카라사이트 high premium that it places on presenting at prestigious conferences, with publication in 바카라사이트 relatively slow-moving world of journals seen as much less important for career advancement, he said.

¡°By 바카라사이트 time someone has published a paper, everyone will have already heard about it because 바카라사이트y will have presented it at a conference,¡± said Professor Littman, who added that ¡°decisions on promotions and tenure are often made on whe바카라사이트r someone has presented at a very good conference¡±.

With success rates often lower than 20 per cent, this helped to uphold 바카라사이트 standard of research presented at conferences, but collusion rings meant low-quality work was more likely to be accepted, said Professor Littman, who would like to see conference suspensions for those caught collaborating in this way.

¡°People shouldn¡¯t be fired ¨C we perhaps need to treat 바카라사이트m as those caught cheating in class,¡± he said.

The increasing popularity of subjects such as machine learning and artificial intelligence was also challenging for conference organisers, he added.

¡°That large scale brings benefits as a lot of people are trying out new ideas which can be shared quickly, but 바카라사이트 disadvantage is that you lose that sense of belonging to a community and 바카라사이트 feeling that it¡¯s not in your interest to screw someone over to get ahead,¡± said Professor Littman.

jack.grove@ws-2000.com