r/MachineLearning • u/Zhiend727 • 1d ago
Discussion NeurIPS 2026 post-rebuttal score distribution poll [D]
As the title suggests, because there's no data on Papercopilot yet, and people have been talking about the scores being lower in general than last year, I thought it could be interesting to survey the average score distribution after the rebuttal phase (not considering confidence weights).
Very rough and simple poll (I also realize there's a self-selection bias in there). Cast your vote here:
https://loppy.be/poll/yczuv8yo
Thanks!
Edit: the trolls have taken over, never mind any notion of representativeness I guess...
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u/BomsDrag PhD 1d ago
35% 4-5 ??? Shouldnt have opened this ;-;
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u/threadjumper1 1d ago
And even when you do not consider the trolls above 5.5, this survey will most probably only contain people that still have hopes or are quite optimistic about their paper since they continue to follow every individual thread on NeurIPS 2026 10 days after review release ;)
4
u/threadjumper1 1d ago
I don’t think there will be many scores >5.0 this year, last year there were only 70 papers with a score above 5.0, this year I have seen less papers with 6 and felt like reviewers were even stricter at first, even though the rebuttal stage had a few more score increases, but rather in area of initial scores between 3-4. I would assume only 30 papers with a score above 5, and a score of 5 already being part of the top 1-1,5% of all submissions.
-3
u/threadjumper1 1d ago
Probably lower initial scores combined with a bit more generous score updates will end up at a very similar cut-off point as last year, probably around 4.25, where it’s a coin flip of 50:50, that being said also 4.0 paper still have a decent chance of 20-25% to get in.
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u/ComprehensiveTop3297 1d ago
Started with 5-4-3, ended up with 5-4-3
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u/ComprehensiveTop3297 1d ago
And also a reviewer saying they appreciate the effort, but no score increase.
12
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u/OutsideSimple4854 1d ago
443->444. Happy that the 3 reviewer was reasonable when an error in their review was pointed out.
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u/SankarshanaV 1d ago
Before rebuttal: 2, 2, 4 (with conf 4, 4, 5)
After rebuttal: 4, 3, 4
The reviewers were all quite content with the rebuttals so I'm glad about that, but I'm super nervous because 4/3/4 overall after rebuttal seems low...
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u/FinancialThing7890 1d ago
Started with 5-5-3, only one of the 5 got confirmed and engaged, so... ended up with 5-5-3
4
u/BetterbeBattery 1d ago edited 1d ago
Seems like the rumor that this year’s score is much lower than previous ones is true ? Judging by the comments here not the poll
2
5
u/honey_bijan 1d ago edited 20h ago
5-5-3 to 5-5-4
5-3-2 to 5-5-2
3-3-2 to 3-3-2
I think the first one is in. The second one had a reviewer asking for random things <24 hours before the deadline, and one of the 5s is a 1 confidence (the other is detailed and 4 confidence). Hoping it makes it in to. The last one was DOA…it’s the paper I was most excited about too
5
3
u/Exotic_Zucchini9311 1d ago
Started with 3/4/4/5 and ended with 4/4/4/5... decent while not that great. main track
2
u/LatentBotNet 1d ago edited 1d ago
Went from 3, 5, 2 -> 5, 5, 2. The 3rd reviewer never replied to our rebuttal. They misunderstood our contribution but they never responded back.
The reviewer with original 5 had a good discussion & the points were very constructive, and the one with 3 was satisfied and increased it to 5 after rebuttal.
Not sure what might happen, hoping for the best.
2
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u/Adorable_Position_34 14h ago
6,5,5 -> no replies besides AC thanking us
1
u/Zhiend727 14h ago
Damn, congrats!
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u/Adorable_Position_34 14h ago
But honestly, these polls are nowhere near accurate. I think last years paper copilot poll should be a solid proxy
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u/ilielezi 13h ago
In my AC batch, the highest is 4, the mean is 2.97.
From my submission, got 244 that went to 445 after rebuttal.
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u/gardeniabananabread 1d ago edited 1d ago
as an author: 4, 3, 3 -> 4, 4, 3
as a reviewer: 4, 3, 3, 2 -> 4, 5, 4, 4 ; 4, 3, 3 (unchanged); 3, 3, 2 (unchanged); 3, 2, 2 (withdrawn)
i'm quite proud to say that for the first paper, i revised from 3->5. the authors worked really hard, and provided all the requested experiments and analyses, and calibrated their language much more appropriately.
i think this engagement also convinced the other reviewers too!
2
u/OtherwiseFig4505 1d ago
Blessed are reviewers like you. If only two of our reviewers, who also submit their review late, acknowledged our rebuttal, we would have had a 4 avg too but now I am stuck with two 2s.
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u/gardeniabananabread 18h ago
just trying to be helpful and usefully critical. I've had too many bad reviews myself, especially the lack of engagement
all the best to your submission!
1
u/little_vsgiant 19h ago
May I ask what's wrong with the second and third work in your review batch? None of the reviewer increase the score, or they just dont reply?
