Selecting the Program Chairs
Two program chairs are chosen by the steering committee.
Selecting the Program Committee
The Program Committee (PC) is selected by the Program Chairs and validated by the Steering Committee.
The PC has to ensure sufficient expertise in the topics addressed by the conference. It has to be representative of both the french community and the international one. Roughly one third of the PC is changed each year, in order to ensure a good balance between continuity and turnover.
Submitting papers
PC co-chairs are not permitted to submit regular papers, while PC members are.
The review process
The review process for RTNS is double-blind, meaning that the identities of the reviewers and authors are anonymous.
PC members bid for papers. They indicate their reviewing preferences and their Conflicts of Interest (CoIs). Based on these preferences, PC co-Chairs assign papers to PC members.
Each paper is reviewed by at least three PC members.
As soon as the initial reviews have been completed, PC members can access to the other reviews for papers they were allocated.
PC members, including PC co-Chairs, having a CoI with a paper will not review, see the reviews or be part of the discussion about this paper.
The review process for papers where both PC co-Chairs have CoI is handled by an alternate chair outside of the conference management system. This alternate chair is one of the meta-reviewers and he/she takes over the PC meeting when these papers are discussed.
Awards
PC co-Chairs select a small sub-committee to consider which papers (typically three or four) are of outstanding quality. Those papers will receive Outstanding Paper Awards and form the shortlist for the Best Paper and Best Student Paper awards. The sub-committee gives these two awards on the basis of the final versions of the papers as well as the presentations. The recipient of the Best Student Paper Award must have as its first author a person who was a student at the time of the submission deadline.
PC Co-Chairs select a small sub-committee among the attendees to the conference who will choose the recipient of the Best Presentation Award.
Conflicts of Interest (CoIs)
RTNS considers the usual definition of a CoI. Therefore, a PC member has a conflict with a paper if they
- had at any time a supervisor/PhD relationship,
- are both from the same institution, or have worked at the same institution in the past 3 years,
- are currently working together on a research paper or project, or have done so during the past 3 years,
- are related, or are close personal friends,
- are in some form of financial relationship, or have been at some point during the past 3 years,
- has any other reason or circumstance that creates a risk that professional judgement may be unduly influenced.