AI for Discrete Optimization (IMEN891N, Fall 2025)

Referee Reports: Guidelines for Writing

You may refer to the ICML 2025 Reviewer Instructions

Contents to include

• Five-point scale evaluation on the following criteria (5: Strong, … 1: Weak):
  • Significance: how original and impactful the research is
  • Support: the quality and relevance of the evidence provided
  • Clarity: the clarity and coherence of the writing
  • Confidence: the level of certainty about your assessment
  • Overall score: your overall evaluation of the paper
    • 5: Strong accept, 4: Accept, 3: Weak accept, 2: Weak reject, 1: Reject
  • (Submission of the scores is via a PLMS poll, not in the report.)
• Main report for detailed comments ($\geq$ 2 pages)
  • Summary of the main findings and contributions of the selected papers.
  • Discussion of the implications and potential applications of the research.
  • Critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the papers.
  • Potential future directions for research in this area.

Evaluation Criteria of the Submitted Report

• Relevance to course topics
• Quality and difficulty of the selected papers
• Clarity of argumentation
• Originality and creativity of criticisms and ideas (compared to existing open reviews)

AI Writing Policy

Generative AI tools are great helpers for learning, and you are encouraged to use them responsibly. My principle is to promote your genuine thinking and writing, keeping AI as an assistant. Here are some guidelines to follow.

• Please disclose which AI tools/models are used and how you used them in every report. This part will not affect your grade, and is not counted in the page limit.
• Please check the generated content carefully by yourself. Topics in this course are often technical and complex. AI may not fully understand the nuances and may generate incorrect or misleading content.

You MAY use AI (e.g., ChatGPT and other LLMs) for …

• Reading and understanding course materials, papers to review, and generating summaries to aid your understanding.
• Developing ideas and brainstorming.
• Paragraph-level drafting based on your original ideas.
  • Clarify which parts are your original contributions.
• Polishing your writing and improving clarity.
  • Do not focus on beautiful writing; using your own words is encouraged.
• Seeking feedback on your ideas and drafts.

You MUST NOT use AI for …

• Submitting AI-generated content as your own work.
• Paraphrasing existing content and presenting it as your own.
  • Do not use AI to summarize online open reviews and include them in your work.
  • OpenReview.net submissions will be compared carefully.
• Drafting the whole report or the majority of a section as a starting point.