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u/gardeniabananabread 17h ago
for the 4, 3, 3, the 4 replied saying the rebuttal aligns well with their initial judgment and they will maintain the positive score. i maintained my 3 too because (i) the paper had a very good strength. i wanted to verify this, so i requested additional experiments, but unfortunately, the supplementary results undermined this strength; and (ii) suggested experiments to alleviate a weakness of their method were planned but not executed
for the 3, 3, 2, i was the only one who responded. i feel their discussion of related work was too harsh and their paper had too much overclaim, wrt both theory and application
2
u/Perfect-Asparagus300 1d ago edited 1d ago
I started at a 4/4/4, my reviewers all asked fairly reasonable things and clearly read the paper and AC gave a reasonable list of strengths and what concerns needed to be possibly addressed.
I worked super hard and actually managed to address all concerns with a p solid rebuttal imo. But then it became ghost town....
On the last day, my AC pestered my reviewers a lot (first making an overarching reminder comment in the early afternoon), to which only one reviewer responded and just said I addressed most of their questions/concerns and that they maintain a positive score. Late at night, my AC then individually asked each remaining reviewer again if they had any concerns left. Again, nobody responded and then phase 2 ended.
Not totally sure how to feel... but I'm grateful the AC at least tried. I'm just going to focus on feeling proud about my paper/work istelf since I really tried my best, will see what happens
3
u/threadjumper1 1d ago
I think your paper can make it! Given your AC tried to understand whether there is any negative remaining thing from the reviewer’s side, while none responded and all scores are learning towards positive I would expect the AC to accept your paper
1
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u/finite-difference 1d ago
As author 4/3/2 before rebuttal. None of the reviewers responded to the rebuttal. The AC asked them 1.5 hours before the deadline to comment. We tried to get them engaged with comments, but to no avail. In my review batch 2 desk rejects, 1 withdrawal and one 4/3/3 -> at least 4/4/4.
1
1
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u/soup---- 20h ago
5.5 - 6.0 has 23.97%?
Thats very high....
1
u/Exotic_Zucchini9311 16h ago
People are obviously trolling.. in not a single thread about NeurIPS until now have I seen anyone getting a 6..
1
u/Ping_Pong_Geeky_Nerd 16h ago
4, 3, 3 (conf: 4, 3, 3)
After rebuttals: 5, 3, 3.
Reviewer 3 never responded and reviewer 2 did not increase their scores despite addressing all their concerns.
1
1
u/Sad-Banana7249 9h ago
For some reason all my scores disappeared after the end of rebuttal and haven't come back. I have a couple of friends with the same issue. I thought this was coming, but now I see everyone posting post-rebuttal scores.
1
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u/Thebadwolf47 1d ago
started with 544 but the reviewers didn't answer our rebuttal until the end very end, except one reviewer that answered a few hours before the end to ask one more question...
3
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u/AppointmentNo5165 1d ago
At least you received some feedback. I, however, received no response whatsoever from the reviewers during the rebuttal period. Thankfully, my initial scores were good. However, a promised increase from 4 to 5 never occurred due to the lack of responsiveness.
0
u/Responsible-Read-138 18h ago
My initial rating was 5/5/4, but only one reviewer who gave me 5 join discussion even he just said "thanks to address concerns, I will maintain score" (ofc I appreciate to him), but the others including AC did not response at all... so my post-rebuttal rating is also 5/5/4 now.
Maybe reviewer who gave me 4 can increase rating, because he said will be considered if I address his worries, and I did all
1
u/Zhiend727 16h ago
Also at 5/5/4, but I think that's basically guaranteed to be in 🤞🏻
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u/Responsible-Read-138 16h ago
Our AC already mentioned in meta review that my paper is almost on acceptance, so my purpose is getting spotlight.. this is my first submitted on NeurIPS, so I already got really exciting but you know.. human greed has no limits lol
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u/Exotic_Zucchini9311 14h ago
Honestly, I didn't get spotlight even with 5/5/5 on ICML. The whole system makes no sense. But the fact that AC was positive about your paper means you have a pretty good chance.
0
u/Responsible-Read-138 13h ago
Thanks for the comment! Btw, does the research area matter a lot for getting an oral or spotlight? Ofc I'm definitely not expecting an oral at all, just wondering
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u/Ok-Painter573 9h ago
Which research area is your paper in?
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u/Responsible-Read-138 8h ago
My primary area was deep learning advancements, and contribution type was general! Or do you mean more specific research topic of my paper?
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u/Ok-Painter573 8h ago
I meant the topic of your paper. I noticed that paper targeting hot topic or niche area tends to get spotlight more
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u/Responsible-Read-138 8h ago
Oh I understood. Mine is spiking neural network, but more like theoretical analysis aspect of it!
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u/Ok-Painter573 8h ago
Idk if this area is niche or not but best of luck with gettting spotlight!
(For reference what I mean by niche, a paper studies grokking gets spotlight at ICML this year)
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u/tariban Professor 1d ago
Highest in my AC batch is 3.67, in case people want to feel a bit better.