Dissecting Submission Limit in Desk-Rejections: A Mathematical Analysis of Fairness in AI Conference Policies

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Cao, Yuefan, Li, Xiaoyu, Liang, Yingyu, Sha, Zhizhou, Shi, Zhenmei, Song, Zhao, Zhang, Jiahao
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Cao, Yuefan
Li, Xiaoyu
Liang, Yingyu
Sha, Zhizhou
Shi, Zhenmei
Song, Zhao
Zhang, Jiahao
author_facet Cao, Yuefan
Li, Xiaoyu
Liang, Yingyu
Sha, Zhizhou
Shi, Zhenmei
Song, Zhao
Zhang, Jiahao
contents As AI research surges in both impact and volume, conferences have imposed submission limits to maintain paper quality and alleviate organizational pressure. In this work, we examine the fairness of desk-rejection systems under submission limits and reveal that existing practices can result in substantial inequities. Specifically, we formally define the paper submission limit problem and identify a critical dilemma: when the number of authors exceeds three, it becomes impossible to reject papers solely based on excessive submissions without negatively impacting innocent authors. Thus, this issue may unfairly affect early-career researchers, as their submissions may be penalized due to co-authors with significantly higher submission counts, while senior researchers with numerous papers face minimal consequences. To address this, we propose an optimization-based fairness-aware desk-rejection mechanism and formally define two fairness metrics: individual fairness and group fairness. We prove that optimizing individual fairness is NP-hard, whereas group fairness can be efficiently optimized via linear programming. Through case studies, we demonstrate that our proposed system ensures greater equity than existing methods, including those used in CVPR 2025, offering a more socially just approach to managing excessive submissions in AI conferences.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_00690
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dissecting Submission Limit in Desk-Rejections: A Mathematical Analysis of Fairness in AI Conference Policies
Cao, Yuefan
Li, Xiaoyu
Liang, Yingyu
Sha, Zhizhou
Shi, Zhenmei
Song, Zhao
Zhang, Jiahao
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Digital Libraries
As AI research surges in both impact and volume, conferences have imposed submission limits to maintain paper quality and alleviate organizational pressure. In this work, we examine the fairness of desk-rejection systems under submission limits and reveal that existing practices can result in substantial inequities. Specifically, we formally define the paper submission limit problem and identify a critical dilemma: when the number of authors exceeds three, it becomes impossible to reject papers solely based on excessive submissions without negatively impacting innocent authors. Thus, this issue may unfairly affect early-career researchers, as their submissions may be penalized due to co-authors with significantly higher submission counts, while senior researchers with numerous papers face minimal consequences. To address this, we propose an optimization-based fairness-aware desk-rejection mechanism and formally define two fairness metrics: individual fairness and group fairness. We prove that optimizing individual fairness is NP-hard, whereas group fairness can be efficiently optimized via linear programming. Through case studies, we demonstrate that our proposed system ensures greater equity than existing methods, including those used in CVPR 2025, offering a more socially just approach to managing excessive submissions in AI conferences.
title Dissecting Submission Limit in Desk-Rejections: A Mathematical Analysis of Fairness in AI Conference Policies
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Digital Libraries
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.00690