Motion: Social Media
Social-media promotion of papers is prohibited during the review period. Explicitly excluded from this ban is the automatic posting of new preprints by arXiv.
The current PAMITC policies prohibit authors from issuing press releases or talking with the press about papers that are under review at IEEE/CVF conferences. This facilitates double blind review and helps preserve the public trust in the scientific peer review process.
With the increasing use of social media to distribute scientific results, this policy needs updating. In particular, social media campaigns have largely taken over from traditional press releases. The current policies are somewhat ambiguous about such posting but may be interpreted as allowing this as long as the authors do not say the paper is under review at an IEEE/CVF meeting. This loophole efficiently violates the principles of the original press ban.
Why is this an issue? Groups with large followings and the resources to mount visible social media promotions received significant attention for work that is under review. Reviewers are exposed to this work and the attention it receives can bias their judgment — if so many people on social media are excited, mustn’t it be good? Groups with fewer followers or that refrain from such campaigns are disadvantaged. This biases the peer review process and reduces trust in its fairness.
